A Connecticut congregation affiliated with the United Church of Christ has seen a rising trend in youth confirmations over in recent years as pastors continue emphasizing the local church's history of serving.

The 1,000 member congregation has seen youth confirmations rise from 20 being confirmed "a few years ago" to 27 last year and 41 in 2012, said Rev. Alida Ward, co-pastor at Greenfield Hill Congregational UCC in Fairfield, Conn, UCC News reported on Tuesday.

"Some of the kids have been here since baptism," she said. "and some are newly arriving."

Ward teaches confirmation at the congregation, with more than 230 youths involved in some aspect of the church's mission. Participants include non-members of the church, she says. She has been with the church for 23 years and has been a co-pastor since 2000.

"A number of families have joined the church this year and gotten connected so their youth could be a part of the confirmation program," she said.

This year, the congregation will send 150 teens and 60 adults to take part in the Appalachia Service Project, a Christian ministry that brings together thousands of volunteers from around the country to repair homes for low-income families.

The ministry, based in Johnson, City Tenn., says it can only serve one in ten families who apply to the organization for help.

"We are one of the largest groups they work with, and this will be our 35th annual trip through that organization," she says. "We have a long history with them and have benefited greatly by being associated with them."

"This very much honors the teens' abilities to do the work themselves," she says. "You don't tell kids to feel good about themselves –– you give them opportunities to do extraordinary things, and then they feel good about themselves."

She says participants from her church understand the economic, cultural and community impact they make "yet they also manage to keep faith front and center."

She says church members years removed from the experience still reflect on "a family they met, a crew they were on, an evening devotional they heard."

They youth also make the trip a priority, she adds, scheduling their summers around it.