Investing in Youth: The Church of God Young People’s Endeavor
“The 24th Annual Assembly of the Church of God has been recorded on the pages of history as the greatest and best in the history of the church. It is in the past, but its memories and influence will never end.” –Nora Chambers
Bold front-page headlines in the Church of God Evangel proclaimed the progress made at the 1929 General Assembly: “Influence of 24th Annual Assembly Will Never End.” Such enthusiasm reflected new hopes and dreams as the Church of God completed its annual gathering. The year had brought an increase in over 100 congregations as well as modest gains in all ministries of the church, and the October Assembly had expressed its confidence in S.W. Latimer by reelecting him as general overseer for a second year.
Alda B. Harrison
In retrospect, October 1929 proved to be a awful month for much of the world as the economy plunged into what became known as the Great Depression. But on Thursday, October 24, the Church of God General Assembly invested into the lives of its youth with the creation of “The Church of God Young People’s Endeavor.”
The adoption of YPE as our first general youth program was the result of the labors of many who supported youth in the church. Among those efforts was the increasing establishment of youth groups in local congregations. Alda B. Harrison, affectionately known as Bertie, organized a Young People’s Missionary Band in Cleveland as early as 1923. With the help of Houston R. Morehead, State Overseer M.P. Cross established Young Harvesters Clubs throughout Michigan in the mid-1920s. And Black congregations formed Young People’s Missionary Bands in Florida.
The loudest and clearest of these voices promoting youth ministry was Alda B. Harrison. In 1928, she had lobbied for space in the Evangel to be used for youth. The next year, she established her own youth magazine, The Lighted Pathway. Although the Evangel did begin to publish articles suitable for local church youth programs, The Lighted Pathway became so successful that the Church of God eventually adopted her magazine as its official youth publication. In December of 1928, Sister Harrison wrote a letter to the Evangel calling for a general youth ministry. Her letter caught the attention of Florida State Overseer R.P. Johnson, and the next summer he established the Young People’s Endeavor as a state-wide program for Florida.
But by the summer of 1929, the Church of God as a whole still had no general youth ministry. With the Assembly approaching, M.P. Cross and Houston R. Morehead drafted a resolution calling for the establishment of such a program. Their work was taken up by a joint session of the Elders Council and Council of Seventy, who then formed a committee to make a formal recommendation to the General Assembly. Then, on Thursday, October 24, the Assembly adopted “The Church of God Young People’s Endeavor” as a national youth program.
Although much of the world was about to enter one of the bleakest decades in human memory, the Church of God had taken an important step toward securing its future with an investment in one of its greatest resources—its youth.
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This article was written by Church of God Historian David G. Roebuck, Ph.D., who is director of the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center and assistant professor of the history of Christianity at Lee University. This “Church of God Chronicles” was first published in the October 2004 Church of God Evangel.
