Interview with Olly Goldenberg by Daphne Kirk
Encounters for the emerging generation can be as powerful and effective as those for adults. Under the power of the Holy Spirit, young lives can forever be changed. Children and teens need us to be purposeful, committed, and focused in discipling them or the world will do it for us.
I interviewed Olly Goldenberg, formerly children’s Pastor at Kensington Temple, London, to ask his experience of running such encounters for many years. Olly now runs Children Can.
Why do you believe encounters are important for children and teens?
Children need to go beyond theory of God to experience Him so, as they grow, these experiences help them to see God as a reality, not a fairy tale. People had real experiences with God, in the Bible, that shaped their lives from then on. God is still the same: wanting to meet with his children.
What is your experience in running encounters?
We have run encounters for hundreds of children aged 5-14. For the 5-9’s, the encounters lasted for one day, the 10-14’s encounters lasted for a weekend.
Can you give us an idea of the content?
We ran two different types: one for those who had never been on an encounter and one as a yearly encounter (like a spiritual MOT). The first time encounters had 6 sessions:
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Get ready to meet with God.
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Who is God – loving people, hating sin.
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Sin & wounds, including writing down things we have done and that others have done to us that stop us getting close to God.
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Sin’s solution. Jesus died on a cross. In this session the children burn their sins and wounds to see how Jesus has destroyed all trace of their sin.
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The Holy Spirit. An opportunity to meet Him.
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Vision. Go out and live for God.
A key part of the encounters was the spiritual preparation before the encounters as we prayed asking God to meet with the children.
What fruit did you see?
So much fruit! Children were motivated to establish regular quiet times at home, lives were turned around with school teachers asking parents to explain why their children had changed so much.
Many of the “more spectacular” testimonies of change came from the encounters. Children who looked as if they “did not need” an encounter would lead several of their friends to Jesus in the week after the encounter as God had become more real to them. The greatest fruit for me was seen when talking to adults 10 years on who spoke of the encounters as the first time they met God for themselves, and who still look back to that time as a formative part of their faith in God.