|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Print Most Christian conferences are about the now, the white hot moment of worship or repentance or rebirth. Consecration 2005 was different. It was about 4:27 p.m. on December 14. Consecration, hosted November 4-5 at the Calvary Church in Cincinnati, OH, has always emphasized lasting life change over the usual conference staples of emotional and spiritual highs. This year’s theme, “Intentions,” dealt with the realities of overcoming the good intentions promised at youth conferences but rarely lived afterwards. It was about living no differently for God at home as at Consecration 2005. After a time of prayer, Host Youth Pastor Jonathan Walker opened Friday’s service with a keynote address about living those good intentions into the future. The Gateway College Choir followed this, and between them and their Chorale interspersed most of the conference’s messages with anointed singing, using new songs and old, both fast and slow, yet always in a spirit of thanksgiving to God. UPCI General Youth President Todd Gaddy then preached “Little Things,” pointing out that the Great Wall of China was built one small brick at a time, one determined action before the next. “Don’t stop dreaming your big dreams!” Gaddy exhorted, “but don’t stop doing the little things!” Later he mentioned, ‘Battles that are won are not in the spotlight, but in private times.’ It was both a private challenge and a public war cry. Everyone responded by praying wherever there was space, and, as in 2004, the Lord moved mid-service. At some point, amidst the singing and worship, Walker mentioned continuing this victorious spirit at 4:27 p.m. on December 14 and it stuck. That date was then reiterated throughout the conference as a standard to judge our walk with God, to mark our conference intentions against our actual actions.
Pix from Consecration 2005: Photo credits: Robert Mills and Alex C. Moreno William Strawcutter finished the evening preaching about “The Busiest Person in the World.” He described the Natural Man (a sinner), the Spiritual Man (a believer), and the Carnal Man (a backslider or spiritually cold Christian who allows personal mistakes to obstruct his walk with God). As Strawcutter put it, the Carnal Man uses a mirror for reflection, but a Spiritual Man uses it for correction. So the carnal must start doing spiritual things even when (s)he doesn’t feel like it. “What are you doing—trying to act spiritual?” he said, acting out the Carnal Man. “Yeah!” To remain spiritual, we must fight the good fight of faith, he reminded, accepting the busyness of educating the Natural Man while helping the Carnal Man back to God. The following prayers again seemed more personal, with small clumps praying with individuals for spiritual strength and direction instead of getting refilled with the Holy Ghost. Saturday morning’s panel discussion began with Bro. Paul Mooney, Assistant General Superintendent of the UPCI, opening with some invigorating remarks on relativism. He defined relativism as a doctrine, and stated that as an idea or a notion it is not a big deal, but as a rule it is dangerous because it blocks out and attempts to replace other possibilities. Relativism is man-made, and gives way to a truth only being real as it relates to culture, circumstances, and the moment. As I (Liz) scribbled down literally every word he said, I was astounded at Mooney’s passion for exposing this carefully constructed doctrine. Because relativism is manufactured by mere men, relativism is anti-authority (toward God) and is rooted in rebellion. It is taking the truth of God and making it a lie. Relativism literally takes away control from God. The good news is that relativism is nothing before a holy God. God alone makes and breaks the rules, and is not bound to limitations placed by His creation. In an excellent example of how relativism affects our daily life, Bro. Mooney brought up a young man to play Rock-Paper-Scissors—you all know the game—with him. (For those of you scoring at home, he lost 3-2.) Rock by itself is powerful enough to crush scissors, but when it is up against paper, it must succumb to paper covering rock, while paper covers rock and scissors cut paper. None of them are right and none of them are wrong—it’s relative to the situation. While Mooney was bringing these definitions to the surface for discussion, I remembered I Corinthians 2:5 saying, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” Ironically, the philosophers who came up with this idea of relativism to replace truth have in fact created their own absolute which binds them to their own rule—it’s absolutely true that nothing is absolute! They have jumped out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire. The discussion of relativism continued in the panel discussion. Panelists included Strawcutter, Gaddy, Brenda Gaddy, Kristen Ellis, UPCI Ohio District Youth President Tom Ellis, Joel Urshan, Paul Pamer, and Mooney. When asked what mediums are used by relativism to affect our youth culture, Pamer aptly stated that one cannot look to their own life and morality to define theology. We must look to God and God’s Word to measure our principles or our lifestyle will determine what we believe. Bro. Ellis mentioned that the Apostle Paul, in Acts 17, stood toe-to-toe with the philosophers on Mars Hill and proclaimed to them the Unknown God. Christians can become so brainwashed toward tolerance (my definition: the man-child of relativism) that we begin to feel bad about feeling bad about sin. While today’s teen culture leans toward entertainment, it was suggested that they do not want to know if Christianity is true, but if it is worth believing. Both Gaddy’s responses were simple—the days have passed of bringing an open Bible to someone and saying, “This is true,” and the person accepting that statement and moving onto faith and relationship with God. We must now bring them to our experience. There is no doubt, be it the teen in your school or the colleague in your cubicle, that they know there is a difference. In humility, give God the chance to work it out. Instead of Bible-thumping and being on the defensive, try this: “I dare you to try God for yourself. Here is my experience.” Bro. Ellis encouraged us to pray for an open door, and walk through it. My heart was encouraged to look for an opportunity to test this in my everyday experiences. The question which elicited the most response referred to callings in the Kingdom which do not include a platform ministry. Mooney gave excellent advice for those encountering this pressure—be a helper. If a convention is at your church and you’re not speaking or singing, just volunteer to set up/break down or pick up trash. Be faithful over the small things and God will make you ruler over many things. Sis. Ellis admired her mother, Sis. Jeannie Paslay, for the behind-the-scenes work she does at her church, and admonished those struggling with this issue to be who you are and be comfortable with that. Jaimi Dennison is a non-preaching, non-singing Bible Quizzing coach from Mt Vernon, Ohio, and she commented to me at this point that “there is no church without people.” Sis. Gaddy gave excellent instruction to those who wrestle with importance in the kingdom—get on your knees and work this out with God. I felt this advice from experienced ministers was invaluable. In my personal devotions, I have been studying Colossians 3:1-4 (too long to post here, please open your own Bible and mark this passage!) and I was thankful for the confirmation of the panelist’s answers to this query. Bro. Gaddy preached the closing message, but only after he announced that North American Youth Congress 2007 is 99 percent unlikely to be in New Orleans. At this point, many cities are under consideration to host NAYC, with no particular favorites, but there’s every intention that a city will be announced before year’s end. (You can find out first at www.pentecostalyouth.org.) He then dived into how our minds control our lives, the input into our minds alters our actions, and every mind has a filter, be it Oprah, MTV’s Total Request Live or Philippians 4:8. Therefore, our greatest threat is being passive. He wondered whether each person brought their Bible to service for personal Scriptural focus. (This question was answered by a strained silence). Next he asked if anyone had heard 50 Cent’s No. 1 hit “Candy Shop.” Almost no one raised their hands. That was fine, because then he could read some of the song’s lyrics. The congregation’s ripples of astonishment were almost visible. After reading the cleaner lyrics, he admitted he didn’t much care about an altar call right now, but he did care about what we listened to in our car in the coming weeks. The message couldn’t have been clearer. Simply phrased, I went home from Consecration 2005 with sound understanding of the dangers of relativism, and a renewed appetite for the Word of God. My desire is to have the heart of the Berean church in Acts 17, who searched the Scriptures when Paul preached Christ. Bro. Ellis reminded us that the Roman soldier at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ may have had many opportunities to learn to “believe” the message of Jesus, but his words at Christ’s death show us that personal experience will overcome any educational and cultural obstacles—“Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39).
ninetyandnine.com © 2005, Kent d Curry and Liz Fierge ---------- Kent d Curry is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com. Liz Fierge is the proud owner of cool Nine West glasses and a black thumb. Her goal in life is to have an aquarium with water, pretty rocks, and scuba divers, but no fish. You can visit Liz’s blog at http://lizfierge.blogspot.com. |
|
|
