JEFFERSON CITY – The Freshwater Church was the host for the 2023 Youth Evangelism Conference (YEC) held Jan. 15-16. It was sponsored by the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) Making Disciples group.
This year, 461 students and youth leaders attended, an increase of 111 from the previous year’s conference. But the greatest news was that 20 students asked Jesus into their lives, according to conference organizer Bob Caldwell.
The speaker was Jared Bumpers, an assistant professor of preaching and evangelism at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City. Worship was led by Encounter Music, based in Arnold. There were seven breakout conferences throughout the event.
Daniel Gibson, MBC Next Gen Strategist with the Making Disciples group, said, “What we saw at YEC is the power of many student ministries coming together to advance the gospel. Hundreds of students were equipped to share their faith.” He said the students went out and knocked on over 1,200 doors in a neighborhood of Jefferson City which Freshwater Church ministers in. There are 17,000 people living in this area, and there are not many churches there according to Gibson.
Caldwell said the theme was “Outloud,” and they were trying to impress upon the students to “share the gospel as often as you can…use words if necessary.” He added, “That is a good strategy to build a bridge to lost people, but this conference was designed to teach them to go further and actually share their faith with words.”
Caldwell said students are up against a lot of things in their worlds. Trans-gender issues, same sex attraction, non-binary identifications – all issues kids face in today’s world. Caldwell said people will come back at teens sharing the gospel with questions of whether these things are acceptable in their church. If the teens respond “No,” then they may get push back and labeled as talking hate speech.
He said he was encouraging the students to not “trade inclusiveness for truth.”
Caldwell said he and the other conference organizers “watched God move the needle in young lives. There were lots of friendships made among the teens and their youth pastors/leaders.
Gibson added that one of the breakouts was “building relationships to have a Gospel conversation,” but they went further and later showed the students “How to actually share the gospel.”
Gibson has recently joined the Making Disciples Team “to work with pastors and youth leaders to develop a passion for student ministry.” He will be involved with Super Summer camps and the annual YEC, and he will visit with church staff to strategize to reach students. He lives in Kirksville.
Caldwell said he received texts for several days following the conference telling him about decisions teens had made at the YEC. He believes it is well worth the two days of investing in the lives of Missouri students.