By Jessica Waters
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Toccoa Record
More than 1,000 people from 35 churches in 10 states flooded into Toccoa last week for the first session of the 20th annual Go Tell Ministries camp at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center.
The students and leaders have now departed, but they took with them a message of biblical relevance and personal potential, said Go Tell Ministries founder and director Rick Gage.
"We are still making our major emphasis on evangelism and equipping these students to go back and be missionaries, witnesses and difference-makers for Christ," Gage said Wednesday (June 18) as he waited at the Toccoa Airport for the arrival of guest speaker Jonathan Falwell.
"We have always brought in strong teaching and preaching and speakers that can really connect with these kids," Gage said.
"The music, the testimonies, the video and dramas and outreach we do in the community - it is a five-day power-packed week, and it's amazing how much you get in those five days, and the spiritual impact that is made in the hearts and lives of these kids is enormous," he said.
Gage stressed that reaching out to today's youths remains an important task, saying that children are the future of the country and the leaders of not only the nation, but also the future leaders of the church.
"If you study the history of revivals, you'll find there has never been a real move of God, a spiritual awakening, where it did not begin with young people," he said.
"These kids still respond to the truth - to the preaching of the word of God - and that never changes; methods will change, but the message never does, and we have never compromised on the message," Gage said.
Falwell, also, believes in the importance of youths for the future, and in the relevance of God in today's society.
"My message tonight, my goal, is to share with these kids there is no limit to what they can accomplish, that they all have been called by God and gifted by God to a specific area and purpose and that they will be able to go out and impact this world in some way," said Falwell, who is the senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., a church he has pastored since his father, Jerry Falwell, died in May 2007.
"From the beginning last May when dad passed away, I made it clear to our church...that I'm not going to try and fill my father's shoes," he said.
"That is not something I am capable of doing or that anyone was capable of doing. He was such a remarkable person. God called me to a certain area of ministry to do a certain thing, and my responsibility is to simply follow in those footsteps into what God has called me to do because God didn't call me to be my dad or anyone else. He called me to be me. That's what I focus on, to reach this world with the gospel," Falwell said.
The second session of the Go Tell Ministries 2008 camp started on June 23 and will continue through June 27.
For more information on the camp and Go Tell Ministries, visit www.gotellministries.com.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Toccoa Record
More than 1,000 people from 35 churches in 10 states flooded into Toccoa last week for the first session of the 20th annual Go Tell Ministries camp at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center.
The students and leaders have now departed, but they took with them a message of biblical relevance and personal potential, said Go Tell Ministries founder and director Rick Gage.
"We are still making our major emphasis on evangelism and equipping these students to go back and be missionaries, witnesses and difference-makers for Christ," Gage said Wednesday (June 18) as he waited at the Toccoa Airport for the arrival of guest speaker Jonathan Falwell.
"We have always brought in strong teaching and preaching and speakers that can really connect with these kids," Gage said.
"The music, the testimonies, the video and dramas and outreach we do in the community - it is a five-day power-packed week, and it's amazing how much you get in those five days, and the spiritual impact that is made in the hearts and lives of these kids is enormous," he said.
Gage stressed that reaching out to today's youths remains an important task, saying that children are the future of the country and the leaders of not only the nation, but also the future leaders of the church.
"If you study the history of revivals, you'll find there has never been a real move of God, a spiritual awakening, where it did not begin with young people," he said.
"These kids still respond to the truth - to the preaching of the word of God - and that never changes; methods will change, but the message never does, and we have never compromised on the message," Gage said.
Falwell, also, believes in the importance of youths for the future, and in the relevance of God in today's society.
"My message tonight, my goal, is to share with these kids there is no limit to what they can accomplish, that they all have been called by God and gifted by God to a specific area and purpose and that they will be able to go out and impact this world in some way," said Falwell, who is the senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., a church he has pastored since his father, Jerry Falwell, died in May 2007.
"From the beginning last May when dad passed away, I made it clear to our church...that I'm not going to try and fill my father's shoes," he said.
"That is not something I am capable of doing or that anyone was capable of doing. He was such a remarkable person. God called me to a certain area of ministry to do a certain thing, and my responsibility is to simply follow in those footsteps into what God has called me to do because God didn't call me to be my dad or anyone else. He called me to be me. That's what I focus on, to reach this world with the gospel," Falwell said.
The second session of the Go Tell Ministries 2008 camp started on June 23 and will continue through June 27.
For more information on the camp and Go Tell Ministries, visit www.gotellministries.com.
