Students worship during Teen College. (Submitted)
MARMADUKE, Ark. – Seeds were planted during Marmaduke First Baptist Church’s Teen College, a teen revival held every year at the end of August.
Teen College bridges the gap between summer camps and school, Church Worship and Associate Pastor Cole Thomas said. It started approximately 50 years ago as worship in people’s homes and has since become a staple within the community.
This year, the church welcomed 80-150 students throughout the week, Aug. 25-28, to hear the Gospel with a focus on apologetics. Thomas said they invite surrounding churches, and some people drive more than an hour to attend.
The speaker for the week was Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC) Next Gen and Discipleship Strategist Bill Newton. Each night, Newton focused on a different topic including Biblical worldview, the Bible, the Resurrection, and Creation Evolution Intelligent Design.
“For students who are already believers, we gave them some very practical applications for each of those. The big picture hope was that they would have a better understanding of what a worldview was, why it was important, and how it applied to daily life,” Newton said. “For those who weren’t believers, the hope is that it would help them better understand why we believe what we believe as Christians and would help lead them in that faith journey or help guide them in their faith journeys.”
Though the conference was geared toward students, the event also provided an opportunity for adults to hear the Gospel. Newton shared about Lisa, an agnostic woman who saw an advertisement for Teen College and decided to bring her daughter. She attended almost every night with her daughter. She approached Newton with questions during the conference and afterward communicated some via email. On Sunday, she emailed Newton to inform him she had gotten saved.
“To me, that’s just evidence of how the Spirit works … You have a thing called Teen College, geared toward students, but a ‘random adult’ shows up because she saw it advertised and brings her daughter, she stays and she ends up getting saved as a result of it,” Newton said.
Thomas, who previously served as student pastor for six years, said it is very encouraging to know “that the seeds were planted.”
“Teen College is one of the highlights of my year, it is for our students, they know it’s coming and then they get fired up about it … It’s fun to see kids excited about church and excited about worship,” Thomas said.