Matt is a member of the youth group at his corps in Chatham. Here he is reporting on his experience of this years Youth Rally in Watford…

On Saturday 10 February our Youth Group headed up to London on the mini bus to take part in Youth Rally 07, held in Watford Coliseum. The Youth Rally is an annual territorial Salvation Army youth event held in two venues across Britain. The second venue, alongside Watford, was Adelaide Baptist Church in Glasgow. The day was jam packed full of live music, theatre, gigs and more, plus the chance to catch up with friends from across the country.

The day consisted of two sessions with the theme of ‘Outside-Out’. The theme centred around the fact that we live in a world that is focused around ‘me’ and that, as Christians, true faith should never be self-centred. It’s not private and should never be limited to our religious boundaries, our church, our youth group but should break free into our surroundings, community and transform the world. Jesus said ‘blessed are the peacemakers’ and the day was based around how we can help put back together a world that is in bits.

The first main feature was a drama portrayed by the freelance actress, Sarah Grace, depicting the story of the good Samaritan in a community based modern setting. It showed three characters, a youth worker, a doctor and a gang leader. She cleverly matched humour with a serious message that we should be the ‘peacemakers’ in our community, the ‘good Samaritans’. Towards the end the drama depicted a man who had been shot in the street because he was in the wrong ‘patch’. The youth worker and the doctor walked past, making their excuses for not stopping - they had to get to work and didn’t want to take sides - yet it was the gang leader who stopped when he walked past and helped the guy. It was this hard hitting message, that sometimes we say we are Christians but when it comes down to it do we make excuses not to stop, not to care, that made the drama so effective.

Throughout the day, sung worship was led by ‘Dweeb’, a popular Christian rock band encouraging one to one connection with God and open praise. Fantastic music was mixed with a spirit filled atmosphere and everyone was giving it some for Jesus! It was an amazing thing to be a part of.

Another part of the session was devoted to the major issue of human trafficking. Youth Rally 2005 was a big part of The Salvation Army’s campaign to end human trafficking which was kick started by the enthusiasm and drive of the people who attended the Rally that year. It was highlighted again with Freedom Day approaching on 25 March marking 200 years since the abolition of slavery brought about by the work of William Wilberforce. A time of prayer was then led by Graeme Hodge, International Development about this issue.

The evening session was more worship based beginning with a ‘get sweaty for Jesus’ section led by DJ Jim Rivers. A talk was led by Ian Henderson again focusing on how we can change the world, getting out into our community and making a difference. In the break between the two sessions Ian Henderson had been out on the streets. ‘Pretty normal’ I hear you say - but he was dressed as a homeless person, sitting in an underpass, an underpass that every single person would have to walk through to get back to the evening session. He filmed this and it was played during his talk. He pointed out that almost every single person who was going back to the Youth Rally walked straight past. I think this brought it home to a lot of people that we should do more outside our church and take God to the people, perfectly illustrated in the video he showed.
More worship was then led by ‘Dweeb’ praising and spending time with God. I specifically enjoyed the rocked up version of the Army classic ‘Send the Fire’! Dweeb also did a gig after this with amazing songs and a fantastic atmosphere.

Overall the day was a great, challenging experience, the whole youth group enjoyed the event, appreciating the spiritual side to the day but it was also nice to spend the day together as a group. Roll on next year!…

Matt is a member of Chatham Salvation Army Corps. To visit the corps website click here.