In its very earliest days, the Seventh-day Adventist Church had no specific "youth ministry"; young people were as active and involved in the work of the church as older ones were. Indeed, the original Advent movement was very much a youth movement, led by people like James White, who began preaching at twenty-one, Ellen White, who received her first vision at age seventeen, and John Loughborough, who began preaching when he was seventeen. These young people needed no one to minister to them; they themselves were the ministers, sharing the exciting truths they had discovered in God's Word.

Soon after the Adventist Church was organized and began to grow, people recognized the need for a work specifically directed at young people. And from those earliest days, the emphasis was on youth who would be workers for God.

Ellen White strongly advocated youth work within the church, but the work she envisioned was not one in which youth would be passive recipients of adult-directed programs. She foresaw a youth work in which youth would be trained and equipped for evangelistic work that they themselves would carry out—a true "army" to finish God's work in the world.

Appropriately, the credit for actually starting Adventist youth ministry goes to two teenagers who felt a need and sought God's help in meeting it. Many lifelong Adventists are familiar with the story of 14-year-old Luther Warren and 17-year-old Harry Fenner, who in 1879 knelt under a tree in their hometown of Hazelton, Michigan, to ask God's guidance in how to win other young people to Christ. Inspired by that prayer, the two teenagers formed the church's first young people's missionary band, with a charter membership of nine boys.

Today, youth rallies and conventions are held all over the world at the local, national, and international level, sometimes with special emphases such as Bible study, prayer, or drug abuse prevention. Pathfinder camporees, also organized on every level from the local up to the international, have become another effective way of drawing Adventist youth together.

Seventh-day Adventist youth work has grown so much and in so many ways since Luther Warren and Harry Fenner first knelt together in 1879 that the movement we are a part of today would probably have astounded those first pioneers. Let us hope, though, that it would not have disappointed them. The focus of Adventist youth ministry—preparing youth for service in God's work—has remained the same in over a century of growth and is manifesting itself in new and exciting ways each year.

As youth leaders, we often focus so much on the day-to-day aspects of our ministry— teaching the Sabbath school lessons, planning the weekend retreat, hosting the Saturday-night social—that we lose sight of the "big picture." A glance back at the long and proud history of Seventh-day Adventist youth work helps put our work into perspective. And the most important part of looking back is recognizing that this youth ministry has always been about leading youth to know Jesus, and then training them to share Him with others. We are still training that army of youth Ellen White dreamed about—and they are accomplishing His work. Through the Spirit's power, they will soon finish it.

Adapted article by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole, Elders Digest