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Letter to the DYDs
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Mission Statement
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Ministry Highlights
-19- Lead
-23- Win
-25- Build
-27- Send
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A Year in Pictures
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Looking to the Future
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Be encouraged Youth Leader! Youth ministry is alive and moving forward. And you are vested in it. Let the following report from Assemblies of God National Youth Ministries give lift to your dreams. The report provides an overview of the collective work known as Assemblies of God youth ministry. Some have characterized Assemblies of God youth ministry like an umbrella of hope for this generation of students. The canopy is the 385,000 students that make up more than 9,331 youth groups. The stem that holds up the canopy is covered with leading hands from various ministries: local leaders, district leaders, national leaders, parents, parachurch ministries, evangelists, etc. Each serves a distinctive role that makes the whole, Assemblies of God youth ministries. Thank you for your faithfulness in ministry! Thank you for your partnership to win, build and send this generation for the cause of Jesus Christ! Blessings,
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ssemblies of God youth ministry had another significant year in 2011. And there is no need to decelerate. There are more students in our churches than ever before. The 2010 All Church Ministries Report (ACMR) data from the General Council of the Assemblies of God indicates 560,608 student adherents between the ages of 12-22 in 62 districts, including 21 ethnic fellowships. The same ACMR reports AG youth group adherents had reached almost 385,000 in 9,331 youth groups. Paid youth group leaders totaled 3,143. The average youth group size has reached 41.1 students per group. (Look for a more complete report to be published at youth.ag.org in February.) Assemblies of God youth ministries appear to be headed in the right direction. Let us as leaders determine to accelerate momentum.
Ministry to students in our fellowship is growing but we can do better. Assemblies of God youth ministry has a greater potential than our present state. We can double our constituency. Our student constituency represents about 2% of America’s junior high and senior high school population. There are millions of unbelieving students in our nation. Multitudes of underdogs await, knowingly or not, a championship investment from a leader full of faith in Jesus Christ. Rise up. The Assemblies of God fellowship is but one step away from one million student adherents. If 500,000+ students would be relentless after the one the number of youth adherents would eclipse 1,000,000.
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Lead Continued... Assemblies of God youth leaders must keep clear focus on the full meaning of “make disciples” with the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20). Discipleship is not a state of spiritual maturity. It is following Jesus. It is just as important to understand a disciple as a soul winner. Jesus remains on a mission for people. Discipleship must be effectively evangelistic or it is not fully discipleship. The call is for disciples who make disciples. Our student ministry can be more intentionally evangelistic both personally and collectively. In a day when it is increasingly popular to attack the Christian faith, there remains a great need for a strategic student ministry from the Church. Moreover, that ministry should be boldly, yet respectfully, Pentecostal. The Scriptures are clear. In the last days God will pour out His Spirit on sons and daughters. It is a biblical emphasis we must hold fast to in our fellowship and render to this generation. We need it. They need it. 2012 is going be a year of multiplication filled with fresh opportunities. With God’s help, dreams for this generation of students will lengthen its stride. Let us press on with the love of Jesus Christ for this generation! Insightful words from Christian father and basketball hall-of-famer, Pete Maravich, challenge forward movement in ministry. “Love never fails, character never quits, and with patience and persistence, dreams do come true.” Dream on for the cause of Jesus Christ and this generation of students.
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tudents reaching students is the first step of making disciples. Youth Alive has 42 missionary personnel plus 9 district Youth Alive coordinators. We have over 23,000 prayer zone partners covering more than 11,000 schools with prayer in the USA. Over 14,000 Assemblies of God students have currently committed to be a campus missionary: to purposefully follow Jesus at school. This means they will pray, live, tell, serve, and give while trusting the Holy Spirit to create an opportunity for their friends to follow Jesus. Christian students are the backbone of the Youth Alive strategy. Over 11,000 students receive Alive Wire, our campus club e-newsletter.
Since 2002, the Seven Project has been in 830 schools, in front of 477,844 students, and experienced 59,666 students making commitments to follow Jesus.
campus missionaries 33,000 CM’S SINCE 2007
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he build portion of NYM is committed to equipping students to become life-long followers of Jesus. This is primarily accomplished through the 20 resources currently offered, leader training (podcasts, web articles, conferences and networking), and programming. Fine Arts experienced another year of helping students discover, develop and deploy their ministry gifts. Approximately 65,000 students from across the nation participated in a district festival with over 6,200 students attending Fine Arts in Phoenix. Phoenix saw the second highest number of entries in its history. The Celebration Service on Friday night may well have reached 17,000 in attendance to see the Award of Merit recipients perform live on stage.
National Bible Quiz in Dallas, Texas, showcased the top 40 teams in the country. For the second year in a row, the finals and banquet awards service were live streamed via the Internet. Hundreds of students memorized the entire book of John, many mistake free! Bible Quiz continues to challenge students to learn and live out God’s Word and then lead with it. ONCOURSE magazine currently has 160,000 subscriptions as an award-winning magazine for teens, recently winning the Evangelical Press Association Award of Merit for Youth Publication for two consecutive years. ONCOURSE just celebrated its 20th year of publication, and continues to address sensitive teen issues, provide real-life discipleship empowerment as well as promote resources and events of youth ministries. It continues to be a resource to the student leader by providing article-based small group discussion starters (i.e. Campus Clubs) while providing a promotional hub between youth leaders/students and our AG schools.
celebrating 50 years of bible quiz & fine arts
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peed The Light (STL) experienced a 6.07% increase in 2011 giving. This represents the second increase since 2000. Though the U.S. is still experiencing economic instability, God has blessed this missions endeavor. STL giving is a shining light on the students and leaders in our churches and ministries. There were 26 districts that increased their giving in 2011 and seven had a record giving year. Students gave over $8.8 million to provide for the “essential transportation and creative communication� needs of our AG missionaries. Since its inception, STL has raised over $261 million so our missionaries have the tools necessary to better fulfill the
Great Commission. Ambassadors in Mission (AIM) provided our students and youth leaders a phenomenal chance to participate in hands-on ministry, including working with Convoy of Hope, MEGA Sports Camps, inner city ministries, and AG missionaries in foreign fields. In 2011, preliminary reports indicate that 1,974 nationally registered students reached around the world through overseas and stateside AIM outreaches, including the national Phoenix AIM outreach in conjunction with General Council. Through these AIM endeavors, 122,381 individuals made decisions for Christ. In addition, AIM leaders reported 263 healings and 126 Holy Spirit baptisms. In 2011, AIM re-introduced National AIM trips with a highly successful venture in partnership with Fine Arts. The first-ever International Fine Arts Festival was held in Colombia. The goal is for this model to be replicated in years to come. AIM is committed to sending more AG students in short-term missions at home and abroad.
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Louisville Attractions. The Louisville Riverwalk Trail is a seven mile paved path from the downtown Belvedere river wharf along the Ohio River to Shawnee Park, traversing a unique part of Louisville. The walk blends today’s growing city with a more relaxed and secluded setting.
LOUISVILLE 2012 Join us in Louisville, August 6 - 10, 2012, for National Youth Convention, featuring the National Fine Arts Festival and AIM Outreach, and help make it the biggest year ever! We are anticipating 12,000+ attendees in Louisville. We’re so excited to have Worth Dying For leading worship for us all week. We have a dynamic list of speakers lined up, including Rich Wilkerson Jr., Tim Ross, Jay Mooney, and Chet Caudill. The National Fine Arts Festival will consist of thousands participating in 96 categories, 61 Fine Arts and 35 Kappa Tau. The AIM outreach will be working with at least 12 local churches and hundreds of AIMers. No matter how you define it, Relentless: After the One, is about our desire to love God and love people. It’s about reaching upward toward God and outward toward a world that desperately needs Him.
It takes a special place to craft the Official Bat of Major League Baseball. Since 1884, Louisville Slugger has put prime lumber in the hands of the greatest players of the game. A visit to the museum shows you how the sport has changed a bit between then and now, but the “crack of the bat” remains one of the sporting world’s most thrilling moments.
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Worth Dying For
“Worth Dying For is a faceless army of worshippers that’s not about certain people in a band or ministry,” explains co-founder Christy Johnson. “We really believe in investing in people and raising them up. We don’t use people to make ministry happen. We use ministry to make people happen and we love seeing when someone starts out as an intern and is later able to get up in front of people and usher thousands into the presence of God.”
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Rich Wilkerson Jr.
Rich Jr. & DawnCherè Wilkerson lead a weekly young adult gathering in Miami, Florida called The Rendezvous. The VOUS is the youth & young adult ministry of Trinity Church which is pastored by Rich & Robyn Wilkerson. Rich & DawnCherè share a vision to encourage and inspire this generation to live for Christ through music, teaching, discipleship and the arts.
Tim Ross
Tim Ross speaks both nationally and internationally with over 15 years of ministry experience. Tim began preaching at the age of 20 years old and has already impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. His dynamic teaching style and uncanny ability to make people understand the gospel message is the reason why he has been such an asset to ministries across cultural and denominational lines.
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