Leader of Youth Encounter, a project which helps Christian young people live out their faith amongst Muslims, based in east Birmingham
I joined Scripture Union in 1994 and worked in Birmingham for ten years in primary and secondary schools where the majority of pupils were from a Pakistani Muslim background. Although there were activities normally associated with schools work such as RE lessons, assemblies, governing bodies etc, the context forced us to reflect seriously on what ministry and mission amongst children of other faiths should look like.We sought to find a way of working that remained faithful to our calling to make Jesus known in schools whilst at the same time taking seriously the faith and cultural background of the pupils. Through developing close relationships with the schools we were able to run residential activities and set up a holiday club in 2000 which is still going strong and is now run by Birmingham City Mission.
In 2000 I ran a conference that brought together Christian and Muslim young people to help them meet, build friendships and learn how to talk about their faith with one another. This developed into the 'Faith and Young People' project which now includes residentials and events with groups from different parts of the West Midlands. In 2001 I completed my master's degree looking at the role of young people in Christian–Muslim dialogue which led to me becoming the Christian youth specialist on the national Christian–Muslim forum. Now all this work has come under the umbrella name of 'Youth Encounter' with the Faith and Young People work and increasing amounts of lecturing and training for youth workers and church leaders done at the Youth Encounter Centre in Birmingham. In 2007 I completed my doctorate looking at how evangelical churches can disciple teenagers to live out their faith amongst Muslims.
For more information or to get Andrew's latest newsletter by email please contact him at AndrewS@scriptureunion.org.uk