A passion for the living God--and His mission

By Ashley Haygood

A call from the stage rang out over the vast crowd of students: "Who would commit to missions?" Tessa Ashwell raised her hand.

The Mars Hill College student explained, “I’ve been dealing with it [the call to missions] over the past few years. God has put that in my heart. I have the passion and desire to serve.

“When you share the gospel with people who have never heard it, they’re so receptive. They’re amazed at what you have to tell them,” said Tessa, a member of First Baptist Church of Dallas, N.C.

At the OneDay conference that spanned the Memorial Day Weekend, about 30,000 college-age individuals gathered to seek God on a 400-acre private ranch in Sherman, Texas. Speakers, worship artists and other Christian leaders were present to charge our generation to focus on God.

April Hatton, also a student at Mars Hill and a member of New Hope Baptist Church in Roanoke, Va., met God in an entirely new way.

“I experienced God in such a way I hadn’t before,” she said. “We’re to go and teach, not confine ourselves to what is comfortable. We’re commanded to go tell others; it’s our Christian duty. It feels good every time I witness to someone and let them know Jesus is our all in all.”

'SACRED ASSEMBLY'

OneDay was led by Louie Giglio, founder and director of the Passion Conferences. This year’s focus was on drawing students into a "sacred assembly" to seek God.

To keep that focus, the names of speakers and musicians were not released beforehand -- to prevent people from coming just to see the celebrities who would perform.

But students still showed up.

"They didn't come to see us; they didn't come to see people," Giglio said. "They came to see the living God."

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

Students were urged through prayer, worship and teaching to take their passion for Christ to the ends of the earth. And missions organizations were present to help students do just that.

A massive tent area was set up to introduce and walk students through the process of missions involvement. Tour guides greeted students and led them through the different elements.

The tents represented three goals of missions. The first, according to Heather Miller, who recruited, trained and facilitated the guides, was to show students that “missions isn’t just a two-week trip you do every summer. It should be a big part of our everyday lives. We should see it in our Bible study, our prayer life and even our budget.”

The second goal was to inform students of the variety of roles available on the mission field. Through all the different majors, jobs and free time, God can truly use every student, Miller said. Seminaries, missions organizations and Christian clubs were present to show students how, when and where they can be involved.

The third goal of the tents was to encourage and remind students that missions is a process and a journey. The guides encouraged and affirmed each student’s decision to serve in missions. They talked to each one, found out their career interests and skills and then matched them with organizations that could utilize those skills.

“The greatest thing about it all was the number of divine appointments," Miller said. "About 3,500 to 4,000 students came through the tents in the four days we were there.

"This was a wonderful, fruitful time.”

FORUM: Were you at OneDay? Share your experience at http://thetask.org/students/forum/default.asp.

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