New Mission Strategy Boosts Salvation Army’s Youth Attendance

A set of activity statistics released recently has proved the success of the new mission strategy - ALOVE, launched by the Salvation Army among youth groups. The attendance of some youth programmes has increased as much as 54% in 2004 compared to the previous year, according to the Salvation Army Youth and Children’s activity statistics for March/April 2004.

Russell Rook, Director of ALOVE said the Salvation Army are hugely encouraged by these figures amid the rapid decline of the number of youngsters attending church in the UK.

In the past 30 years, the UK Church has seen a significant decline in the number of young people that engage with faith. Even though the Salvation Army is well known for its excellence in youth ministry, the "Young Persons Register" had fallen from 120,000 in 1950, to fewer than 20,000 in 2000.

Therefore, ALOVE, the identity for the Salvation Army's new youth ministry strategy for the UK and Republic of Ireland, was launched in January 2003. ALOVE is for young people and young adults who want to live out what it means to be "The Salvation Army" amongst their generation.

"Voluntary and professional youth workers across the country have devoted massive amounts of time, energy and resources to make this new dream turn into a reality. Having said that, the hard work now begins, as we try to consolidate present growth and increase it for the future," said Director Rook.

Over the last year, some promising progress has been made after the launch of ALOVE. 30 people have enrolled in its discipleship training course and 20 youth workers are funded on a professional youth work course. ALOVE has formed a partnership with the influential national youth ministry, Youthwork and that enables the organisation to expand its reach to more young people in the UK.

In terms of social work, ALOVE has mobilised hundreds of young people to project a Christian worldview on certain issues such as gambling and human trafficking.

In 2004, since the drafted gambling bill was proposed, the Salvation Army and ALOVE have been standing in the frontline to protest against the legislation. Huge concern has been expressed that it will put children and many other vulnerable people at a greater risk of developing a gambling problem. Hundreds of young people sent postcard petitions to Tessa Jowell MP.

On the vision of ALOVE, Director Rook shared, "The heart of ALOVE is to create an expression of The Salvation Army for young people and young adults. It’s about taking the very best of what makes The Salvation Army what it is, and translating it into youth culture. It’s not about bumping up the numbers; it is about creating an army of passionate, radical and mission focused young people, that will get involved in their world and make a difference."




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