NEW ORLEANS (BP)–Discerning God’s call can be difficult no matter how old a person is, but it can be especially difficult for teenagers and young adults.
A conference held at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Nov. 17-18 sought to help students with their call into ministry. The theme of the inaugural KALEO conference was, appropriately, “God called. You answered. Now what?”
KALEO: New Orleans was the first installment of an annual conference sponsored by the North American Mission Board’s Missions Prep Network focused on helping students identify and commit to a specific calling to serve God vocationally.
“God has something very special in mind for the rest of your life,” Donald King, director of the conference, told the more than 300 students and leaders. “You won’t have all the answers when you leave here, but we want to help you know where you can go with your questions and who you can talk to.”
King, also a senior consultant for NAMB, added, “Your call to ministry is not about you. It’s about what God is going to do through your life. Do not limit what God can do.”
The conference offered students four large-group sessions and eight breakout sessions geared toward helping them acknowledge and implement God’s call on their lives. Among the breakout topics: spiritual warfare, women in ministry and financial preparedness. The four group sessions concentrated on knowing God, confirming His call, identifying the ways He gifts people for ministry and obeying to the Great Commission.
Thomas Hammond, senior director of church evangelism for NAMB, shared with students ways to know God and His will more deeply. Hammond applied qualities found in the Book of Daniel to today’s student seeking to know God’s will.
Hammond gleaned from Daniel the importance of committing oneself wholly to God –- even when adversity and conflict arise –- and allowing God to change the world around them. Perhaps the most practical lesson to learn from Daniel is the value of being surrounded by a core group of godly friends, Hammond said.
“Everyone needs at least one friend that will hold you accountable and encourage you,” said Hammond, referring to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Kim Davis, author of “My Life, His Mission” and compiler of Beth Moore’s “Voices of the Faithful,” spoke to students about confirming God’s calling. Davis and her husband served as missionaries in Southern Africa for more than 10 years. She sensed God’s call on her life for some time, and ultimately committed to that calling after reading Robertson McQuilkin’s “The Great Omission.”
“Christians will say that they will do anything for God, that they will follow God no matter what,” Davis said, quoting from the book. “But really deep down, it is just a bunch of talk. Most are willing to go but planning to stay.”
From the moment she read that, Davis said, God began preparing her instead to be “planning to go but willing to stay.”
David pointed to Scripture, her testimony and the testimonies of others in identifying five ways God’s call may be confirmed: prayer and fasting, God’s Word, life events, other people and a sense of peace.
“Don’t think that God can’t do it without your help or that you are extra special or talented,” she said. “Do you just want people to follow you or do you want them to follow God?”
David Platt, senior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala., challenged students to commit to fulfilling the Great Commission by making disciples of all nations.
“You were created to impact the nations for the glory of Christ,” Platt said. “What is your strategy to impact nations for the glory of Christ over the next 10 years?”
Platt tackled the “either, or” mentality when it comes to God’s calling. Often, Christians divide God’s call to ministry into either a call to international missions or a call to ministry in their home country. God’s command to reach the world, Platt said, is not “either, or” but “both, and.”
“The need is so overwhelming in the world, and we have only one life,” Platt said. “In order to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives, we must be world Christians –- students with a vision for world evangelization.”
Addressing students struggling with whether or not they are called to ministry, Platt reminded those present that the Great Commission is not a call but a command.
To close the weekend conference, Allen Jackson, director of New Orleans Seminary’s Youth Ministry Institute, led students in a time of prayer and commissioning. KALEO participants filled the front steps inside the seminary’s Leavell Chapel as they acknowledged God’s call on their lives.
“God has confirmed a radical calling on my life,” Brandon Elliot, a recent college graduate, said after the conference. “I knew it was there, but He erased any doubt.”
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The next conference, KALEO: North Greenville, is scheduled for March 23-24, 2007 in Taylors, S.C. For more information about the Missions Prep Network or KALEO visit www.missionsprepnetwork.com or www.kaleoconference.org.
