What can COGOP do for our youth in the future?

[EagerBeaver]

(Mods feel free to move this if you must, but since the Youth Ministry forum is rarely used and so far down on the list of forums, I posted in the main forum.)

Ever since the news broke a while ago about the national Youth Conference being cancelled due to a conflict with another ministry function within the COGOP, I've been pretty disturbed. Disturbed that the youth of the COGOP have been put on the back burner.

Even though I would not have been able to attend, there are many friends of mine who looked forward to the youth conference and had made plans to attend. They're even more frustrated than I am about having the event cancelled.

It boggles my mind that the Church of God of Prophecy, an organization that prides itself on making a huge evangelistic push and growing by leaps and bounds in the 21st century, has absolutely no GHQ-sponsored events for the youth in 2007. A few lucky youth will attend IYC, and youth leaders will attend a ministry training session in the fall. Nothing specialized for just the youth, however. This is unacceptable.

I believe this to be no fault of Palma's; she had stated it was an innocent oversight on her part. But to simply cancel the event with no backup plan is a shame. Leaders from other ministries should have all pulled together and worked with Palma to make sure something could happen. Our National Youth Director cannot do everything by herself.

The Youth Conference is like the General Assembly for many youth. For many it is the only opportunity they get to connect with other youth and leadership from other states and regions, and it's the only glimpse many get of their leaders at General Headquarters. Not giving those youth a chance to connect is a bad reflection upon the COGOP and a big step backward in our evangelistic push.

With that all being said, let me pose a question: what can the Church of God of Prophecy do for our youth in the future? I definitely think that they will need to rebound from this in a big way, but the big question in my mind is how. The youth are the future of the Church and if we continue to hang them out to dry, our Church will have no future at all.

[free]

Did anybody every learn what the other conflicting event was?

[EagerBeaver]

To my understanding, it was the Northeast Regional Women's Retreat being held on the same weekend. Please someone correct me if I am wrong.

[justsam]

In general, I agree with you that the cancellation of the national youth event is a shame. Coupled with scheduling the GA too late to get enough youth for a decent youth assembly, the message sent from GH is pretty clear. Whatever their priorities are, ministry to our youth on a national level rates pretty low.

However, most of our local churches aren't sending much better of a message. In our discussion of why we have a shortage of pastors, we have focused on starting a bible college; I believe strongly that the reason why we have so few young ministers is because we have so few churches with paid ministry positions appropriate for a person in their 20's. Namely we don't have any youth pastors. We need to find creative ways for our churches to fund paid youth ministry.

In our church, we are using our resources to generate funds. Hopefully, these funds will be enough to cover the shortfall in tithes needed to pay a full salary. However, I am strongly considering not taking the full pay, and using the funds to put together a team of part-time pastors. My theory is that a team of part-time pastors will produce more fruit than a full-time solo pastor. I believe that a team working together will produce enough of an increase in membership that tithes will eventually support our ministry full-time.

I think that as new pastors are appointed to churches where they know going in that they will be bi-vocational, that they should be encouraged to try sharing the pay available and hire a part-time youth minister. Or in situations where pastors aren't using the church's parsonage, they could use the housing as a benefit for a part-time youth minister.

Just some thoughts.

God Bless You- Sam Smith

[Billy n NC]

Eager, I am sorry that this has happened . Yes I believe you to be right about the conflict with the Ladies Retreat in the northeast. I personally do not see there being a conflict having a YC and LR being scheduled the same weekend if the events are scheduled /planned far enough in advance to allow people to arrange/plan Financial means.

There was some more discussion about this here ..
http://www.jude2.com/viewtopic.php?t=13083

Whats even more surprising is its been 6 weeks or more since it was canceled and no announcement for the 2008 conference. In the above reference elsewhere here on Jude2 there was mention of a Youth Leadership conference in SEPT 2007 in Tenn. I just went to the Youth Website and no mention of it. There is info about the Youth Conference in Chatt last March06.

There was no announcement of the YC 07 at the GA this year. I guess it was not scheduled/planned etc until after the GA. I would think that there would have been departmental calendar meetings to avoid just this kind of snafu. The ladies retreats staff had brochures etc passing out at the GA. Even though the details may not have been available the YC07 Dates and location could/should have been announced.

Don't get me wrong, I know that organizing/planning an event such as this takes time . A lot of it. On this scale potential sites are booked months(if not years ) in advance.

My pastor asked my wife and I to locate a Couples Retreat location for 2007 . While on our search we learned a lot. Even though we were looking for 150 people event. Plan , Plan.. We booked for Feb 2007 and tentatively booked for 2008. And 2009 is even in my thought process.

At other conferences i have seen commercials for the following year event being presented on the last day. At least the date,location and theme.

As far as going forward with our youth in COGOP, Maybe this will be a big wake up call. My boss used to say . Poor planning on Your part does not constitute an Emergency on my part..

As far as schedule conflict both the Youth and Ladies Ministries are in the same department. So this should not happen again.

I do not see this as a sign of lack of interest in our Youth. I do agree with you that HQ does need to do something to climb over this hurdle.

[EagerBeaver]

I personally do not see there being a conflict having a YC and LR being scheduled the same weekend if the events are scheduled /planned far enough in advance to allow people to arrange/plan Financial means.

I agree with you wholeheartedly Billy. There are enough youth workers nationwide to make up for those who would have gone to the ladies retreat. Additionally I have a hard time believing that the YC was canceled simply because of a scheduling conflict.

There was no announcement of the YC 07 at the GA this year. I guess it was not scheduled/planned etc until after the GA. I would think that there would have been departmental calendar meetings to avoid just this kind of snafu. The ladies retreats staff had brochures etc passing out at the GA. Even though the details may not have been available the YC07 Dates and location could/should have been announced.

I agree with that last sentence. Overall, someone dropped the ball and owes the youth and youth leadership in the entire COGOP an apology.

I do not see this as a sign of lack of interest in our Youth.

I would beg to differ with you Billy, did you see how much time the youth were allotted at the GA. It seemed as if Palma and the youth were rushed off the stage. Not to mention as Pastor Sam stated below that there was not even a teen assembly. And then to go ahead and cancel YC 07? It's horrible PR, horrible ministry and just plain unacceptable.

In general, I agree with you that the cancellation of the national youth event is a shame. Coupled with scheduling the GA too late to get enough youth for a decent youth assembly, the message sent from GH is pretty clear. Whatever their priorities are, ministry to our youth on a national level rates pretty low.

However, most of our local churches aren't sending much better of a message. In our discussion of why we have a shortage of pastors, we have focused on starting a bible college; I believe strongly that the reason why we have so few young ministers is because we have so few churches with paid ministry positions appropriate for a person in their 20's. Namely we don't have any youth pastors. We need to find creative ways for our churches to fund paid youth ministry.

I agree PastorSam...most COGOPs I've seen don't have enough members attending to generate the funds to pay their pastors full time. Couple that with the fact the COGOP is notorious for throwing young pastors into the field simply because they are "called," and you have a recipe for disaster and ultimately, failure.

GHQ in many ways is a reflection of its local churches and vice versa. I would love to see some sweeping change and a TON of more emphasis on youth ministries at GHQ, and from every level on down to the local church.

[sweetpea]

I am in the wrong forum.

[Jennifer Smith]

Lord, help us!

[rjjunior]

I've never been a huge fan of the national youth events anyways. Regional conferences where travel is cheaper for groups makes more sense to me. Our youth group gets at least as much inspiration from driving 2 hours south to Generation Unleashed in Portland, OR and saves thousands of dollars in the process.

Specialized conferences like Connect '07 and the youth workers conference I believe will serve to help the youth longer term than does the expensive general conferences.

I am a fan, however, of the Teen Assembly (R.I.P.) as it combines resources, etc for the Church and the family, while giving the youth greater exposure to the church workings at large. Even without the Teen Assembly this year, the young people we brought with us were greatly influenced through their participation in the general sessions, mission encounter, and even the business sessions!

Bottom line, though, is the way to truly help youth is at the local level with a vibrant church and youth group full of grace and truth.

[EagerBeaver]

Specialized conferences like Connect '07 and the youth workers conference I believe will serve to help the youth longer term than does the expensive general conferences.

This is very true. I would be in favor of dumping the national YC and going back to regionals too.

[Billy n NC]

Eager Said:
I would beg to differ with you Billy, did you see how much time the youth were allotted at the GA. It seemed as if Palma and the youth were rushed off the stage. Not to mention as Pastor Sam stated below that there was not even a teen assembly. And then to go ahead and cancel YC 07? It's horrible PR, horrible ministry and just plain unacceptable.

Eager, On this I agree also. I had forgotten that they had canceled Teen Assembly also. And I have felt that Teen Talent has been treated unfavorably in the past few GA's. There was mention of a Teen Talent Conference of some sort next year in Georgia, but I have not seen anything mentioning it.

There again the Church Website still has the 2006 YC in Chatt on the website as an upcoming event.. With photos of the 2004 and 2005 YC online. I know I know this should be another thread but Bro. Howard has a Christmas Greeting in English and Spanish on the main page of COGOP.org but you cannot download to show at local church. I can download 60 plus hours of the 2006 GA but not the 10 min Christmas Greeting.. The church website could be so much better, including the Youth Page, Blogs, Podcasting, Video Casting etc. They have the knowledge, they have the equipment but nada..

But canceling two youth events in a 6months time frame is a definite Black eye.

[free]

I think it's less about conflict of schedule and more about money! How does a ladies retreat impact a youth conference?

[Billy n NC]

I think it's less about conflict of schedule and more about money! How does a ladies retreat impact a youth conference?

The theory was , at least what I read between the line, was that having a Mother with Teens,(YOUTH) would possibly have to decide Mom goes to ladies retreat or Teens/youth could go to Youth Conference. It would cause the LR to be low in numbers.

But therein if the events where planned out back in April/May, tentative schedule dates discussed in Departmental meeting, Contracts signed and notification out to possible attendees 6 months in advance to give them time to raise money etc. They YC has been in latter part of Feb or sometime in March for 15 years or more..

[EagerBeaver]

I definitely think it could have been money too. Youth generally don't contribute as much money to a church as adults do for a myriad of reasons. Too young to have steady jobs, still receiving education and paying for it, etc.

[EagerBeaver]

There again the Church Website still has the 2006 YC in Chatt on the website as an upcoming event.. With photos of the 2004 and 2005 YC online. I know I know this should be another thread but Bro. Howard has a Christmas Greeting in English and Spanish on the main page of COGOP.org but you cannot download to show at local church. I can download 60 plus hours of the 2006 GA but not the 10 min Christmas Greeting.. The church website could be so much better, including the Youth Page, Blogs, Podcasting, Video Casting etc. They have the knowledge, they have the equipment but nada..

I think it ties in perfectly. A lot of youth and their leaders were uninformed regarding this year's YC because it was not promoted well enough. The first word many received of YC07 was right after the Assembly. Usually it's announced right after the youth conference, not four months later.

Haphazard planning and execution when it comes to youth events is a HUGE black eye for the church as you said Billy. I just can't fathom that an organization that I love and am a part of, and have seen and rejoiced in it making a huge evangelistic push here in the 21st century, can continue to throw the youth department on the back burner. It doesn't make sense to me.