Youth Transformed from the Inside Out
By Carrie Madren
Ocean City becomes somewhat of a ghost town each January, with closed summer-season shops and long, lonely stretches of beach. But more than 6,500 youth, youth leaders, and volunteers from the Baltimore-Washington Conference brought life back to the barrier island for the annual ROCK youth retreat during the second weekend in January.
Students from 6th grade through 12th grade gathered at four main sessions -- filling both the cavernous conference hall and the massive upstairs ballroom of the Ocean City Convention Center -- to hear speaker Reggie Dabbs and praise music by rock-style worship singer Jeff Deyo and the gospel/praise band Urban Street Level.
Produced by the Conference Council on Youth Ministries (CCYM), with the guidance of Joyful Noise Ltd., ROCK sessions are designed with an almost concert-like atmosphere -- colorful stage lights, music to get up and dance to, and a carefully orchestrated stage schedule designed to hold students’ attention. Fueling the concert-like atmosphere, students could even buy glow sticks in the ROCK Shop, where booths and exhibiters included Cokesbury, T-shirt vendors, band merchandise, jewelry, Methodist camps, and other Christian-themed goods and programs.
The weekend’s theme — Transformed — played off of the logo of Transformers (the 1980s toy that featured vehicles that turned into powerful robots) and represented the Romans 12:2 verse: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Friday night, excitement filled the convention center as student groups lined the main entry way and cheered loudly for their arriving conference peers. During the first session, Bishop Marcus Matthews told the crowd to expect God to show up over the weekend, “You’ve got to believe something good will happen,” Matthews said. “Always to expect something good out of yourself and God will deliver.”
Reggie Dabbs — a charismatic motivational speaker who emphasizes to teens that their past doesn’t define their future — used humor, music, pop culture, and his own life story to let students know that Jesus loves them. Saturday night’s session peaked with an emotional altar call as Dabbs asked students to delve deeper inside themselves and their personal struggles, encouraging them to allow God in.
More than a thousand youth came forward for an altar call Saturday night, and several claimed that they experienced healing after an emotional prayer by Dabbs.
Dabbs brought with him a group of college-age students from the Master’s Commission -- a discipleship and ministry training program -- which performed song-based dramas that emphasized Jesus’ love conquering earthly traps and trials that students may go though.
Singer Jeff Deyo and his band led students through both rollicking contemporary worship songs and slower, contemplative tunes. He reminded students that the band wasn’t performing for them, but rather were worshiping God alongside the students. Urban Street Level’s jazzy, gospel-style, energetic contemporary music also engaged the teen audience in up-tempo worship.
The Baltimore region drew more than 200 young people and their leaders to a time of pizza and games at nearby Atlantic UMC on Saturday. The gathering kicked off a renewed emphasis on youth ministry being a vital, engaging part of district and local ministries.
“I can’t wait to see what God’s going to do in your life, not when you graduate, but tonight,” Dabbs said on Sunday morning. That final session and worship time included a 150-person mass choir and the Joyful Noise! ministries band, directed by Tom and Beckie Price, which offered powerful worship and praise music. “God saved you so you can change this world for his sake,” Dabbs said just before students boarded buses and passenger vans and returned home.
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