by Stuart P Robinson
Stuart Crawshaw has a clear memory of the picture that hung on the wall in his Sunday School classroom. It depicted the Lord Jesus with a group of smiling children from around the world. As Stuart looked at that scene he determined to be just like the "skinny red-headed' kid holding Jesus' hand " for the rest of his life.
Stuart, his wife Louise and two young sons, Ethan and Elijah are members of Gymea Anglican Church, home of the thriving Soul Revival youth ministry. The Crawshaws pioneered this venture in the early 90s out of their desire to "live a radical Christian life". Their great passion was (and is) to see young people come to know and then grow in Christ.
SPR: I understand you didn't set out to be a Youth Worker, Stuart.
SC: Right. I was doing post-graduate research and the rector, Lindsay Stoddart, kept on asking me to take it on. I knocked him back five times! One night I was sitting at the back of church lamenting the fact that all my peers had opted for the pub scene. I was the only one left. It was at that point that Lou and I decided that it was up to us to disciple and care for the younger teens in our community.
SPR: Did you have a clear strategy?
SC: Instead of running a youth group as such, we invited young leaders to form a peer group gathered around God's word. We met every Saturday night and then began asking others to come and hear the gospel. When students came to the end of high school we challenged them to embrace a ministry lifestyle, not the party lifestyle.
SPR: So how then have young students become involved in ministry?
SC: A good example is our schools work. In 1992 our students pioneered an in-school program built around the "chip lunch'. Instead of meeting in a room at school, we took the kids into the playground and had a short talk and discussion. As young people come to faith, they are nurtured by our leaders until they are ready to disciple others.
SPR: And you've seen fruit for your labours?
SC: We started out with just four leaders. Soul Revival is now a youth community of many hundreds of men and women, 80 per cent of whom come from non-church backgrounds. In addition, we have links with other like-minded communities in Sydney, NSW and Tasmania.
We are also keen to graft Soul Revival into the life of the local church. This means inter-generational activities. We have run "relo-bashes' " activities for the whole family, and want our leaders to be fully integrated in church life.
SPR: There is an Indigenous connection too?
SC: We've been making new and growing ministry friendships with our bothers and sisters in places like Brewarrina, Coleambally, Gilgandra and Mareeba in Queensland.
SPR: Challenges?
SC: How can young adults and senior teens enter appropriate discipling relationships when their interests and stages of life are so vastly different? This creates some practical challenges.
