Beyond48 - Teenstreet Ireland

Introduction
I'm trying not to use my typical language to describe how incredible Teenstreet (TS) Ireland was, but I think I'm failing. Quite simply, God's glory, might, goodness, mercy and love were powerfully on display during this weekend!

For those of you who don't know (shock-horror!), Beyond48 happened 17th - 19th February '07. It was a Christian Irish youth conference run by OM (Operation Mobilisation), and is an off-shoot of the famous Teenstreet Germany (a review of which is here).

An incredible 350 teens, youth leaders and volunteers packed out Kilkenny College for what was to be an exciting, God-filled weekend (for those of you not living in Ireland, 350 Christians at an event in the south is quite a big deal!).

The weekend can be divided into four parts: main sessions, breakout sessions, NET groups, free time.

Main Sessions
Firstly, the teaching. Wow. It was, as TS tradition has it, by Dan & Suzie Potter, the founders of the TS movement. They are incredibly gifted at keeping the attention of a bunch of rowdy teenagers, and do so through various means. For example, Dan is a talented magician/trickster who uses various wow-effect tricks relating to something they are trying to teach the teens. On stage, they take turns speaking, carrying the plot on from each other every 2 minutes or so, which really keeps you awake.

As the title of TS Ireland, Beyond48, suggests, the theme was all about getting "beyond" - beyond yourself and the limitations/falsehoods that the world and Satan try to convince you exist, beyond the conference (48 hours). We were taught three steps we need to take:

1. Stepping back into ourselves, to see the people we have become when Christ set us free;
2. Stepping upward to see everything from God's perspective, and
3. Stepping forward into God's plan, and surrendering your own to His.

I came as a coach, nonetheless, I found the teaching very challenging and encouraging. I felt it had a very good balance between biblical exegesis and explanations/demonstrations relevant/understandable for teenagers. Although once or twice Dan performed a trick which took very long and became slightly boring:(

There was also a strong emphasis on social justice, both nights they had several speakers and videos encouraging us to demonstrate God's love by standing for justice in this world. For example, Stop the Traffik, which is a movement for the freeing of the 27 million people in slavery today, you can read more about it here.

The music: It is such an amazing experience to worship God together with other saints! Especially doing so alongside teenagers from your own church. The band itself, Epiphany Project were supposedly all under 20 and were very talented and God-focused.

Breakout Sessions
There were two breakout sessions in total, where different workshops and seminars were offered, dealing with issues such as sexuality, radical Christian living in a school, and standing for social justice.
The one session I went to, sexuality, was very average, although the other two were apparently very challenging and relevant.

NET groups
NET group are the family units of TS, usually consisting of 7 teens and 1 or 2 coaches, either all guys or girls. NET group times was when things happened. It was such an amazing and humbling experience to see teenagers open up to the love of Jesus and His call on their lives! I know that all the teens in my group went home very encouraged and challenged to live more radically for the cause of Christ!
These times were really great just to pray for each other and to share what God had been teaching us over the weekend. This presents the clear opportunity of keeping in touch after the weekend for accountability and encouragement.

Conclusion
If you are reading this, and you have never been to any Teenstreet, I highly recommend it to you! If you're a teenager, tell your youth leader about it! If you're a youth leader, consider seriously bringing a group along to a Teenstreet event. I know they are lots of money, but they are well worth it. Many youth groups organise fund-raisers.

The next upcoming Teenstreet is TS Germany, 28th July - 4th August '07, information for which can be found here. (A review is here).

To God be the glory, forever and ever!! Amen.

Evangelism

Last Monday night (that being the 12th of February) after the Christian Union meeting, I went to the on-campus student pub by the name of The Stables. Along with my two house mates Samuel (a fellow student) and Berny (an Italian missionary), we spoke to people about the amazing gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am sharing this with you in the hope of inspiring you to use everything at your disposal in order to reach the lost. Also, I hope to convince you that you need only be indwelled by the Holy Spirit (which every true Christian is - Romans 8:9) in order to tell the Good News to strangers.

Frankly, I was quite scared at the prospect of talking to strangers about Jesus, especially as we had not been able to organise tracts. In fact, I was so scared I said to Sam, "hey, we should leave it tonight 'cos we don't have any tracts to hand out." To which he replied, "no way!".

"So how are we gonna approach people?"

"Well, I'm just gonna walk up to people and tell them about Jesus."

That's what he was gonna do. I was gonna follow him around for the night. There's no way I could just walk up to people and start a conversation about the most important thing they'll ever hear!

Before walking to the Stables we prayed to our Awesome God for strength, courage and boldness, for God to accept our offering, and to use it to touch people's lives. So we headed for the Stables, me being quite scared. I had this sudden urge to run home.

Arriving there, Sam walked immediately to a group of people and began talking to them. Reluctantly, I followed. But then, something strange happened; I suddenly knew that I should start a conversation of my own. Wow, that was scary! "No way," I said to myself. Somehow, I turned away from Sam's group and looked around for other prospectives. I spotted one, and immediately Satan attacked. The evil one begun to pour fear upon fear into my heart. I stopped walking for a moment.

Thankfully, the Spirit in me is greater than the spirit that is in the world, and so, by the power and grace of God, I walked up to this person (my legs still shivering out of fear) and said, "hey, can I tell you about Jesus?"

Immediately, all the fear left. This is what Jesus promises us in Luke 21:13-15:

"This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict."

A long conversation ensued. And that's precisely what it was - a conversation. I told him the basics of the gospel, he responded by explaining his beliefs and telling me why he didn't agree with mine. I couldn't answer all his questions, but that was all right.

As soon as the conversation was over, and I began looking for others to witness to, the fears poured in again; when I began another conversation, the fear was immediately replaced with deep peace and joy.

This fear of witnessing to strangers is so powerful because Satan is absolutely scared of it! He will do anything to get us to stay quiet about our beliefs. So let us remember that the evil one has already been defeated!

And finally, you do not need to be gifted in any way (apart from being able to hold a conversation) in order to witness to strangers. And even if it is the case that you will not talk to a stranger, you can simply hand out tracts silently.

Our job in evangelism is to proclaim the gospel; it is only God who can save. And so, as we witness, we do so knowing that the result of it and the extent of the harvest is completely in God's hand (John 6:44). It is the Holy Spirit who softens people's hearts so they might hear and understand the gospel. That is why we can pray with full confidence for the salvation of our friends, our family, and all those to whom we witness.

And so I plead with you to join me in reaching the lost for Christ. Let us stop using "personal evangelism" as an excuse to stay in our comfort zones (although we should by all means continue witnessing to our friends!). Let's proclaim the gospel to as many people in as many ways as possible, so that others would get to share in our salvation and, above all, that God might be glorified.