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Eagle Award For Youth Alive Pioneer
19 October 2006
Mal Fletcher was recently honoured with the Eagle Award, presented by the Assemblies of God churches in Victoria, Australia.
The award was given in recognition of Mal’s fourteen years of pioneer Christian leadership in his home state from 1981 to 1995 (when he left to pioneer Next Wave International in Europe). It was accepted on Mal’s behalf by his good friend Russell Evans, leader of the Planet Shakers City Church in Melbourne and the acclaimed Planet Shakers Conferences.
In thanking the churches for the award, Mal said: ‘Just being thought of in this way means a great deal to Davina and to me. We have so many great memories of our time of ministry in Victoria.’
In 1981, Mal and a group of passionate youth leaders in Melbourne, the state’s capital, started a series of high-powered youth outreach events which became the seed for Youth Alive Australia. The group adopted the name at an Easter youth camp in Victoria, in 1981.
In 1986, as Youth Alive Victoria was seeing fast growth – Melbourne events had grown from around 300 young people to around 2,600 – Mal invited a group of leaders from around Australia to visit Melbourne to investigate ways of encouraging the same thing in other states. Some cities were already running events based on the Melbourne model.
That historic meeting of around 40 key youth leaders, hosted by Mal's team, saw the birth of Youth Alive Australia as a national body and Mal was asked by the group to become its first national director. He served in that role until the early 90s, by which time he was feeling a draw toward the continent of Europe.
Youth Alive went on to grow well beyond the 100,000 mark in Australia, reaching into High Schools and bringing churches together for outreach for the young. The model and name have been copied by movements in the UK, Europe and Asia.
At the same time, Mal and his wife Davina pioneered an exciting church in the Dandenong Ranges, which were well known as one of Australia’s top occult centres. In the same year he pioneered the church, Mal also served as the dean of students for the newly formed Harvest Bible College, now one of Australia’s premier ministry training colleges. In effect he was principal in that first year, working alongside the school’s president, Rev. Alun Davies.
Mal was unable to attend the award presentation ceremony in person, but sent a video thank you clip. In it, he thanked Rev. Davies, the president of the movement in Victoria, for his kindness and thanked the churches for their prayers.
Referring to the work in Europe, now over ten years old and seeing real growth, Mal said: ‘I think our feelings are a bit like those of David Livingstone, who said: “We’re working for a glorious future we may never fully see."'
Mal is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God in Australia, a large group of churches which includes such well-known groups as Hillsong Sydney led by Rev. Brian Houston. For more on the Assemblies of God churches in Australia, see www.aog.org.au.
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