Adamson Meets with Key UN and World Youth Leaders

What began as a national Assemblies of God initiative, the right for every person to know Jesus - The Human Right movement - has taken its first steps to becoming part of a global youth movement, not just among AG churches or those of similar faith, but in a way never previously considered.

In recent months, The Human Right movement has captured the attention of individuals and organizations across the country and around the world, crossing denominational, cultural, and racial lines in unity of purpose.

On February 19 and 20, 2015, Heath Adamson, senior director for AG Youth Ministries, met in New York with the leaders of other prominent global youth organizations, including Paul Walker, European OneHope management team; Geordon Rendle, president and CEO of Youth for Christ International; and Colin and Melissa Piper, president of the European and World Evangelical Alliance Youth Commissions.

However, the gathering wasn't just made up of prominent world youth organizational leaders - this meeting included key leaders in the UN (United Nations). The names of these key UN leaders have been withheld in order to maintain their influence within the strongly secular UN.

Adamson says that the group gathered to discuss the future of youth evangelism and, in light of the world's changing dynamics, share ideas on how to best impact the world through the gospel, compassion, and justice.

"If we preach the gospel apart from justice and compassion, then we preach a gospel Jesus never preached," Adamson explains. "If all we do is commit acts of justice and compassion apart from the gospel, we simply offer the world a better brand of misery. Our hope is, in moving forward, to resource a new global youth ministry paradigm."

Adamson says that global poverty and the crises with refugees were among the many issues discussed, including what role evangelicals can play in addressing those concerns broadly and practically.

"We want to interact with culture in a way that we haven't before," Adamson says.

Over the next 12 months, Adamson says, work groups around the world will convene in order to create greater support, swell the ranks of the movement, and seek solutions to engaging and meeting the needs of cultures with the compassion and love of Christ.

"Youth ministry is not what it used to be," Adamson says. "It has changed as much as the world has changed in the last few decades, and we need to make sure our youth leaders recognize those changes." 

Adamson says the group will reconvene in December to present Spirit-led solutions to issues raised in this meeting - solutions that they believe God will provide in order to impact the world for His glory.

"We ask that believers lift these groups up in prayer over these next several months," Adamson says. "We believe God is preparing to do something revolutionary through the young people of this world!"

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.