Focus on youth is helping the church see real growth

BH1’s youth group is growing and an integral part of the church. From teenage preachers to an inventive new youth leader, senior minister Mark Petrauskas explains

Pay a visit to BH1 Elim Church Bournemouth on a Sunday morning, and you can expect to see members of its rapidly expanding youth group leading worship, serving communion or preaching.

“We’re trying to integrate our youth into church life while also giving them their own identity,” says senior minister Mark Petrauskas.

In a church of around 90 people, BH1’s youth group has grown since lockdown, with the original group of ten to 12 teens meeting on Friday nights more than doubling up to 30 people.

Much of this, says Mark, is down to the church’s new youth leader, Simon Roberts.

“Simon came as a volunteer during Covid, but I knew he was an experienced youth leader so I said we’d love to have him on staff here. He agreed to take our youth work on.”

Mark had previously transformed an old Sunday school room from a junk room to a youth lounge and had kitted it out with a table tennis table, pool table, Xbox and sofas. This paved the way for the Friday night programme to be revamped.

“I’d been leading this and had tried to structure the evenings with free time, talks and games, but Simon lets them do their own thing now,” says Mark.

“A lot of the kids who come aren’t Christians, so rather than do a ‘God slot’ he’s started a youth Bible study on Tuesday nights and uses the Friday night club as a feeder for that. The kids are invited to join the Tuesday group as they express an interest and get used to being in church.

“It works really well. We had a couple come to faith at a Limitless One event and Simon is now following that up with discipling.”

This is where Mark and Simon’s idea to integrate BH1’s teens into church life comes in. To nurture their faith and root them in church, teens from the youth group are invited to take part regularly in various roles.

“A few are musicians, so rather than form a youth band we’ve invited them to join our main worship team. They’re absolutely great. On a worship team of six or seven each week, there will usually be two from the youth group.

“We ask youth to serve communion, take the offering and various other things too, and we have one who has preached a couple of times. It’s about BH1’s youth group is growing and an integral part of the church. From teenage preachers to an inventive new youth leader, senior minister Mark Petrauskas explains giving them their own identity in church. We want to integrate them into the wider life of the church rather than watch them just sit through the services.” Simon and Mark are enjoying seeing their youth growing.

“We have someone who’s just turned 18 becoming a junior youth leader and my son, Joseph, has just gone to Regents Theological College to study,” says Mark. “It’s great to see young people involved and loving being in church, and as these older ones move up, we have younger ones coming up from our kids' club.”

Bearing fruit

BH1’s youth ministry might be the fastest-growing area of church life, but it certainly isn’t the only area bearing fruit. From a recovery ministry helping people with drug and alcohol issues to a Tuesday coffee morning offering friendship to older or lonely people, the church is actively engaged in its community.

The recovery ministry is in the process of partnering with another local organisation in order to expand, and since lockdown restrictions eased Mark has been thrilled to see new ideas attracting locals to church.

“We have a man who is really into Scalextric, and he asked if he could put a Scalextric morning on.

“I offered to lay on coffee and cake and ended up running to the shop for more supplies – we had 50 people show up, it was incredible.”

A monthly café-style gathering on Sunday evenings was also proving popular before the lockdown and is now restarting.

“We invite guests to give testimonies or discuss interesting topics. One of my associate pastors was a doctor and is very much a scientist, so we did an evening on creation and evolution with him, and it was absolutely packed.

“We’ve also run hymn nights which again were packed, and we’ve had people e-mailing to ask when the next one will be on.”

This autumn, the church’s newest activity is launching – a Sunday morning youth programme to engage 11 to 13s.

With every activity, Mark aims to invest regular time in developing his leaders to equip them to work independently while supporting the overall vision of the church.

“I always ask what they need from me to run their group more effectively and what direction they want it to go in,” he explains.

“We’ll see how that matches the wider vision, so all the groups and ministries are pulling in the same direction and everyone feels valued.

“We do have a great focus on youth, but with all the activities we do we try to encompass everybody.”

Simon Roberts says

It’s an amazing privilege being the youth leader at BH1 Elim. Over the last year or so, I have not only seen the youth group grow in number, but I have seen the young people grow in themselves and in their individual walks with Jesus. The best thing in the world is seeing a young person give their life over to God and then get involved in church life. Not as an add-on but as a valued member of the church and fully part of the body of Christ.
 

Joseph Petrauskas says

“I have been with the youth group at BH1 Elim since its inception. I have recently moved on to start at Regents to study church leadership, and our youth leader Simon and my dad as my pastor have been a great source of encouragement. Being able to be fully involved in church life, leading services etc has been a real motivator in me seeking my own calling into ministry.”
 

This article first appeared in the November 2022 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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