WAKE FOREST, N.C. – What makes your life compelling?
That was the challenge posed by evangelism professor Alvin Reid to more than 1,000 high school students from across North Carolina and southern Virginia at the Reach Up Rally, held on February 15 at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reach Up was sponsored by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and hosted by The College at Southeastern, an undergraduate school of Southeastern Seminary. In addition to Reid the event featured popular rock band Rush of Fools.
Reid, who teaches evangelism at Southeastern, took the students to Acts 4 and showed them the example of the apostles as he encouraged them to live in such a way that others know unmistakably that they belong to Christ.
“If you are breathing, then there is something inside of you that says, ‘My life must matter for something,’” Reid said. He offered that one way the apostles made their lives matter was by being bold about the gospel.
“If you claim to be a Christian, then people are watching you, and they have a right to watch you,” Reid said. “There ought to be something different, compelling and real about us.”
Reid recounted to the packed chapel crowd his own experiences equipping teenagers to share faith, and he challenged them to focus not on themselves but on the power of God in their lives.
“The gospel is the power of God,” he said. “It’s not our ability, or our technique. It’s the gospel.”
Reid further called the students to live lives of transparency, forsaking whatever stood in the way of their witness – popularity, status, maybe even friends. He cited examples from Scripture of young people who followed their passion for God and made an eternal difference, a difference he said they could make in their homes and schools.
“There are young people your age winning gold medals in the Olympics,” Reid reminded them. “You can live for God.
“The gospel is the most precious thing you ever have in your life,” Reid added in closing, “and it is the greatest thing you will ever tell someone.”
For more information about the Reach Up rallies and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s student ministry division, visit www.bedotell.com. For more about The College at Southeastern, visit college.sebts.edu.
The mission of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). Southeastern is an institution of higher learning and a Cooperate Program ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention.
