V i e n n a   - Baptist youth workers in Europe are busy preparing for the Baptist World Alliance’s (BWA) World Youth Conference scheduled for Leipzig from 30 July to 3 August this year. It was the primary topic at this year’s session of youth delegates coming from member unions belonging to the European Baptist Federation (EBF). Forty-one delegates from 23 countries were present at this year’s meeting in Vienna, Austria from 18 to 23 January. Emmett Dunn (Falls Church near Washington), the BWA’s Director of Youth Work, called on the European delegates to attend the conference, which is entitled “Dive Deeper” with their young people. Dunn stated: “If you invite someone at home to attend, then make sure that you will come along also!” For delegates from Europe, it was obvious that they would be accompanying their young people to Leipzig.

The delegates Kay Moritz and Mirko Kormannshaus from Germany’s “Gemeindejugendwerk Elstal” (GJW) Youth department described what Leipzig’s 10.000 guests could expect to experience. A Global Village offering prayer gardens, discussion groups, games, fun and sports activities promises to be a place of exciting intercultural exchange. Conference participants will live together in small groups. Different worship services, concerts and workshops involving international speakers, musicians and artists will be featured. Bible classes and worship services will deal with texts from the gospels of Luke and John. The two German delegates stated: “We are concerned about personal faith, but also about a just world and the challenge of passing on the Gospel.” One highlight will be the events in Leipzig’s inner city. Mirko Kormannshaus explained: “This is where the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 began. It started with Monday evening prayer services and ended with up mass demonstrations.” European youth groups and congregations will have the opportunity to invite choirs and groups from throughout the world back to their home countries both before and after the congress.

The discussions held in the Baptist congregation of Vienna-Mollardgasse had the slogan: “Equipped for Mission – Faith, Facts and the Future”. Delegates also introduced to each other the programmes offered by their own children’s and youth departments.

EBF-Youth Director Jeff Carter (Prague) called for the use of statistics and survey tools more suitable to meet the current challenges of youth work. Such tools would allow strategies to be developed further or modified. The Canadian added: “Honest evaluation prevents stagnation.” He warned against manipulating survey results “to support our own theories or serve our own ends”. One should instead “show integrity by first asking relevant, important and correct questions”. It is never sufficient for a dynamic youth programme to simply “repeat what worked last year”.

In elections, Svjetlana Mraz of Croatia was elected Vice-Chairperson of the EBF’s Youth and Children’s Committee. Chairperson remains Nick Lear of England, who was not up for election this year. Jean Francois Lekeu of Belgium was confirmed as Treasurer; Russia’s Evgeny Bakhmutsky was voted in as the Committee’s new Member-at-Large. The conference ended with a worship service involving communion.