YOUTH WALK THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS FOR GOD
by Pedro Perez
The Once Project is a new Florida Conference Youth Ministries initiative mobilizing young people across the state to go door to door conducting surveys, identifying community needs, looking for Bible study interests, praying with neighbors, and partnering with churches.
Trained, then deployed in neighborhoods where Seventh-day Adventist Churches are located, this army of youth in action walk the streets of our cities and towns with adult presence and supervision to advance God’s work.
Recently, youth from Adventurer age to young adults throughout the Conference were reorganized into Clusters by the Youth Ministries Department. Now, every Adventist church in Florida belongs to one of these 23 Clusters representing 10-15 congregations. The Once Project has challenged young people to gather together at a church in their Cluster once each month to go door to door, followed by a debriefing session, vespers, and a church social.
“Imagine that!” says Robert Hines, Florida Conference Associate Youth Ministries Director and designer of the project. “Once a month in 23 Clusters around the state of Florida, trained young people are being deployed to knock on doors, get to know their neighbors, find Bible-study interests, and then share this information with the local church for follow up.”
Can you see it? Young people from various churches in the Cluster working side by side to help one church in their Cluster each month. Guided by Cluster Coordinators, young people are joining with local church Adventurer, Pathfinder, Youth, Young Adult, and Adventist Campus Ministry leaders to work their neighborhoods for God.
Once this army of youth marches into action where the rubber meets the road, the soles of their shoes will prove it, and the souls they touch in neighborhoods will testify of a movement worth joining. For more information, visit the Resources/Links page at http://www.env-floridaconference-fcoldweb.kinsta.cloud/youth/