Youth Ministries

       The first denominational Youth event was held on the Stayner Camp grounds in 1938. It was held as part of Family Camp and 128 attended the Youth Bible Conference. In the 1960s there was an annual Youth Convention held on the Victoria Day holiday Monday. It was held at one of the big churches, sometimes Bethany, sometimes Stouffville, and sometimes Banfield. All of us teenagers used to go to it. We’d meet morning, afternoon, and evening. We’d have a gospel quartet there, Bible Quizzing, and a preacher. The Youth Convention continued in this format for many years.

       Come the early 70s, people didn’t seem to want to go to this one-day event. Denis Bell was the Canada East Youth Director at the time as well as being the Youth Pastor at Banfield Church in Toronto. Denis and several others started doing some planning for a different Canada East youth event. They started discussing what could be done to pull off something a little bit more attractive to teenagers. Their planning developed into Pitch n Praise.