How a youth group overcame COVID-19 challenges

You’re helping reach young people with the gospel by supporting youth ministries all over sydney during COVID-19.

COVID-19 has created real issues for many youth and children’s ministries, limiting the number of people who can gather together – if at all! 

But one Sydney youth ministry team were able to develop a brand-new, COVID-safe event to inspire their young people to share the gospel with their friends. 

After COVID-19 had forced their youth group to meet online, it caused a significant drop in numbers. Christ Church Gladesville youth minister Simeon Cumberland could see that his team of leaders, and the youth themselves, were feeling burnt out and disengaged. 

Simeon sought support from others in the Sydney youth ministry community, and was soon inspired to revisit an idea for a school holiday conference he’d previously scrapped when COVID came along.

“There’s a lot of things stopping us, a lot of things making ministry hard now, but we’ve got an opportunity here to have a crack and get the gospel out there and encourage our kids,” Simeon remembers thinking. 

So, in the winter school holidays, Christ Church Gladesville ran their first ‘Winter Life Conference’. Over three nights, they live-streamed the conference into homes, where they encouraged youth to invite their friends over to hang out, play some games, chat and tune in to watch the focused hour-long live-streamed program. 

“Our youth found it easy to invite others and many had friends come along,” Simeon shares. 

After seeing the previous drop in numbers of young people meeting online together on Friday nights, Simeon was delighted to see over 100 youth involved in the Winter Life Conference. 

New friendships and connections were made – and best of all, two young girls chose to put their trust in Jesus! 

Simeon received great feedback from youth and parents after the event, and youth group in Term 3 kicked off with far more energy and excitement. 

Praise God for Simeon’s creativity and passion for helping young people get to know Jesus better and put their faith in him – and thank you for your support of ministry to young people in this challenging year. 

You help make effective youth and children’s ministry like this possible!