With this year’s TGYS in the books, join Bobby Bosler and Jim Van Gelderen live in the lobby of Falls Baptist Church as they reflect on the week and all God did. Hear about how the new competitions went, which team won, and how God worked in hearts.
If you didn’t get a chance to make it to the TGYS this year or if you did but want to join us again next year, then mark October 11-13, 2023 in your calendars for our ninth annual Thee Generation Youth Summit in Menomonee Falls, WI!
For more faith inspiring resources and information about joining Thee Generation, please visit theegeneration.org.
Bobby Bosler: Welcome to Thee Generation podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler.
Jim Van Gelderen: And I am Jim Van Gelderen, and we are podcasting from Falls Baptist Church in the lobby. We have just finished the 2022 Thee Generation Youth Summit.
Bobby: Oh boy, was it a great week. It was a little bit cold, just a little bit cold.
Jim: A little bit cold, a little breezy, but it was livable. It wasn’t bad, particularly for the Northern kids. That’s normal life. You know, it’s not a big deal. I think our Florida crew might have been a little bit chilly for them.
Bobby: Yes, yes, but oh man, it might have been cold outside, but the competitions were red hot.
Jim: Yeah, they were some great competitions. And really, the wind wasn’t a huge factor, and sometimes it was, but not a huge factor. The games went really well.
Bobby: Yes, oh yeah, it was exciting. You know, early on, we tried a few new competitions here this year at the Youth Summit, and I think they worked out pretty well.
Jim: Yeah, that one, the basketball rendition, you ought to tell some of our listeners who are War Special Forces or War veterans; they’d be interested in how you did that.
Bobby: Three gigantic hoops, okay, the normal basketball hoops, and around them were eight quadrants. And you say eight quadrants, four teams, how does that work? Well, we had a quadrant for the guys and a quadrant for the girls from each team. So the girls were actually driving. And I have to say, those of you that have traveled, that have been at our meetings, Sophia, she was on our team this summer, she was hands down the star of the show.
Jim: I have no doubt about it, I saw her score.
Bobby: Oh, I think she probably scored three or four buckets, maybe more even herself.
Jim: She could handle it too. She didn’t need any help. She just dribbled in and put it in.
Bobby: Oh yeah, in fact, the Air Force won that one like 20 something. I think the closest score was like eight or nine.
Jim: Yeah, it gave them some hope. They didn’t end up winning, but it gave them some hope.
Bobby: Yes, speaking of which, the week ended up well.
Jim: Some of you know Stephen Gilmore, also known as Super Steve. He pulled off the victory this year, and a pretty convincing victory. His brother, Johnny G, was right in there, but right in our last final point countdown, Stephen pulled up by several thousand points and so the Navy came in second and this year the Marines who won big last year ended up coming last.
Bobby: Yeah, last place so that’s really because they came in first last year.
Jim: I think they were gunning for him early on.
Bobby: Well definitely with the other competition that we did that we hadn’t done before was the tube tug Cold War.
Jim: Sure you ought to explain that too. People know tube tug.
Bobby: Yeah, so instead of tugging it to your own line to get a point for your team, you tug it to anyone else’s team to take points away from them. And everybody especially in the first round everybody went straight for Marines like everybody almost every round is like five Marine tubes on their side.
Jim: Right and that’s one thing nice about that competition gang up on the other team so it makes it pretty interesting.
Bobby: It was actually kind of funny after the first round Navy was in the lead and then everybody started gunning for Navy in the second round.
Jim: Right. It’s like a king of the hill thing.
Bobby: Totally yes.
Jim: But anyway it had some unique twists to some of the games and you know some of you out there maybe a War of Special Veterans, or Cola Clash or War you ought to consider coming because if you love the war, Cola Clash or Special Forces, it’s like I told somebody tonight, it’s on steroids. If you can imagine about 300 kids competing in these competitions and got unique twists to them that make them just special. You can only play them here. And we had some great time with those guys.
Bobby: Oh yeah, it was great. There’s nothing like having 300. I think we had about 322. So it was a great crowd. 322 people who are totally pumped at a cheering contest.
Jim: Right, no it was intense, no doubt about it. We had a great time. Air Force came in third and Marines came in the bottom but plan to be with us next year and those dates are, do you know right off the top of your head?
Bobby: Believe they’re October 11th, 12th, and 13th, 2023 I believe.
Jim: So Wednesday, Thursday and Friday?
Bobby: Yes, yes.
Jim: Just get off school or of course get permission before you skip school but get that worked out.
Bobby: You know, the Lord really did a work in our hearts this week as well.
Jim: Oh, amen. And that’s the most important thing.
Jim: Yes, absolutely. The first night we had Dean Miller come and he preached on the first night. It’s funny, you know, you may not understand this young people, but as a preacher, you need to think about preaching multiple times in a week. You kind of try to think through what order you would do things in. And a lot of times we would preach the answer at the end.
Jim: Right.
Bobby: But brother Miller did it differently.
Jim: Right.
Bobby: He gave this analogy and this, this will end up being on the podcast as we release the special edition podcast, he talked about the moped. The moped, the moped was awesome.
Jim: Oh yeah, the moped, that was a great illustration. You’ve gotta listen, you really need to listen to all the messages, But Brother Miller’s opening message set the tone, and I think many young people came with open hearts, so they were ready to hear that. And I think, again, it was one of those illustrations that kids won’t forget and will help them understand spiritual truth.
Bobby: Absolutely, yes. And then throughout the next day, the Lord was really working. I mean Brother Weber’s session on unconditional love. I felt like that was important. You know, he’s kind of pushing it a little bit in some ways, but he was doing it on purpose to make a point. I think it’s a point that needs to be made.
Jim: Well, it was very… think about Pastor Weber. Some of you know this. He just opens his heart. Yeah, he shared his journey and it was very warm. It warmed people’s hearts, encouraged people. It was a blessing, and then Brother Miller had another home run. You really need to listen to that. I’m telling you, we live in bad days, and he gives you some real hope on how to navigate that. Another great message. And then on Thursday night, I had the privilege of preaching and certainly sensed God giving liberty. It’s a little bit of a tougher message because I’m dealing with some tough issues, but there is an answer. There’s a way to deal with things.
Bobby: I have to say during that message, God was so clearly there. I mean, you know, there are great messages, and it’s not just that it was a great message, but you could tell the presence of God was in the room as Dr. Jim was preaching, and you knew that He was working. You kinda knew there was going to be a really encouraging response at the end. And I know that there were many decisions that were made. Just key deep decisions that were made.
Jim: Yeah, I just sensed if some of you young people one day become a preacher, you’ll know there are times when some people will be afraid, and God is working. And you will know that it is beyond you what God is doing. It certainly was a blessing. And then we came into Friday. I was burdened coming into Friday because I felt although good things were happening I just sensed that there was a battle. And not a terrible battle and with some young people, Friday would be key.
Bobby: Well, yeah I shared my testimony in the morning. It was weird. As the preacher I have to say it was weird. I knew the Lord wanted me to share the testimony and I didn’t know a whole lot more than that going into it, and the way the Lord put the message together. At the end I was just encouraged. Many young men, I think it was primarily just young men because I guess my story resonated with them and they knew they needed to deal with some things and say yes to Jesus.
Jim: If you’ve never heard Brother Masler’s testimony, I would really encourage you to listen to it because it is a testimony of the grace of God.
Bobby: God is good, yeah, he sure is.
Jim: And you continued that really tonight in a different context, but you gave many personal stories. I would really encourage you to listen to, well, all of them, but Friday night really did give a capstone. You might want to listen to them in order, but nonetheless, it is a key truth that you need if you’re going to really see the life of God — and I’m not gonna give it away, but if you want real living and abundant life, listen to Brother Bosler’s message. He’ll give personal testimony of different times in his life that God brought him to apply the truth that he preached on. And you really do need to listen to it. We all need to listen to it from time to time because it’s a truth you need, just need throughout your life.
Bobby: Amen. You know, it’s encouraging to me to see just many of these young people; their hearts are open to the Lord, and they’ve made decisions, and I can tell there is a spiritual atmosphere of openness. Even in the lobby, we’re in the lobby. You can hear the noise in the background. That’s what it is. We’re recording live in the lobby here, and there’s just young people. They want to serve God. You can tell they’re excited about what God can do in them and through them. Jim: Yeah. A lot of smiles and a lot of…how do you say this? In two days, they’ve gotten lifelong friendships, it seems like, but it’s neat. And I’ll tell you young people, God’s doing something. Get on board; something’s happening. I don’t know all it means, but God is stirring the faith in this generation. Of course, we call them the Thee Generation. It’s a generation that does believe that God can do great things.
Bobby: You know, young people, we are, we’re thrilled with you. And honestly, the very fact that you’re listening to this podcast is an indication that you’ve got a heart for God and that you want the Lord to use your life.
If you ever get a chance to come to one of our youth summits, I think you would not regret it. But you know, even listening, we’re going to be releasing the sermons over the next couple of weeks as we’re able to, and even some of the videos of some of the sessions as well. Really, we want you, even if you’re, again, I mentioned in the last podcast, we’ve got an Australian contingency, a Canadian contingency, and in other places, we want you all to feel a part of this event, and we want you all to be able to benefit from the spiritual nourishment that took place here so that you can take the steps of faith that God has called you to do because really, that’s what we’re all about.
Jim: Absolutely, and I don’t know, if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably listened to the other podcasts, but we had this idea we had live podcasts that were recorded with an audience, and the ones that kind of felt like they would be interested in that podcast, some of them were already faithful listeners, some of them were new, and so Faith Talks and with Jana Faith and Anna Faith and Pastor Gilmore with the Go Mission as well as Ryan Swanson was Satisfied the Moral Purity podcast rooms were packed.
Bobby: Totally, totally packed standing room only people standing in the halls looking in. Oh, it was great.
Jim: It was great, an electric atmosphere. I heard good reports from all three. Of course, I was in Satisfied and I was encouraged and sensed that again, God’s doing something.
Bobby: Amen, amen. We’ll be releasing those over the next couple of weeks. Those will be the next episodes of those various programs. And so we’ll be looking forward to releasing those.
Jim: Well, it’s been good to talk to you. I feel like my voice has been slowly failing from the start to finish. I had a little bit of drainage. With a strong voice, but here at the end, I feel like I’m at 50%. But anyway, a podcast is nice because you can turn up the volume; I don’t have to worry about it.
Bobby: Absolutely! Well, young people, thank you for tuning in here today, and remember our desire here is to help you, young people, live lives of total surrender to God and total dependence on his power to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks so much for listening.
Jim: Amen.
Find an issue in this transcript? Let us know at website@theegeneration.org.
Bobby Bosler is director of Thee Generation and pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Fairmont, WV. He, his wife, Abi, and their four children traveled the country for 14 years in evangelism, reaching teens with the gospel and conducting revival meetings.
