Do you know what your “yes” is from the Father? Do you know what God has created and called you to do?
That was Mike Glenn’s question to the crowd of college students attending Pursue, a conference designed to help college students pursue “an intentional, authentic, Christ-centered life together.”
The event, sponsored by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) and held Feb. 20–21 at Westwood Baptist Church, Alabaster, drew about 450 students from colleges and universities across the state.
“The world does a double trick on you because it tells you you’re not good enough and, at the same time, it tells you that you can be everything you want to be. That’s not true either,” said Glenn, pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church, Brentwood, Tenn. “But you can be everything you were created to be — that’s your ‘yes’ from the Father.”
God-given gift
Your gifting is the thing that’s easy for you to do, he said.
“You have a certain ability and it is in the using of that gift that you make the person of Christ known,” Glenn said. “You who are good at math, sometimes you wish you could sing and play.”
But every single gift has a purpose, he said, telling a story about a group of accountants who were able to help people in their poverty by helping them do their taxes correctly. Several of those they helped wept as they expressed their gratitude, Glenn said. “Thank God for the people who can make the numbers add up.”
College students are at the point in their lives where they have time to figure out who they were created to be, he said.
“Right now you’re bulletproof. You feel like you’re going to live forever, and if it takes a little while to figure this out, it’s no big deal,” Glenn said.
But it’s easy to postpone finding your purpose and suddenly find yourself with no time left, he said.
“When it comes to finding God’s ‘yes’ for you, will you say yes or will you say no? You are loved by the Father. Figure out your ‘yes’ now,” Glenn challenged the crowd.
During the weekend students also heard messages from:
- Matt Kerlin, assistant dean of spiritual life and university minister at Samford University in Birmingham;
- Tracie Griggs, a lay leader at Twelfth Street Baptist Church, Rainbow City;
- Pat Powell, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, and his wife, Suzanne; and
- Willie Alexander, campus minister at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville and Calhoun State Community College in Decatur.
The conference also featured worship leader Jimmy Needham as well as more than 20 breakout sessions for students and leaders.
Mike Nuss, director of the SBOM office of collegiate and student ministries, said, “Pursue was a time for college students, young adults and their ministry leaders to stop and take some time to examine the importance of a strong biblical foundation for all of life’s relationships. Relationships are key to every area of life. At a time when culture is pulling hard for students’ minds and hearts, we need to make sure students are reminded that biblical truths should be the foundation of every relationship.”
Nuss said a number of campus ministers, church collegiate ministers and students said they appreciated the way topics were dealt with honestly, openly and biblically at Pursue.
One of those was Sean Thornton, Baptist Campus Ministries director at the University of Montevallo.
“My students greatly appreciated both the breakout sessions and the main sessions and found them to be very relevant and impactful to their walk with Christ,” Thornton said. “We’ll continue to revisit these issues on our campus and I hope to see God use the messages they received in the months to come.”
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