Matty

I have been very fortunate to grow up in a church setting and being part of a family that was very involved in the life of the church. This made it easy to attend events and organisations, it became part of my regular weekly pattern from a young age, I was brought to church and went to Sunday School and Children’s Church, and when I was old enough, I was able to go to the youth fellowship.  

The time finally came, and I could go, it was amazing, I got introduced to God in a new way, I sang songs that I really enjoyed (because I do not like action songs) and I discovered a love for silly games. This setting was where I felt my faith grow and develop to a place where I had ownership over it, it was my faith!  

I was so fortunate that I had leaders that brought me to Autumn Soul for years, sleeping on airbeds, staying up until 2 or 3am talking about what the speaker was talking about and driving us home while we slept in the back seat. When I had questions about faith, they would sit down with me and work through it at my pace, they would check in and invest in who I was as a person. When I had something, I felt was important to say, they listened. I felt valued!  

My dad was someone who would be there at 9pm on the dot at the end of youth group, I would wander out at 9:15 and he would get annoyed because he was waiting. So I lied, I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I didn’t want to leave. I told him it ended at 9:30pm, which the leaders probably didn’t appreciate, but they would sit with me, and we would catch up, chat about life and everything that was going on. 

It wasn’t just the youth fellowship leaders that made the difference, it was the minister as well. He would appear down every so often and would play whatever weird and wonderful games the leaders had planned and would spend time talking to everyone. He wouldn’t sit in the corner and watch, he got involved. When it came to questions about faith or if I wanted to share an opinion about church, we had a relationship where I felt comfortable sharing what I thought.  

I got to lead sessions, I developed skills that I still use today, we got to share our opinions on church, and we got to explore what faith meant to us. They (youth leaders and minister) helped me develop my skills and discover new ones. They journeyed with me as a discovered a love for youth work and they were some of my biggest encouragers when I joined TOM team.  

I am not saying we made the leaders lives any easier, we were a challenging group, but seeing the impact it made on my life and now that I am older and have been involved with youth groups. It isn’t easy, but its work worth doing when you see young people participate in the life of the church, the church truly thrives.