Recently, as I was catching up on the CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) News, I was pleased to read a story about a conference held in Atlanta this year.
The two-day Passion Conference called Christians between the ages of 18 and 25 to live and work for Jesus. I was stunned to read that 55,000 young people showed up from over 30 countries and all 50 states.
I couldn’t help but be awed by these numbers and considered that it is proof of God working today in the lives of so many men and women of college-age. Those young people spent their winter breaks learning more about Jesus and how to live and share the good news.
Posted on YouTube were some testimonies of attendees of the conference, and one particularly touched me. A young girl in her 20s who has attended every year since she was 18 shared her spectacular heart for Jesus.
This is what these gatherings do. They show the young adults that there are others that believe as they do and that they are not a lone tree out in a field but part of the great forest of believers in Christ. The conferences also build up the faith of those who attend, to press forward toward a life with Jesus and not look back.
Intervarsity Urbana is another well-known symposium that draws around 10,000 college-age men and women to Urbana, Illinois, each year in December. One of the missionaries with our church told us that while attending an Urbana conference years ago, he felt the call to serve in missions.
There are many Christian rallies held annually across the U.S. Those that had been postponed by the pandemic are now gearing up and restarting this year. What a wonderful opportunity for the college-age Christian or seeker.
If you search the internet for Christian youth conferences, you will find a long list either by area of the country or by age range. There are gatherings of middle school children, high school students, or college age.
It is a lot of work to pull together a meeting that fills a stadium, but when we see the results of lives changed for Jesus, I am so glad that God’s people have a passion to do this for the next generation.
With many of us dismissing the youngest generation of adults, as a whole, hearing of these conferences and the positive words of the attendees provides hope to us for the future of Christianity and the next Christian leaders in our world.
When I consider our leaders in government, I like to acknowledge that so many of them are holding firm to their Christian faith and vote considering their allegiance to God. The men and women of college age attending these Christ-centered gatherings will be our legacy to the world in the years to come.
My sister and I attended a youth conference at a college in Dayton, Ohio, when we were in high school. I can still picture areas of the campus and remember the excitement of being with the other youth that came to attend.
We made friends and I remember keeping in touch with a newly made friend for several years afterward, but, of course, the main reason for attending was to learn more about Jesus and I believe I did. That was the first time I publicly declared my faith and made my promise to follow Jesus throughout my life.
That assembly of like-minded youth gave a depth to my faith that I hadn’t received at church or youth group. The conference leaders asked us for more than our local church had – they asked us for more commitment to Jesus and a truer walk with Him.
Once back home, that commitment led me to start a teen prayer group within our church that shortly extended beyond those boundaries to include youth from several other local churches. We also had other Christian rallies in our area.
Youth for Christ was very active at the college in the city next to our town. When I was in my formative teen years, I attended more than one of their gatherings. Each rally I attended pushed my faith another degree forward toward the goal of being more like Jesus.
Of course, if you’ve read other columns I’ve written, you may remember that I got off the right track and onto a sidetrack somewhere in my 20s, but the foundation was laid, the commitment had been made, and God continued to work on me, even as I wandered aimlessly for a bit.
Now that these Christian rallies and gatherings for young adults are starting up again for 2022, I would encourage all of us to promote any local events of this kind to those special young people in our lives.
We have two wonderful Christian family camps in Cape May County as well as the local FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) surf and skate activities and camps that provide wholesome activities led by Christian leaders seeking to bring the youth into a closer walk with Jesus.
Many churches have youth groups with fun events. Just a few years ago, there was a wonderful Christian youth sleepover rally on the beaches of Wildwood where I know a friend’s young nephew changed his life for Jesus.
We should keep our eyes open for these events and guide those young people in our spheres towards attending and building good Christian relationships while having fun along the way.
Let us all join in with encouraging those in the next generations to attend these positive, character-building, Jesus-centered events.
Maybe we could even volunteer to pass out the pizza and hotdogs, listen in, and renew our youth like the eagles! (Ps. 103:5).
ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City.
