In the last five years, youth and young adult membership in the AME churches has declined by about 50 percent. Youth pastor Jamaine Tucker may be the man to help turn those numbers around.

He, along with several committee members, has launched a ten-week campaign with the aim of reclaiming youth and young adults who have become disengaged with the youth and young adult ministries.

The 29-year-old from Pembroke said: "The reason I was hired was because there has been an exodus of youth from the AME church. Some have gone to other churches and some don't attend church at all any more."

According to Rev. Tucker, in order to be able to reach their target group, the committee had to examine problems within the church which could be causing the youth membership to dwindle.

"A youth and young adult assessment was needed, so members of our committee canvassed all local congregations and were speaking with youth leaders in churches in concert with pastors to find out overall vision for youth ministry and to discover what steps we all need to take to advance our cause."

He identified two major problem areas: "The youth feel that the AME church has pastors whose messages are not relevant to youth and young adults as well as some believed that sermons were not sensitive to people who do not fit into the 'ideal' family unit, although that may not have been the intent."

Rev. Tucker also said that sometimes the youth and young adults are dissuaded from attending church because they perceive some regular churchgoers as hypocrites.

"They see people attend church every Sunday and bible classes on Wednesdays but question their behaviour on other days of the week."

So how can the youth become attracted to the church again?

Rev. Tucker believes that one way can be through music.

"To many youths the AME is not known to play appealing music. Music was created to glorify God.Young people like rhythm...so they may want to hear a certain beat in church.

"For example, a popular hip-hop or contemporary gospel song may not seem appropriate to the church, so keep the music but change the context. Glorify it. If it's not traditional church music it's considered ungodly. The church must be willing to welcome different genres of music."

The ten-week campaign which launched the weekend on May 17 is another.

A series of events are being held for not only AME members, but the community at large.

Weekly power lunches are being used as forums to discuss various social and political views along with what is the church's position on them. Two topics on the agenda are the legalisation of marijuana and homosexuality and liberalism.

The campaign will culminate with a major youth crusade on July 29-30, aimed especially to those who may believe in God but are not actively attending church.

The featured speaker will be Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant. At 32, he is the pastor of the fastest growing AME church in the world wwhich has collected more than 3,000 members in two years of service.

Rev. Tucker said that he and his committee hope that the campaign will garner positive results.

"We want the youth and young adult ministries to be able to function financially in order to advance as well as the membership of our youth and young adult ministries needs to grow and become a more vibrant part of the community at large."

But what if the desired results are not forthcoming?

Rev. Tucker said: "We'll have to come back to the drawing board and begin to explore other approaches."