I believe God is raising up a new generation of innovators and risk takers who are creating important new expressions of church, community and mission. These young leaders demonstrate a remarkable level of imagination and initiative. As we race into an increasingly turbulent economic future and a declining church, we will need the creativity not only of these new conspirators but of all young people.

Let me give you a brief glimpse of what God is doing through these people I call New Conspirators. Then I invite you and all your youth to join them in discovering how God can use them to have a kingdom impact in society and church in ways they never imagined before.

Creating Worship with a Difference

In England, Jonny and Jenny Baker planted a new church called Grace in a traditional Anglican church near Heathrow. Older members can come to this Sunday night service, but they can't mess with it. It belongs to 20- and 30-year-olds. They are particularly creative in fashioning imaginative new expressions of worship that often have a very strong missional focus (freshworship.org).

These innovators, like many young Christians in Britain, were strong supporters of the Jubilee 2000 Campaign, which asked richer nations to forgive the debt of poorer nations so they could invest in education, health care and economic empowerment for their poorest citizens. So they created a worship experience around Jubilee's theme of Forgiving Third-World Debt.

Picture yourself entering this elegant Anglican sanctuary on a Sunday night with more than 200 young adults. At the front is a huge block and tackle that could be used to support a truck motor, but instead of a truck motor it supports an enormous block of ice. The ice represents the cold hearts of northern Europeans and North Americans who are unwilling to forgive others' debts. During the liturgy, these young Christians brought their candles and placed them under the block of ice.

Creating Urban Farming with a Difference

Camden House in Camden, N.J., is part of a new monasticism movement. This community is located in one of the most toxic urban communities in America, complete with three Superfund sites; a barren, brown field; a major sewage treatment facility and a waste incinerator.

Andrea, who is a member of this community, has created an educational venture to teach kids in this community to do urban agriculture at Sacred Heart School. She found funding for two 50'-by-20' greenhouses, where she teaches kids how to start vegetable seedlings to increase food production for their families and community.

One day when Andrea and the kids were walking past the brown field next to their school, they got a creative idea. They created hundreds of balls of compost filled with clover seed, which leaches toxins from the soil. One evening, they bombarded the field with the compost balls. After several good rains, they were delighted to see the once-toxic field awash in a sea of white clover blossoms.