God Centred confab responding to shift in culture
Published:Thursday | November 17, 2016 | 12:00 AM
Born out of the realisation that there are several gospel concerts for young Christians, but not enough fora for solid gospel-centred teachings to edify these believers, the Christian Life Fellowship Church initiated an annual conference titled 'God Centred'.
The eighth staging of the God Centred conference was held earlier this month and the organisers have revealed that the forum has, so far, been raking in favourable reviews.
Team leader Gary Messado told Family and Religion that the initiative, which kicked off in 2009, has grown considerably over the years.
"The conference has gained momentum as we seek to equip teens and young adults by focusing on themes that will help them to grow in the knowledge of God's will in key areas of their lives.
"Over the years, persons from various churches have caught the vision of our desire to challenge our generation to live God-centred lives, and so our team involves persons from many churches spanning denominations.
"So far, people have responded well to our approach of having relatable and dynamic biblical teaching mixed with various art forms of ministry, for example, singing, spoken word, dancing, drama, and so on, which are all geared at effectively engaging our generation to walk worthy of the awesome call we have in Christ," he shared.
Messado pointed out that a school tour was added to the movement in 2013.
This, he said, was done to bring the message of being God-centred to youth who would not make it to the conference.
"The tour happens every October, where we lead devotions in several high schools, ranging from the traditional ones to small unpopular schools in the inner city.
"Outside of the school tour, we are invited to lead devotions, a day of prayer, or a spiritual emphasis day in high schools throughout the year," he said, adding that they target certain high schools to do weekly after-school Bible studies.
Messado said that this year's conference was aimed at equipping Christians (targeting ages 15 to 40 years) to respond biblically to the shift in the culture.
According to him: "We are living in a time where Christianity is increasingly not being considered the norm in society. People are discrediting the authority of the Bible as the word of God and Christians are being labelled as 'bigots'. The consequence of this is that it is increasingly becoming difficult for Christians to engage the culture. We recognise that believers will be tempted to respond in some unbiblical ways, like conforming to the culture or retreating from it, but God is calling us to encounter the culture."
The three-day conference saw special guests speakers, including international artiste Da' T.R.U.T.H., who discussed various ways in which Christians should engage today's culture.
Messado admitted that this has been their largest conference as they had more than 450 people in attendance, representing 80 churches across the island.