|
Youth Vision Queensland is the network of Churches of Christ Youth Ministries across Queensland. It exists to encourage the spiritual and numerical growth of effective youth ministries and leaders wherever they are found.
Key activities of Youth Vision Queensland include networking youth leaders, running a youth pastor internship scheme, providing youth ministry training and coordinating the Queensland State Youth Games, bi-annual inter-state youth ministry study tours and occasional training events. In 2005 we hosted Doug Fields to a single day mid-week Purpose Driven Youth Ministry Conference, with 498 attendees.
We are part of the National group of Youth Visions in each state, coordinated by Neil Fong our national chairman. Youth Vision Australia seeks to network youth ministries across state borders. They are perhaps best known for the series of “State Youth Games” events that are run in most states every year for over two decades. These are evangelistic sporting events, where teams from a wide variety of Churches come together over a long weekend to play sport in a Christian community. Close to 5000 youth would attend the SYG each year from all denominations.
We are also part of the Churches of Christ in Queensland and Australia. Historically our emphases have been the importance of God’s Scriptures, evangelism, unity and restoring the New Testament Church. One of the better summaries of the movement is:
We are a movement within the whole Church of Christ on earth
Pleading for the unity of all Christians
By restoring New Testament Christianity
In order to evangelise the world.
We try to see ourselves as a movement, rather than a denomination. When we call ourselves Churches of Christ, we’re trying to communicate that we’re not another brand of Christianity. Our Churches belong to Jesus only. When asked what denomination we’re part of, we hopefully say that we are just a Church of Christians. We are no better than other Christian groups, but hope that we can make some contribution to God’s kingdom overall.
We are pleading for the unity of all Christians on earth. That doesn’t mean we try to get denominations to merge or all believers to gather together each week. It does mean that we seek to remove divisions and fighting in between and within Churches. Diversity is good, but the things that unite us must be seen to be greater than our divisions. It means we strive towards cooperation and mutual love between a diversity of Christian traditions, allowing differences of opinion while working together for God’s kingdom. Our inspiration is the prayer of Jesus for future believers that “they may be one… May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them” (John 17:20-23). As such, the NYMC is a natural outflow of our philosophy. If youth workers can grow in unity and love for one another through this convention, then God will be glorified.
Restoring New Testament Christianity is a goal that can easily be mis-directed. Our prayer is to copy the best of the New Testament Church – the passion for God, the love for fellow believers, the focus on Jesus as LORD, the care for the needy; while avoiding the numerous problems that confronted that early Church – the divisions, the lies, the heresy.
We see evangelism and mission as being crucial for our movement. The entire world needs Jesus, so we will do whatever it takes to help them follow Him.
Overall, we are a group of Christians that seeks to build God’s kingdom wherever it is found.
Youth Vision Queensland
www.youthvisionqld.com
Youth Vision Australia
www.youthvision.org.au
State Youth Games
www.stateyouthgames.com
Churches of Christ in QLD
www.cofcqld.com.au
|
