Crossroads Community Purity Conference

This past week I had the opportunity to speak at Crossroads Community Church in Michigan. Angela (who used to be our youth pastor here in Cali) is the youth pastor at this church and invited me out to be the keynote speaker at their first annual purity conference. I had the most amazing time while I was there. I flew in thurs. evening and had all day fri to prepare my notes and my mind on what I felt God wanted me to convey to these young girls. It was interesting b/c most of what I had planned to say was scrapped that day. I really felt God was leading me to a whole different direction. The conference was all day Sat. It started out with a fashion show titled "Modest is Hottest" and showed the different ways young women can still be fashionable and God honoring. That was followed up by an all girl worship band and then I had a one hour session based on the theme verse I Tim. 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity". We shared lunch in a beautifully decorated room of the church complete with a chocolate fountain. After lunch the girl's broke up into different "breakout" groups led by different people in the church. One was for the moms and mentors on helping their young ladies guard their hearts, one was lead by Angela's husband Jared on a guys perspective, one by Sharon (owner of several fitness centers) on positive self image, and Angela led one on creating/setting boundaries. We met back up in the sanctuary for more worship and I finished the day with another hour long session focusing on emotional/sexual purity. Each lady was invited to the stage to pick out a china plate that had the verse II Tim. 2:20 which talks about some dishes in the master's house are used for noble purposes some for for ignoble. We are like china plates in the master's house, set apart for his most noble purposes. The plates were to be a reminder to each young lady that she is a precious treasure set apart from the things of this world and when times get difficult in remembering that truth I encouraged them with the plate and verse to be ready for God's most noble purposes by remaining set apart. It was a powerful day, I had a wonderful time meeting the ladies, sharing my testimony and more importantly God's truths for their (and my) lives. It's funny, but whenever I prepare for these events I find I'm trying to seek out the right "stuff" that will encourage/convict my "audience" but in the process God does such a work in my own life through the process of preparation. Thank you Angela for allowing me to share with your church and to spend time with you and your family! It was a blessing.