Pure and Simple was the theme for the 2008 Southeast Conclave meeting for youth ministers and workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee January 31- February 2. Over 1,100 people who work with young people attended this year’s conference.
Conclave is a partnership between Baptist Convention youth ministry groups in six states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. In addition to main sessions, dozens of breakout seminars where offered in topics ranging from MySpace and Facebook to transitioning to college.
Billed as a worship and training event, youth workers had the opportunity to be taught instead of teaching, to listen instead of lead.
Mark Matlock, main session speaker and founder of PlanetWisdom.com, told those present that they are playing a role in God preparing a generation of young people.
“This generation has incredible potential to see great things done for the Kingdom of God,” Matlock said.
“You are a part of a pattern of God preparing a generation for such a time as this…to make God know to the nations,” he continued.
Richard Ross, youth ministry professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, similarly told participants, in what he termed “the single most important message that I have ever been given to deliver,” that he believes this generation of youth and college students are set apart. Ross encouraged youth workers to move students away from a “me-centered” faith and paint larger pictures of Jesus.
“Centrality is asking Christ to come down here and become a part of my life. Supremacy is becoming a part of who He is,” Ross said.
Ross told participants that the view most teenagers have of God is nothing more than “Jesus with benefits” or a “little Jesus in my pocket.”
“It is the will of the Father in this day and time is for the Son to be front and center…to be exalted,” Ross continued.
“I’m calling you to get up and wake up a generation to who Jesus is.”
David Platt, senior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, pleaded with the youth workers to listen to the Holy Spirit.
“I am convinced the greatest hindrance of the church is the ability to do the work apart from the spirit of God,” Platt said.
“We don’t have to fast and pray for the church to grow. We can market for that.”
Platt pointed to Exodus 33 when God told Moses to conquer the Promised Land but would do so without His spirit.
“You can do more under the Holy Spirit of God in the next month than a hundred years without His Spirit,” said Platt.
“How can we not lead our ministries from our knees and on our faces?”
Participants also heard from Erwin McManus, author and pastor and cultural architect of Mosaic in Los Angeles.
McManus spelled out the chasm between the tragedies in our lives with the beauty of God’s redemption. McManus urged participants not to be afraid of people with messy lives.
“Maybe what we should do is step into the tragedies of life and introduce God’s beauty,” McManus said.
McManus said the main goal of Mosaic church is to be involved with people’s lives, no matter what they have experienced.
“Enter their story,” he urged.
The 2009 Southeastern Conclave conference will be held January 29 – 31 at the Gwinnett Arena in Atlanta. For more information on the conference, log on to www.southeastconclave.org.
