KNOXVILLE, TN (July 21, 2006) – Abraham would have gazed in wonder.
In the blackened Thompson-Boling Arena Thursday night, thousands of his children, like stars across the sky, flashed lights declaring their commitment to serve God.
“It might be dark in the world, but there’s an arena of lit up young Christians ready to be light,” declared speaker Efrem Smith. Thousands of standing students who could not be seen, but for the raised small flashlights, cheered in affirmation.
During the final worship service of CHIC 2006 on the University of Tennessee campus, Smith and Judy Howard Peterson exhorted the teenagers to live No Ordinary Life, which was the overall theme of the CHIC event. During the week, the students had taken steps to experience Jesus’ healing and salvation. On Friday, it would be time to walk back into the world and make a difference.
“You have a destiny that must be fulfilled,” Smith proclaimed. “You are not too young to do justice. You are not too young to turn this world upside down for God. You are not too young! You are not too young! You are not too young! You are not too young for God!”
Smith recounted his days as a basketball coach at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis, where violence took the lives of young people and graduation rates were low.
Two students began praying in the gymnasium lobby, and the number soon grew to 200. Two years later the school was being touted in USA Today and other publications for its high graduation rates and being listed as one of the Top 100 high schools in the country.
Some analysts would credit a new principal, others new teachers, Smith said. “I will say it was because 200 people decided to pray for their classrooms.”
With the audience shouting its approval, Smith continued. “I believe the Covenant church is ready for a revolution. Your generation will do something about poverty, racism and sexism.”
The fight against sexism also will take place in the church, he predicts. “Young ladies, there is nothing you can’t do through the power of the Spirit,” he proclaimed. “We need to make room for (women) in our local churches. If our local churches don’t make room for these young leaders, God will send them someplace where they will use them.”
The young men, he said, need to recover the “true roots of biblical masculinity.”
Peterson emphasized the continued role of the Holy Spirit in the students’ lives. “The Holy Spirit is not here to baby-sit or pamper us,” Peterson said. “The Holy Spirit is here to empower us to do something.”
Referencing Galatians 2:20, Peterson said, “I long for the day I can say I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” The joy of what Christ has done, is doing, and desires to do led students to dance with exuberance throughout the worship service. If, as Tony Campolo once wrote, “The kingdom of God is a party,” then the multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-generational gathering threw quite a bash.
The conclusion to the weeklong events and the worship service came with the familiar benediction used throughout the week:
May you jump into the arms of Jesus,
and may He push you out into the world,
so that you might be healed as you
participate in the healing of others;
not because you’re perfect,
but because he is.
“Now you are free to move about the world.”
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
