2+ youth groups working together??

It makes it alot easier if the other congregation are part of the same sort of denomination.

I know that my church (a large church, with around 2000-2500 members) takes part in a few events in the year in which we combine with other AOG (Assemblies of God / Pentecostal) churches.

One of them is 'holy spirit city' i think it's called. Basically it's a worship service/prayer night where a number of churches will combine and pray for our city.

Another event is after the mardis gras parade, in which there would be a christian parade following the route the mardigas parade took a week before.

In the youth and adult ministry scheme of things, there are also interdenominational young adult church camp/retreats in which people from various denominations will gather to attend a youth conference. There's usually around 400-500 people that attend this conference, and it is held once a year.

I would suggest for you to perhaps hold a prayer meeting where you can pray for your country, and your city.
Invite the other churches within the area, hopefully they are the same denomination as you.

ck_psy said:

It makes it alot easier if the other congregation are part of the same sort of denomination.

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I do see your point but what I've found is more important is being on a similar page in terms of focus. Our youth group has been involved working with several different youth groups and the one that we found the most difficulty was not a demonintal thing but working with a country-based youth group in a small town of about 1000, compared to our city with 300,000 and the kids weren't from Christian backgrounds where most of ours were. Saying that though we still had a lot of fun together away in camp despite our differences.

We also run an inter denominational youth based service rotated between Presbyterian, Anglican and two Baptist churches which has been a real success.

I'd highly recommend getting to know the other youth groups leaders first, what their visions are for their youth groups and pray about it.

Sharing ideas and perspectives to a broader group can be an awesome experience and I'd highly recommend it!

There are pros and cons of linking up with other youth groups from experience.

Pros: It gets the youth thinking that they are part of a bigger picture, they meet other christians, fellowship and get often get encouraged.

Cons: If you are a new youth group and just starting up, there is a chance that some of the youth see what is going on in another youth group and go and join them so to speak. Its like if there is something better going on down the road they might not stay at your youth group. This happened at the youth group I pastor. I guess the key is to just get a fun, interactive, enjoyable service happening and then this wont occur.

Blessings.

I've got no leadership experience and I never went to a youth group when I was younger so make of my view what you will...

But tonight I performed at an event which is a collaboration of youth ministries. It seemed to work really well. What they do is, once every accademic term all get together for a celebration event. They get the place all comfortable with bean bags and music etc, have a worship session with a great band, and a couple of performances. There were a couple of short talks too - one was a pair of testimonies and one was a guy's story about his gap year. And in between activities they would all chat and there was an art/craft corner, a tuck shop etc. So it was really informal but provided a great opportunity for exclusively young dudes to get together and build each other's faith on their own terms, so to speak. If there were any denominational or doctrinal differences they didn't show through, because there was no preaching/teaching. Everyone was just celebrating the fact they had Jesus in common.

And off the back of the relationships built there, I believe they sometimes meet up to do outreach in the streets and stuff. It seemed to me like a really good thing to do.