An important part of our ministry is the NJI in our local church in Zaanstad. NJI stands for ‘Nazarener Jeugd Internationaal’ which is translated ‘Nazarene Youth International’. NYI Zaanstad consists of around 160 young people. The group is divided in different age groups. They are called the Teen I (age 12 through 15), Teen II (age 16 through 19) and the Young Adults (age 19 through 28). The teens are mainly teens from our own congregation, but also many teens come from other congregations in the area. We love to see that the strict boundaries between denominations that used to exist strongly in the Netherlands are fading when it comes to the Christian youth in this country.

The NYI Zaanstad is structured according to the Nazarene model, as we have an NYI board with chairman, secretary, youth leader, young adults leader, etc. Every year we have a local NYI convention where we vote for given positions and listen to reports.

There are different teams formed to get the teens involved in their own activities. One team is responsible for special events like the opening and closing of the season, the prom-like event we have around New Year, the Christmas celebration, our own celebration of the very Dutch Saint Nicholas and last but definitely not least our own annual NYI youth weekend. Also there are two teen bands that are coached by two young adults. They consequently play during the teen worship services. This season another team was formed, which was needed to facilitate the changes we will describe later. These groups are not just there to get the youth work organized. The teens learn to develop leadership skills that will later be needed as they might be on the Church board or in other committees. Also being involved will help them explore and develop their spiritual gifts. And it is a great way to keep them committed, since people generally are more willing to commit to something when they are being involved.

This season like we mentioned before, a new structure has been introduced. We will give you a picture of what it used to look like and what it looks like now. The teens and young adults used to have separate programs, which both took place on Friday evenings. The young adults had their own young adult leader and a Church-service like program with a time of fellowship. The teens always joined together for worship with their own band for about 45 minutes. After this they split up in their own Bible study groups that were divided by age and preferably had a man and a woman leader. After that they joined in the ‘Youth attic’ where they would have fellowship with drinks, a little candy shop, a table tennis table, a dart board, a soccer table and couches. When Dennis first started as a Youth Pastor the Bible study leaders prepared their Bible studies individually. That meant that every Bible study group studied different topics and whether these topics were interrelated depended on the leader. His task as Youth Pastor was to coach the Bible study leaders, to provide them with material and to start good and meaningful conversations.

Dennis wrote a ‘study plan’ for the season 2007-2008 and weekly ‘devotions’. Every Saturday the Bible study leaders would receive a ‘devotion’ dealing with the topic that was planned for the next Friday evening. This ‘devotion’ would consist of a core message, Bible passage(s), possible questions that could be used during the study and additional information. The task of the Bible study leader was to make sure this core message was communicated in a way that was appropriate for the age of the teens.

This year we decided to do things differently. The structure of the teen service, with the worship section followed by the Bible study section and the fellowship section, seemed to have become somewhat boring. The teens didn’t seem to be very excited about that anymore and the danger was that they only came for the fellowship. We hoped to get their attention by making a more varied program so that the Friday evening program is no longer predictable. In preparation of this program an ‘open forum’ was held last season during which teens could present their ideas for the NYI and the topics they would like to hear about next year.

Again a ‘study plan’ was written for the season 2008-2009 in which the themes for the whole season are planned. But the form of teaching will be different each week. Mostly the core message will move to the worship service, where it is taught by Dennis as the Youth Pastor or by the Youth leader. Sometimes the evening will look like a teaching session, at other times it will be more like an interactive devotion after which the group splits up in the Bible study groups to discuss the personal application of the topic. To keep these evenings original and creative an ‘idea-team’ of teens was formed, who meet every month to discuss the upcoming themes and brainstorm about possible creative ways to communicate the message. Also workshop evenings are planned in which the teens can choose between four different themes. For these themes people from outside the NYI are invited to share their wisdom on popular topics. Lastly there will be ‘young adult evenings’, where the young adults will prepare the whole youth program, including the worship and the teaching. Goal is to get the young adults and teens together more so the teens can learn from the young adults. Weekly instructions are sent to the Bible study leaders so they know what the evening will look like and what is expected of them.

We just started working with this new structure and we are very curious to see what is going to happen. By the end of the year we will have an ‘open forum’ again, through which the teens can evaluate the season with us and they can share their ideas and whishes for the next season.