Global Church Youth Representatives

Our first few months as Global Church Youth Reps has certainly been busy! We started off by getting to know the GR team, meeting all the staff individually (via the power of zoom) as well as being able to sit in on a team meeting. It’s been so cool to hear about how the church operates oversees and about what God is doing all over the world. (Liddy (top) and Meg (bottom) pictured on the left)

We’ve also had the opportunity to take part in some mission roundtable training, run by the United Methodist Church and the Methodist Church in Britain. Whilst the main bulk of the training (which is due to be face-to-face in London) has had to be postponed, it’s been amazing to connect with others on this training via preparatory Zoom calls. We definitely lower the average age of participants, but I’ve felt really encouraged by how willing the other participants have been to engage with younger people.

As well as working with Global Relationships, we also sit on the panel of elected 3Generate representatives. We’re currently meeting with the other youth reps, the youth president, and some of the Children, Youth and Families staff members every month. We’ve both been involved with the planning of 3Generate this year, as well as helping to lead a “Tune-In” as part of 3Generate 365. In this side of our role, we’ve also been taking part in “virtual visits”. I really take my hat off to anyone who is running a youth group over zoom at the moment, but the current set up means that we’ve been able to visit groups from Northumberland to Northampton! We’ve been able to engage with so many young people, to gather their views on church and try and elevate their prophetic voice. Every visit I go on I leave feeling so inspired at how God is calling and using our young people to change the world.

The whole rep team has been taking part in the Thy Kingdom Come prayer initiative on our Instagram, and Meg and I are very much looking forward to putting a global spin on the days that we’re running. We’re also in the process of setting up a “World Wednesday” series, which we hope will be able to spark the interest of the young people who follow us for the global Church! You can follow the rep Instagram @3genreps, or view it here.

Liddy Buswell, global youth rep