A look ahead: International Youth Convention 2019

Thirty thousand participants are expected. There will be 25,000 camping beds, 2,300 helpers, and 360,000 litres of water: this was some of the data presented by Apostle Franz-Wilhelm Otten, the chief organiser of the event, this past Saturday in the lounge of the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf (Germany). Then the District Apostles were shown around the exhibition grounds. The main focus of the tour was on the stadium as well as on Hall No. 6, the central location for booths, presentations, and events. During the tour many found themselves transported back to the year 2009 and reminisced about the European Youth Day, which took place at the same premises.

On the wish list

A day before, the 2019 Youth Convention had been on the agenda of the International District Apostle Meeting. District Apostle Rainer Storck (North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany) presented the status of the preparations. He also presented the results of a recent youth survey.

One finding was: the young participants of the IYC 2019 , as opposed to the older ones, expect modern music. They also want programme points with physical activities. Older young people expect music styles that have already established themselves in the Church context, and they want to occupy themselves more with doctrinal content.

The survey also showed that all age groups are interested in such classic Church topics as “the return of Christ” and “life after death”. And everyone is interested in divine services. Divine services received the highest level of response in all age groups.

Ideas are being sought

For the last few weeks now, the youth have been able to submit their ideas for the Youth Convention and register them: music, plays, presentations, lectures, workshops, and prayer services … As much of the programme as possible is to be planned and organised and carried out by the young people. This is the wish of the planning committee. In addition to this, youth groups and organisations can register booths. The registration form is available in German. English will follow shortly.

In the weeks ahead, the District Apostle Areas will think about how the individual District Churches will present themselves at the International Youth Convention. The African District Churches are debating about taking one large booth together. The European District Churches, that is the individual countries, will be setting up their own booths in a hall dubbed “Hall of Encounters”.

Additional information

For the youth there will be sleeping facilities in the exhibition halls. In addition to this, there will be food practically around the clock from Thursday to Sunday. The registration fee—the amount will be published shortly—allows access to all events and it includes the welcome package (including T-shirt and scarf).

This past Pentecost Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider published the IYC motto “Here I am” and invited the youth from the around the world to come to Düsseldorf (Germany) in 2019. Parallel to this, the IYC website (www.ijt2019.org) was launched in English and German.