Exploring Christian Faith and Values
Alpha Australia
Overview of Year Three
“One of the unique features of VFFF has always been its willingness to support Christian orientated projects. VFFF remains one of the very few Australian foundations prepared to support Christianity.”
VFFF Trustee Emeritus, Geoffrey White
VFFF has developed public interest in Christianity since 1962. The funding outcomes of the Exploring Christian Faith and Values focus area support young people at all stages of their faith journey:
- Organisations supported under the outcome "young people have positive, engaging experiences that encourage their participation in Christianity" focus on providing an encouraging entry point for young people to explore their faith that meets them in their context. Red Frogs is one of the organisations supported under this outcome.
- The outcome "young people gain knowledge and interest in Christian faith" supports young people to deepen their faith and increase their knowledge through continual learning. Anglican Youthworks is one of the organisations supported under this outcome.
This year, VFFF developed two partnerships to build the next generation of leaders in Australia’s Christian churches, reflecting VFFF’s approach of providing a small number of large, multi-year core operations grants.
The Baptist Union of NSW recognises that young people play an important role in the future of their church. The VFFF grant supports an increase in the capacity of the Baptist Youth Ministries team and expands their offering for young people from rural and regional communities.
Youth Alive is a cross denominational Christian organisation with a core focus of raising young leaders and resourcing local churches to reach young people where they are at. VFFF’s core funding grant will enable Youth Alive to build their fundraising capacity and deepen their reach to rural and regional young people.
The VFFF Christianity portfolio consists of a small number of trusted organisations that demonstrate:
- Strong demand from young people with sustained high levels of youth participation;
- Strong governance, sound processes and organisational capacity to work at scale; and
- Growth mindsets with a breadth of activities supporting young people’s faith journey.
Grants Snapshot
$2.2m
approved
3
grants
22%
of total funding
100%
for core operations and capacity building
36%
to regional areas
Grants
2024
Baptist Union of NSW, $800,000 over three years
Capacity building of the Baptist Youth Ministries team and increasing of their reach across NSW, particularly to rural and regional communities
Sports Chaplaincy Australia, $400,000 (final)
Towards expansion to Queensland
Youth Alive Australia, $1,000,000 over three years
To build fundraising capacity and increase their reach to rural and regional young people
Ongoing
Anglican Youthworks
$270,000 distribution ($800,000 total)
Core operations support for the Youthworks Ministry Support Team (MST)
Alpha Australia
$250,000 distribution ($830,000 total)
Building the capacity of the Alpha Youth team to support faith exploration by Australian young people
Red Frogs Australia
$200,000 distribution ($650,000 total)
Core operations support towards fundraising and volunteer management capacity to support further growth
Highlight: Youthworks
Anglican Youthworks’ vision is for every church to have an effective youth and children’s ministry. VFFF is funding the Ministry Support Team to deliver leadership camps and programs for young people in NSW.
The congregation at the Sans Souci Anglican Church was ageing and declining. The local youth minister engaged Anglican Youthworks to address the issue by investing in programs to engage more young people.
The San Souci Church identified 12 young people in the high school youth group to accelerate the development of these senior students by participating in Anglican Youthworks’ Leaders in Training (LiT) pathway at Youthworks Conference Centre at Port Hacking. LiT is a week long camp for high school students in Years 9 to 12, delivered in close partnership with local churches, and designed to grow participants as Christians, leaders and servants of Jesus and His people. With VFFF’s support, Youthworks runs three LiT camps annually for almost 1,000 emerging Christian leaders.
When the group from Sans Souci returned from their LiT camp, four of the young people started an after-school club to continue their leadership journey. Today this club has 20 families connected to the Church.
This work is seeding the next group of leaders, with some of the club participants progressing through to the youth group. By inviting other friends to join the youth group and also initiating a lunchtime Christian group at their school, these young people are demonstrating leadership potential.
Youthworks' research demonstrates that there is a direct and observable impact on the growth of a church when people under 30 have a healthy and active faith. Youthworks looks forward to congregations across communities growing as more young people explore their Christian faith.