How can young people change their churches? What can they contribute? What is really important to them? How can they learn to gather other young people to effect change?
“Engage: LWF Global Training for young leaders” is going to address these questions and hopefully answer a few. The program will work with the theme of the next LWF General Assembly “Give us today our daily bread” and will explore what this means for young people in diverse contexts.
It is an ambitious program in three phases:
1. Four regional meetings train young leaders from LWF member churches in leadership through bible study, workshop sessions and encounters. These meetings are going to take place in Asia/Pacific, Africa, Latin and North America, and finally Europe.
2. Local level. The young leaders return home and implement an activity in their home churches together with local youth.
3. Global Meeting. The participants are stewards for the LWF General Assembly in Stuttgart 2010. After the assembly, there is going to be a global debriefing meeting where the nearly 50 participants share their experiences with each other and get some additional training.
The first regional meeting is going to take place in Bangkok, Thailand, March 13-19, for the member churches in Asia/Pacific. Applications from Asia/Pacific are invited before January 15, 2008. You find all the necessary information here. In order to apply you need the endorsement of one member church of the Lutheran World Federation in Asia/Pacific. Only the head office can issue such an endorsement. Here you find further information and the application form.
Hello! When I was reading your post, I was asking myself. “What did I contribute for my church?”
The program is very interesting and very essential for young people. It will let the young people set their goals in making a change in their own churches. It will also encourage the young people to share and connect with other young people in the world. When I joined the conference in Hong Kong last month organized by NMSU, we also had the time to share and connect with other young leaders from Asia.
The concept that I can see here is like the movie “pay It Forward”..
Good luck to this program.