Students train to make a difference on their campus
Frank Stirk
BC Correspondent
bc@christianweek.org
RICHMOND, BC-Compared to the usual teen-oriented event, a weekend conference hosted last month by a rapidly growing Christian youth ministry called Canadafire had little to offer, at least on the surface.
Coordinator Darian Kovacs says the 300 or so young people who showed up at Campusfire 2004 at Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church came with one purpose in mind-to be trained in how to make an impact for Christ in their schools and communities.
Campusfire "doesn't have Christian celebrities, doesn't have imported big names, doesn't have all the big bands," says Kovacs. "So it's unique-primarily practical and primarily to connect leaders and students that are wanting to make a difference in this world."
The conference offered workshops for high school and post-secondary students, parents, youth leaders, and for the first time, children in Grades 5 to 7. Portions of it were webcast to Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
Topics included intimacy with the Almighty, journaling, how to turn a conversation to spiritual matters, "organic" youth ministry and being a youth pastor in Canada.
"Lots of students want to make a difference, but no one's actually said 'you can do it' and empowered them," says Kovacs.
That spiritual hunger is reflected in the upswing in teen church attendance noted by sociologist Reg Bibby in his latest book, Restless Churches.
As Bibby told the Ottawa Citizen, "the number of teens attending services has bounced back from the low of 18 per cent in 1992 to 22 per cent in 2000. Things are healthier than people let on."
Kovacs himself was in high school when he began Canadafire five years ago with a vision of helping Christian teens to lead their friends on what he calls a "journey towards God."
From the start, it was apparent that Kovacs had tapped into a real need. Canadafire is now linked via its website (www.canadafire.org) with students in more than 650 schools across Canada. About 10 new schools are registered each week.
But even that overlooks what students who have gone through the training are achieving on their own.
"For instance," says Kovacs, "a guy in Newfoundland connected with a girl in B.C. They e-mailed back and forth for about a month about how he could start a prayer group in his school. He started a group, because we had trained a girl in B.C."
One person who helped Canadafire get started was Darrel Reid, who at the time was president of Focus on the Family Canada.
Reid says when he first met Kovacs in 1999 and heard his passion for reaching his peers, Canadians were still reeling from the shooting deaths of students at Columbine and Taber, Alberta.
"I sensed pretty quickly that the timing for this was right," he says.
"I suggested, 'Look, why don't we give this a bit of a push in the [Focus] newsletter?' I said, 'Darian, if I put it in the newsletter, given the way that Canadians are feeling and praying about this issue, you'd better hang on, because there's going to be a significant amount of interest, and you better get ready.'
"He said, 'Yes, I am ready.' So we did put it into the newsletter and there were scores of responses and interest."
Kelly Manire, who pastors an on-campus church at Simon Fraser University, believes more and more young people are turning to spirituality out of despair over the state of the world.
"We're still fighting wars, we're seeing terrible abuses to humanity. Science has not answered all of our questions," he says.
Reid agrees. "The big deficit in Canada is the deficit of hope. It's rife in our young people, particularly in the high school and college ages. People need to have a reason for hope, that things can be better, that life does have meaning," he says.
"And when you get guys like Darian that are committed to making that happen, that excites me."
