Conference invites students to join in God’s mission by sharing Gospel with the world
Posted by jhallsebts on February 8, 2008
Passion for people who don’t know Christ was the theme reverberating throughout Southeastern’s recent 20/20 Collegiate Conference: Missio Dei.
The fourth annual conference, which spanned two days on February 2-3, focused on God’s mission of spreading the Gospel – the message of the gift of salvation – to those who have not yet heard.
“God’s not interested in being a part of your life,” said J.D. Greear, plenary speaker at the conference and pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C. “Until God is at the center of your life, until your story has been wrapped up in his story, until you see yourself wrapped up in him…Ultimately, no matter how Christian you seem, you haven’t gotten into the story God has been telling throughout the Bible, and that is the story of him.”
Southeastern holds the conference yearly to equip college students to think rightly about their faith and encourage them to live a bold witness on their campuses and beyond. This year’s conference was headlined on Friday night by C.J. Mahaney, leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries, as well as Southeastern president Daniel Akin.
The more than 750 students who attended heard from several more plenary speakers, including Greear, on Saturday along with numerous breakout sessions on topics like the persecuted church, ministry among other religions, caring for the poor, and many others.
God’s story, the one which Greear spoke of as the first plenary speaker on Saturday morning, affects the purpose of every Christian’s life, he said. Telling his story to the nations is that purpose, and Christians must be willing to “take a dare on God” to share the Gospel message with the nations, Greear said.
Later speaking from the book of Jonah, a missionary from Central Asia – who cannot be identified for security purposes – said Jonah’s story was a classic tale about missions.
“God’s heart for the nations is on every page. The book of Jonah is classically and gloriously a book about missions. The greatest obstacle to missions is the attitudes of God’s people - the problem of our disobedience and nothing else,” the missionary said.
He challenged the conference participants to search their hearts and determine whether or not they were being disobedient to the call, like Jonah was.
“We have over 1 million lost people for every worker,” the missionary said. “We are so horribly overworked and over-numbered, I can’t help but think God is calling and we are ignoring him.”
The final plenary speaker continued to challenge students to be missionaries, both in their own communities and abroad. Gordon Fort, who serves as Vice President for the Office of Overseas Operations with the International Mission Board, further challenged conference-goers to spread the message of the Gospel by saying it is part of the debt of all Christians.
“I have an idea that many of you this afternoon could stand and say, ‘I am a trophy of God’s grace.’ Friends, if God didn’t pass you by, then you have a debt to pay. You have an obligation and you have a responsibility to those who have never heard,” Fort said.
Fort’s message was the final one given during the conference. He said he wanted to “put an exclamation mark on the words that had been given” since the event began the evening before.
To find out more information on next year’s conference, and to access audio files of this year’s plenary speakers, visit http://www.sebts.edu/2020.
