Twice a year, Echo youth ministry from The Place Adventist Fellowship church meets for an eight-week series in the fall and spring for worship, teaching, and fellowship. This ministry is led almost entirely by youth that attend Newbury Park Adventist Academy (NPAA).
Yet, this doesn’t mean just NPAA students go to Echo—roughly 46 percent of the people who come to Echo do not attend NPAA.
“I love how students from other schools step into a new environment to experience Christianity and connect with people that they have never met,” said Jenna, community service youth leader.
Including Jenna, there are 8 youth leaders who help Echo run smoothly every Friday. Some of their roles include social media and outreach, fundraising, music, community service, vespers, etc. Without them, this organization would not be able to work.
Urijah Saenz, youth pastor of The Place, leads the ministry. His idea for Echo was to “recognize the personal and spiritual needs of this new generation and then to train and empower young leaders to build a community that fulfills those needs.”
The theme for this last season was “Standing Firm While Standing Out,” showing youth how to tangibly support their faith. Some topics included, “Why do we have Sabbath on Saturday?” and “What’s the difference between cussing and cursing?” Echo works to build on the foundation of beliefs the youth learned as kids and teaches them to defend their faith. As Ellen G. White said, “The Lord has appointed the youth to be his helping hand” (Testimonies for the Church 7.64). She specifies the importance of the youth in our community, making them strong defenders of Christianity and messengers of the good news of God.
Echo averages about 27 people who attend weekly. Students from Glendale Adventist Academy and the youth from Canoga Park church have attended, plus students from public schools such as Newbury Park High School, Camarillo High School, and Agoura High School have joined. With this variety of people, one might think there’d be exclusion or situations where people seem to be left out. But what’s interesting about Echo is that there is a point in the evening where the youth are separated into groups with different people they may not know for a chance to get to know new people.
Echo just started spring 2025, and it is getting better every season. Pastor Saenz and the youth leaders are working hard to make sure everyone has a good Friday evening to welcome us into the Sabbath. With the music and sermon, Echo is really a growing community that is striving to make a change in our youth.