CFC-Youth for Christ
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Youth For Christ (CFC-Youth in the USA) is a youth organization under the Couples For Christ Family Ministries. It is open to people aged 13-21 of any Christian denomination, although the majority of the members are Catholics. YFC creates an environment to help every young adult in their journey to become close with Christ. Like Couples for Christ, YFC calls for, "Rapid, massive, global evangelization."
It started in Davao, in the year 1993, and soon spread all over the Philippines. It is now present in over a hundred countries and now has a lot of programs, which have somewhat varied from country to country. At the moment, YFC has grown to over a hundred countries in the world.
Youth for Christ holds various activities like Sector assemblies, general assemblies, and Chapter meetings. The biggest activity of Youth for Christ however, is most likely the International Leaders' Conference or the ILC, wherein all YFC members from the Philippines meet, it is international because it also invites Youth for Christ representatives from other countries. The 12th ILC held in Subic had more than 10,000 members (from the Philippines alone) who participated.
Although YFC professes to be ecumenical, it is still considered as a Catholic Charismatic Community.
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[edit] Youth for Christ Programs
[edit] Branches of Youth for Christ
Community-Based is the branch of Youth for Christ that evangelizes outside school through village communities, letting the youth meet people from different backgrounds of society. Ideally, it is tied up with the village parish, to help in evangelizing teenage parishioners. The community based program was the first program of Youth for Christ, and currently the largest.
High School-Based plays the role of an alternate peer environment for students, supporting them in their academics and spiritual journey to being a Christian in today's high schools. Youth for Christ realizes today's youth face many obstacles in their high school years because of the way the world portrays how youth should be through drugs, sex, violence, pressure to make good grades and much more.
Campus-Based is the branch of Youth for Christ that is established in college campuses. Campus Based has a very unique ministry. Campus based ministry has weekly meetings and retreats each semester. The work of Youth for Christ in the campuses is an urgent response to the need to provide a healthy and exciting environment in college campuses, where the faith among students can flourish, forming bonds of friendship, brotherhood and sisterhood with other students within a campus. The Mission and Vision of Youth for Christ Campus is based on the words of Scripture, to "United all things in Christ." [Ephesians, 1:10].
SIGA is the youth evangelization movement for the youth in Gawad Kalinga. It is similar to the Youth for Christ Community-Based Program except its the community, in this case, is a Gawad Kalinga village.
GK-Youth is a program that views every single youth as an instrumental part in putting an end to poverty. GK Youth's goal is to see the vision of Gawad Kalinga become a reality where 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities will be built in 7 years in the naiton of the Philippines. We fight for every person who is struck with deprivation. Each child deserves to live in a good home. Every family deserves a fighting chance. Throughout the nation, many Youth for Christ have become advocates of GK through participating and organizing fund-raisers and promotions to help raise money for the efforts of GK777. GK-Youth is non-sectarian and is not necessarily a branch of Youth for Christ, although, it is a program of Couples for Christ.
[edit] Morality Programs
100% Pure was launched at the 12th Philippine International Leader's Conference (April, 2005), and on the 11th Nation Leaders Conference in Columbus, Ohio (August, 2005, for America). Youth for Christ promotes this program as a reminder to every member that being in this ministry is lifestyle that goes along with being 100% Pure. Being 100% Pure as a youth is a great start for everyone to strive to be like Jesus Christ. Today, many youth carry different struggles of addiction and acts of sin. However, despite how difficult this may seem, we believe this can be conquered through the power of the Holy Spirit and support of one another. Because of this, the youth have made promises to keep through the 100% Pure 10 Points: Zero Drugs, 0% Alccohol, No to Masturbation, Virgin & Proud, True Love Waits, Pure Inside & Out, 100% Pure Man/Woman, Pro-life, Smoke-free, and PorNO.
[edit] Ministry Transition Programs
SWITCH is a transition program for members of Kids for Christ (KFC) to move onto Youth for Christ or also better knowns as "SWInging Towards CHrist." Youth for Christ views the importance of KFC because they will become the eventual future members and leaders of Youth for Christ. SWITCH is where Youth for Christ actively plays a role in being a part of all KFC functions from Kid's Villages to their General Assemblies. With Youth for Christ's support and presence, it provides KFC models to aspire and look up to as their older brothers and sisters.
Crossover is a transition program for Youth for Christ members who are 21 years of age and up. This program is made to help older Youth for Christ members move and adjust to being in Singles for Christ (SFC). Youth for Christ realizes even though they have many memories and love for their ministry, at some point they must leave and allow the younger generation of youth to step up and take over. Ways to help ease a Youth for Christ's transition into SFC is throuhg attending their General Assmeblies and meeting current SFC members.
(Programs may vary from country to country)
[edit] Youth for Christ Around the World
From its small beginnings in Davao, Youth for Christ has grown extensively and can now be found in over a hundred countries including America, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean States, Australia, Spain, Kenya, Austria, Germany, Tanzania, Argentina, and Italy.
In some countries Youth for Christ is called CFC-Youth, or CFC-YFC, to differentiate from another Christian group, which is also named Youth for Christ.
[edit] Youth for Christ in the USA
Youth for Christ in the USA is called CFC-Youth in order to differentiate it from the other Christian organization that has the same name. CFC-Youth USA consists of six regions: The Northwest, Southwest, North Central, South Central, Northeast, and Southeast. In 2003, CFC-Youth USA only had twenty-four states with CFC-Youth USA present, meaning each region had about one to three states with CFC-Youth. Later that year at the Maryland National Leaders Conference, the nation launched Go For Gold. The purpose was to evangelize to all fifty states in one year. By the 2004 Riverside, California Conference, Go For Gold became reality and every state had CFC-Youth present.
After capturing the entire nation, CFC Youth launched NW7: New World in 7 years. The vision is to now establish CFC-Youth in every country within the western himisphere. To help implement this vision, many young people all over the world have been called to be missionaries. Mission work is heavily involved with this vision, and it required missionaries to get our of their comfort zones and go to areas they may have never been to, so they can help spread God's word and eventually start Youth for Christ there.
At the 2006 National Leaders Conference in Houston, Texas, attendance was around 1,200 strong.
[edit] See also
- Couples for Christ
- CFC-Kids for Christ
- CFC Singles for Christ
- Handmaids of the Lord
- Servants of the Lord
- SIGA (YFC counterpart of Gawad Kalinga)
- GKY (Gawad Kalinga Youth)
SIGA and GKY are different, SIGA is the YFC counterpart of Gawad Kalinga, while GK-Youth is a separate youth organization from YFC with the sole purpose of helping in Gawad Kalinga.
