Clayton King says his story is probably one a lot of people can relate to.
He loses his phone sometimes. Then he loses his mind trying to find it.
And then — at least on one occasion — he’s realized that the phone has been in his hand the whole time.
‘Our Jesus story’
“Now that’s my phone story, but I think for a lot of us that’s our Jesus story,” King told the crowd of more than 775 gathered at the Youth Evangelism Conference (YEC) at First Baptist Church, Trussville, on July 23. The conference, which centered around the theme “Speak,” challenged youth to speak out boldly and honestly about their relationship with Christ.
For King, a youth evangelist from Anderson, South Carolina, that begins with taking an honest look at whether or not you really know Him.
He told students that he was in church his whole life — Sunday School, Royal Ambassadors, Training Union, Mission Friends and everything else.
“I went to a Christian school where by the time I went to junior high, I had memorized more than 500 Bible verses,” he said. “I had Jesus in my head, but I didn’t have Him in my heart. You need your eyes opened in order to see — really see — Him.”
Professions of faith
Several dozen came forward to profess faith in Christ for the first time after King’s message.
And students reacted with applause and hugs in person and encouragement on social media too.
“Happy for my friend, Drake, for getting saved,” student Seth Davidson posted on Twitter soon after the altar call.
Scooter Kellum, youth ministry strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said there was an energy in the room during the conference that he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“We saw the Lord work in a lot of different ways,” he said, noting that the “Speak” theme of this year was a transition to it being rolled out as the rebranded name of the Youth Evangelism Conference next year.
As part of the theme, 16-year-old Shantrice Coleman delivered several spoken-word presentations. Students also interacted on social media using the hashtag #speak16.
“So thankful for everyone coming out to put on the strong event for everyone to show us the true wisdom in Jesus,” Mandy D tweeted. “Shiloh Baptist Hamilton is loving it.”
Atlanta-based band The Museum led worship for the event, and hip-hop artist Flame turned the fairly quiet sanctuary into a bouncing, high-energy room July 22.
Before the concert that night, Walt Barnes kicked off the conference in the same way King started Saturday morning — going straight to the heart of who Jesus is.
Merciful God
During his message, Barnes pulled apart Revelation 1:10–18 verse by verse to explain the truth about Jesus found in the apocalyptic writing.
Revelation was originally written as a letter to the seven churches of Asia Minor who were nervous and expecting judgment, said Barnes, assistant Baptist Student Union director at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Jefferson Davis campus in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Jesus is described to the churches using poetic language, he said — He’s described as all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present and eternal.
But instead of judgment, God shows mercy on the churches, Barnes said.
“Why? Because He’s the hero of the Church. It’s like He’s saying, ‘Fear not Church. You got a hero. Don’t fear anything this world can throw at you. Don’t even fear death. Go and speak the truth in love.’”
If Christians today believed that God is their hero, Barnes said, maybe they’d look a little more like Lois Lane — doing crazy and daring things but knowing they had a hero to save them.
“Maybe we’d do things we need to do even if it means we were to die. Maybe if we believed our King is who He says He is we’d look a little more like the Church. We would speak the truth because we couldn’t be quiet.”
To close the conference Saturday afternoon, Chad Poe, teaching pastor at Ridgedale Baptist Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee, also challenged students to be bold in speaking up about Christ.
Stepping up
Preaching from Micah 6, he asked students if they were willing to step up and be who God called them to be.
“You look at God’s story for Israel and see that His major concern for them, His major interaction with them was about the fact that they had taken for granted all that He had done and had continued to simply exist,” Poe said.
“So they had an experience with God and saw that God did miraculous things, yet when they walk out the doors of their worship gatherings those things did not affect their everyday lives.”
He challenged students to take God with them into their normal lives and speak of Him in everyday conversation.
“If you have a story of God being present with you and faithful to you when you needed Him to be, could you raise your hand? Could you speak up? Do you prop up the story of Jesus for others with what God has done for you?”
(Neisha Roberts contributed)
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