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Beginnings of the Adventist Youth Society
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The first youth organization in a local Seventh-day Adventist church began in 1879, when Harry Fenner (16) and Luther Warren (14) organized meetings in Hazelton, Michigan. From 1879 several other youth groups were formed and became active in Antigo, Wisconsin, Lincoln, Nebraska, and South Dakota among others. In April of 1899 the Ohio Conference was the first conference to officially organize the work of youth ministries.
In 1901 the General Conference of the Seventh-dayAdventistChurch took some steps toward the forming of an official organization for the youth, approving the concept of the Youth Society. At this time, the Sabbath School Department was asked to care for the work of the Youth in the General Conference. Early in the spring of 1907, as the youth and young adults in the Seventh-dayAdventistChurch continue to grow in different places of the world, the General Conference approved the formation of the Youth Department. M. E. Kern, was elected Department Chairman; Matilda Erickson was his Secretary. During that same, the name Seventh-day Adventist Young People’s Department of Missionary Volunteers, was selected. Through the years it came to be known as the MV Department.
The first MV Youth Congress was held in 1928 in Chemnitz, Germany. The first Youth Congress for the North American youth took place in San Francisco in 1947. Years later, in 1972 the name of the Department was changed to Youth Department of Missionary Volunteers, at this time it was also voted that Conference MV Secretaries received the title of Youth Directors. In 1978, the name was changed again to Adventist Youth Department. Hence what was known as the Missionary Volunteer Society became the Adventist Youth Society.
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