the background History
Leeds Youth Cell Network is still a relatively 'young' organisation that's steadily growing. The vision for the initiative began in 1999 as the unity in the church in Leeds accelerated. More and more people began to realise that if the city is going to be reached and transformed for God, then the Christians in Leeds needed to put aside their differences and encourage a real grass-roots move of God. So for around five months, cross-congregational youth workers in the city gathered, prayed and talked about how their experience of the young people of today could help them to facilitate a new kind of youth work in Leeds.
Rev. Simon Hall of the Revive fellowship in Burley had a vision for a network of youth cells, which was supported by the prayer and discussion of the youth workers at the time. From this the Leeds Youth Cell Network was born - allowing young people to have their identity in both their local congregation and ‘the church in Leeds’. This was communicated with as many people as possible, and May 2000 saw LYCN launch with a training day held at Moortown Baptist Church.
With firm founded roots set, God's direction and vision, LYCN is now growing and blossoming. Each year has seen more cells come into being in Leeds. The work of these cells in reaching young people in the community has been more effective than ever. If you would like to find out more about what is happening at LYCN please email Amy (Click Here) and ask to be put on our Newsletter mailing list or visit our news feed (click here)
Background of the Vision
The vision for Leeds Youth Cell Network emerged from a period of prayer in the late 1990’s. A number of weeks of prayer called “Sowing the seeds for revival” were hosted in Leeds calling a broad range of churches together in prayer for the city. Prayer walking the street, morning and afternoons followed by meeting together in the evenings a growing sense of God’s heart for youth and children emerged. In the midst of one of the prayer meetings God showed one church leader a vision of a network of peer led cells which didn’t belong to one church but belonged to the city.
A period of 5 months unfolded where youth leaders gathered to pray and weigh what God was saying before the first cross church cell group in Horsforth started with 10 people in it. Within 18 months, the cell had grown and multiplied and one of the cells grew and multiplied again with now 30 young people involved. Soon other areas started to develop cross church cells and Leeds Youth Cell Network having started with just 10 young people meeting together had 260 young people attending weekly cells in August 2004 five years after the vision was hatched. From one cell to twenty six cells in five years represented significant growth.
If you would like to ask a question or would like more information about what we do please email us here. Alternativly please check out the other pages on the about us secion of our site.