The ACC Youth Committee hosts gatherings throughout the year to form young people’s identity not just as members of their home congregation, but as part of a shared body, a conference, a tradition, a people. Fun and friendship are the entry point, but underneath that, are about identity and helping youth answer “who do I want to become and who will I walk that road with?” in a frame bigger than any one church can offer. When a teenager meets dozens of peers who share their tradition’s values like pacifism, service, simplicity, community, those values stop feeling like one family’s quirks and start feeling like a worldview worth belonging to.
These gatherings also function as a preview of adult church life and a widening of trusted relationships. They’re often a young person’s first positive experience of the wider conference, the same network of trust and cooperation they will hopefully soon step into as delegates, volunteers, or leaders, and they connect youth to mentors and adults beyond their own congregation (this is especially significant for kids whose home church doesn’t have a formal youth ministry.. At the same time, gathering churches with real differences in worship style, context, and theological posture gives youth early, low-stakes practice in staying united across disagreement, a small rehearsal of Anabaptist community.
Gatherings can teach theology structurally, not just verbally: shared meals, service, peer-led worship, and inclusive costs embody mutual aid and hospitality whether or not anyone names it. And practically, peer belonging and connection to a larger faith community are strong predictors of whether young people stay engaged with the church into adulthood. This makes these gatherings not just a nice experience, but a meaningful investment in the conference’s future vitality.
Thanks to everyone in our congregations who supports youth ministry at every level, especially the connection of your youth to those of other ACC congregations.
– ACC Youth Committee