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Let me introduce you to Annalisa. She is part of a great local church but she really wants to live her faith beyond the four walls of a building. Annalisa invites all her friends to every event at her church. She does street outreach three times a month, and recently she went round to her neighbours and prayed for the girl who lived there who was sick. She later led that same girl to Jesus... Annalisa is 12 years old!
In the coming year Hope Youth (formally Hope Revolution) wants to see hundreds of young people like Annalisa equipped to reach out and to see more young people come to faith.
Partners
Hope Youth is the youth focused arm of HOPE Together and seeks to engage young people from across the church in mission and evangelism. Hope Youth links with numerous partners including but not limited to the Church of England, Alpha, Limitless, Youth for Christ, Scripture Union, Message Trust and the Pais Movement. Collectively this group has facilitated the creation of various initiatives and resources including Mission Academy, Mission Academy Live and Amplify. (Amplify is part of Advance 2020 but with a specific focus on developing 11-17 year old evangelists.)
I am excited seeing what God is doing in the nation… from individual stories of people like Annalisa… to the work of large youth organisations like Scripture Union, Youth For Christ, Pais Movement, Youthscape and others, who are equipping and resourcing churches to reach out to see more young people come to faith… to the denominations giving a great focus on youth and evangelism… then to my heroes: the local church youth leaders using innovative and creative ways to see more young people reached for Jesus!
Mission Academy Live
I am so excited to tell you that more than 600 youth groups have used Mission Academy Live. That means more than 3,000 young people have been trained and equipped in peer-to-peer evangelism, and are seeing many of their friends coming to Jesus. Seeing the impact of Mission Academy Live, with so many young people leading their friends to Jesus, has highlighted the fact that many young people clearly have the gift of the evangelist on their life. That’s where plans for Amplify began.
Amplify is the youth arm of Advance 2020, which aims to stir up the gift of the evangelist within the church, building towards a year of outreach throughout the UK in 2020.
Amplify exists to mentor a select group of young people in evangelism through a year-long programme.
We’re looking for young people who are actively living out what it looks like to share their faith: confidently speaking with peers, inviting friends to church, setting up Christian Unions, and generally taking any opportunity to share Jesus.
Amplify aims to deeply invest in these young people – helping them to develop a greater understanding of the gospel as well as confidence in sharing their faith. We’ll then offer opportunities for evangelism in a variety of settings – offering accessible models of what it means to share faith in this contemporary youth culture.
Launching in September 2019, Amplify will seek to journey with 60-100 hand-picked young people aged 11-18, from many different churches and denominations right across the UK (no more than two young people per any one church).
To find out more and apply for your young person visit: www.advance2020.org/amplify
I hope this next season is full of opportunities to God’s Kingdom advance, and to see many young people released into all God has created them, bringing his light, love, and life to every dark space and place!
Please let us know if we can resource you more and pray for you!
Big love,
Dan
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