Anaheim 07

If Sunday’s Ministry Track sessions were designed to develop gifts and interests, and Monday’s Tourformation experiences were designed to expose students to needs and service opportunities, Anaheim ‘07’s general sessions challenged students to act on what they had learned. Sessions challenged students to go “everywhere” in four stages: “God is everywhere,” “We’re from everywhere,” “The need is everywhere,” and “We’re going everywhere.” And students responded to that challenge by the hundreds.

Saturday’s opening session set the stage for the event by welcoming students to Los Angeles and focusing on God’s presence “everywhere,” even in the city. The emphasis was especially relevant because of the convention’s urban location—one that generated concerns from some youth leaders and parents during planning stages, says co-chair Rick Bartlett. Organizers wanted to show that God is at work in the city as well as in more traditional Mennonite Brethren locations, says Bartlett.

A stage set featuring a city skyline helped underline the theme. Professional sound and lighting created a youthful, concert-like atmosphere. Representatives from the Pacific District Conference board of youth ministries generated enthusiasm—and got students there on time— with giveaways such as T-shirts, pizzas and iPods before each session. Trent Voth of Tabor College and Andi Baier of MBMS International hosted the sessions.

Opening night award-winning Canadian musician Amanda Falk helped students focus on God’s presence with her original songs, including a chorus written specifically for Anaheim ‘07 and inspired by the theme. “Immanuel, God is with us… He is here,” she sang. Falk sang several times during the conference but didn’t limit her involvement to entertainment, becoming an integral part of the conference in many ways.

Worship was led by groups from Fresno Pacific University and Tabor College, two of the three MB educational institutions sponsoring the conference. FPU’s worship team led Saturday and Sunday sessions, while i268 from Tabor led Monday and Tuesday sessions. Each also participated in late-night options. Heather Lemon provided sign language interpretation throughout sessions, and even hearing participants expressed appreciation for the added depth her expressive style brought to worship.

When keynote speaker Roy Crowne, national director for Youth for Christ in Britain, took the stage, he told students that it was appropriate to hold such a youth conference in Los Angeles, a “broken” place, because in such places and in experiences with “lost and broken people” students would encounter God. Using Luke 19 as the text for the evening, he emphasized that Jesus wept over the city. He also told the story of his personal transformation as he invested in the life of an impoverished 11-year-old boy.

“Tonight is the beginning of a journey,” Crowne said. He invited students to ask God to show them what he sees in the city and to feel what he feels as he looks on the people so that they can do what God would do.

When Crowne issued an invitation for students to stand to show a commitment to allowing God to use them to transform lives and communities, the majority of the 1,100 attendees stood. In addition, at least five students responded to an invitation to surrender to Christ for the first time.

Sunday’s general session, after students had spent the day exploring interests and honing gifts through ministry tracks, focused on “We’re from everywhere.” Several features helped students grasp that theme locally, historically and globally. A video of various youth groups arriving at the Anaheim Hilton illustrated the districts and churches represented at the conference and was greeted with cheers as students celebrated their home state and local church.

Co-chair Wendell Loewen, associate professor of youth, church and culture at Tabor College, presented a concise, generational-friendly history of the Mennonite Brethren, saying, “You’re part of a big story.” A live-link video conversation with Saji and Bindu Oommen, workers with MBMS International in Delhi, India, helped emphasize the global nature of the theme.

“I want you to understand tonight that you have a story,” Crowne then told students—a story which can be a powerful tool to touch lives of others. Crowne talked about the first disciples, what he called a “motley bunch,” and read 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, which talks about God choosing and using the foolish, weak and lowly for his purposes. “We are from everywhere,” Crowne said, “but what unites us is this mission.”

At the end of the evening, students again had an opportunity to respond to the message. Crowne invited them to come forward to indicate a willingness to use their own story for the mission of God. Again, many responded, and Crowne asked them to stand quietly, inviting the Holy Spirit to “drop a place” for potential ministry into their mind.

Crowne also invited students who felt burdened by sin or shame to come forward to pray for forgiveness, and many more responded. Youth leaders and friends also came forward to join in prayer and support.

Monday’s session capitalized on Tourformation experiences in Los Angeles with the theme, “The need is everywhere.” A video presentation recapped the day’s experiences, and two students shared briefly about their service experience in the city. A video and student interviews about Ministry Quest, a leadership development program with MB Biblical Seminary, offered one option for students wishing to further explore ministry.

One Time Blind, the drama troupe that supplemented general sessions throughout the conference, challenged students through skits that emphasized the need to act on faith. Students seemed responsive, at times interacting with the actors. During a skit that featured a devil character challenging the audience to “prove that God loves you,” students shouted out answers, brought a Bible onto stage and even gave the actor a group hug.

Then Tim Peters, a native of Hillsboro, Kan., and Parkview MB Church in Hillsboro, shared his personal story and challenged students to respond to the need they had seen that day. “Did you see broken people today?” he asked. “What is going to be your response?”

Peters identified with students, saying, “Twenty years ago, I was sitting in your seat.” He told how he was once “so rural and so white” that he was ignorant of the needs in the city. Then, at the 1987 national MB youth conference in Glorietta, NM, Peters responded to a challenge by speaker Ridge Burns to “go anywhere, any time, to do anything that God wanted.” That commitment eventually led him to LA’s Skid Row, where he served for 12 years, and to Door of Hope, the transitional housing and restoration program for homeless families in Pasadena, Calif., that he now manages.

“If God can use me,” Peters told students, “he can use you.”

Peters challenged students to commit, as he did, to serving “everywhere, every time, doing everything that God wants,” and he asked those who were serious about that commitment to stand as an indication. Again, hundreds responded.

The final session Tuesday morning sent the Anaheim ‘07 participants back home with the theme, “We’re going everywhere.”

Students were given an immediate and tangible way to begin putting feet to their commitments through an offering to help those affected by California’s citrus freeze. The offering totaled just under $5,000 and will be distributed through Mennonite Central Committee.

Crowne took the stage one more time to issue a final challenge to students. “I want to call you to go everywhere,” Crowne told students. He said that as they go, they must be genuine and must back up their words with loving actions. He gave examples of what that has looked like in his life, but said he didn’t know what that challenge might mean in the lives of the students.
“I’m excited about the potential in this room,” he said.

As has become traditional, the national youth convention closed with communion as youth groups gathered to share the Lord’s Supper, pray and reflect. Then nearly 1,100 students and sponsors dispersed with Crowne’s words echoing in their ears: “Go for it. Let’s change our nation in Jesus’ name.”

—MH