The term youth congress is applied to a large-scale gathering of young people for two or more days. When national or international congresses are held, the programs are more elaborate. Youth rallies might be described as one-day congresses. In these the program is simpler and the participants fewer than in congresses.
The first Seventh-day Adventist youth congress on record was held at Chemnitz, Germany, July 17–22, 1928, for which 1,837 delegates and many visitors (a total of 3,000) came from Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, Poland, the Baltic States, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, and Holland. The first youth congress for the entire North American Division was held in San Francisco, California, in September 1947, and was attended by more than 12,000 young people.
Following World War II, a European youth congress was held in Paris in 1951. It was attended by about 6,000 young people from 25 countries. San Francisco again was the host city in 1953, when the Pan-American youth congress, to which thousands of young people came from North, Central, and South America, was held there. A youth congress was conducted in Vienna in 1967. It was somewhat larger than the Paris session of 1951. In 1969 a world youth congress was held in the Hallenstadion in Zurich, with 10,000 youth from all divisions in attendance. A worldwide unity was brought to the youth work as a result of this meeting. SDA youth in nearly every division of the world field have been offered the advantages of the youth congress type of program, geared to their interests and needs.
Until 1960 the pattern of the large youth congress remained essentially the same; the principal features were sermons, appeals, pageants, music, and the relation of Share Your Faith experiences. But in that year the youth congress held in the municipal auditorium of Atlantic City, New Jersey, with a reported attendance of 18,000, struck a new emphasis. Called the Festival of the Holy Scriptures, it was a climactic event of a Bible emphasis year known as Spotlight on the Bible. Skillfully planned discussion groups were a new feature of the congress; there was a Bible quiz demonstration; the sermons and all other parts of the congress program were specifically planned to fit the pattern of the Festival of the Holy Scriptures. The high enthusiasm for this type of congress resulted in its repetition in division, union, and local conferences throughout the world.