Dr. Andrew Smith explains the history of Youth Encounter
Youth Encounter grew out of the work that Scripture Union has been doing with pupils of other faiths since the early 1990s. Staff have been involved not only in schools but have also done extensive research into what it meant to be teaching about the Christian faith to Muslim children and young people. What were the theological and ethical issues that impact this kind of ministry?
In the late 1990s at a Christian Muslim dialogue meeting which was attended almost entirely by folk over 40. it was felt that a similar day involving teenagers could be really exciting, and so Faith and Young People was born.
It took until 2000 for Faith and Young People to become a reality with an event in Birmingham (Past events). Over the following years Andrew Smith (Field staff worker in Birmingham, and now Director of Youth Encounter) ran a number of events and as global events unfolded - 9/11, 7/7 and the Iraq war to name just three - so the need to help young Christians and Muslims find ways of meeting and speaking with each other became evermore important.
If the church is going to engage with the world as it is, not just how we remember it to be, then helping young Christians befriend Muslims has to be taken seriously by the church. Whenever we've asked Christian teenagers where they learn about Islam they always say either school, friends or the media. They NEVER mention church. Youth Encounter wants to play its part in changing that answer.
Youth Encounter is the name of the whole project. Faith and Young People is the name of the dialogue events we run. Youth Encounter is led by Andrew Smith with a team of volunteers in keeping with Scripture Union's ethos to be a volunteer movement.
Alongside this work Andrew regularly lectures and provides training on issues arising from this work. He speaks at a variety of colleges and churches as well as providing tailor made sessions for organisations. If you would like to find out more, or book Andrew to speak at an event please Contact us.
Andrew's doctoral thesis 'Faiths Friendship and Pedagogy', researched the impact on Christian young people of living amongst Muslims in the UK and reflected on how the church can disciple them. A copy of this can be downloaded from the British Library. Enter the title of the thesis into the search box to find it.