The first week for term 2 at youth group kicked off with a night called Youthsurge. Here’s some info on it all from one of the youth leaders, Nicky Pryor.

Nicky, for those that don’t know, can you please tell us what Youthsurge is?

It’s basically a combined youth groups night with other churches on the North Coast. Youthsurge is a ministry group from Sydney and they organised everything for the night: a couple of ice-breaker games, music, and a Bible talk. All we had to do was provide the youth group. The night was a great follow-up time for all the friendships that were made at the youth convention we had earlier in the year.

What did you (and all the other youth groupers) learn from God’s Word at Youthsurge?

The theme for all the “surges” this year is about temptation. It was a great reminder to me that I’m not immune to temptaion, and that high schoolers are bombarded with it at school, particularly through peer pressure. The clear message from what we looked at in 1 Corinthians was that we are all tempted but God is in control and can help us not to fall into temptation. The night was especially helpful for me as a youth leader to think more about accountability with the girls in my group – asking them regularly what sort of worldly things are being thrown at them, and how they are going at living like Jesus in times of being tempted.

I hear you went along to a training day for youth leaders on the Saturday (also run by Youthsurge), what was something helpful from that session and was there anything that came out of that we can pray about for you?

The topic for the training session was on longevity in ministry and how to balance it all with work and rest. It was good just to hear how other youth leaders are going with ministry in their church, and the sorts of things they’ve found that have worked, as well as the things that haven’t worked in teaching high schoolers about Jesus. Something I was challenged about on a personal level was not to have a conquer-all type attitude to ministry, but to know it’s God that does the work in those He puts under our care. Please pray that I would have patience, knowing that God is the one growing young people to be more like Jesus, and that I would be thankful for the opportunity to serve the girls in my small group.

Thanks Nicky! If you’re a youthie and went along to Youthsurge, post a comment and let us know what you learnt and what else you enjoyed.