Chicago Youth Summit 2008

More than 150 kids converged on Chicago for a one day Youth Summit. The day was packed with talks by lecturers, presentations from speakers, music, and fellowship.

My portion consisted of 2 talks and a chat session. The first talk was The Chainsaw Method of Decision-making. The second was Machete and Helicopter Methods of Prayer.

There were about 35 people in the first Chainsaw Decision-making. Ages ranged from 12 to late 20s. All ages participated, asked questions, and contributed to the conversation. There was a lot of participation. Two people read references from the Bible and Science and Health for us. When I asked for Bible stories that illustrated one point or another, there were a lot of quick responses. These kids really knew the stories in the Bible. One young woman stayed to talk about a career change. Another person talked with me later about marriage decisions. An adult who listened in on the talk said it gave her ideas to pray for her teenage daughter who had made some bad decisions.

Helicopter and Machete had about a dozen people. There were very specific heartfelt questions. One young fellow said later he’d had all his questions answered. A middle schooler talked about not wanting to go to her dad’s house (parents divorced). The group was helpful with gaving several answers.

I had between 20-25 people in the chat period and everyone wanted to hear Chainsaw! That surprised me. I took a vote and it was unanimous. They had apparently read the program as if I was going to do a shorter version in this space. So I did a compressed version of Chainsaw. The kids came up with Bible illustrations that I hadn’t thought about. It was impressive. Again, lots of participation and evidence of Bible knowledge. After answering their questions, there were a couple minutes left. One girl asked for the main points of Machete and Helicopter. So I gave the fundamentals in 3 minutes. Good enough for them, everyone appeared happy.

It was a delight meeting so many dedicated, working Christian Scientists. God is truly at work in this Summit activity! Every individual is spiritually minded and is receptive to Christ healing. God is leading young people to connect with Christ, become evangelists, and heal.