Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. You probably hear just a little bit of noise in the background. That’s because we’re in the lobby of the final night here of our Thee Generation Youth Summit.
Many of you doubtless will be listening to this and you were here, but we know we’ve got quite a crew that would have loved to be here. Boy, this has been a great week. Hasn’t it been, Doctor Jim?
Jim Van Gelderen: It’s been unbelievable. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and the only reason I introduced myself is because my voice is probably half shot out there announcing the games. It was a great time.
Not that this matters, but Dr Pepper won, for all you people that like Dr Pepper. It was a great competition. It kind of weaved back and forth, but that was just the fun part of the time.
Really, I think most of the young people would admit that the preaching and what God did in their hearts was the highlight.
Bobby Bosler: Our theme this year was “The Generation Mobilized,” and our burden was not just to talk about total surrender and total dependence—not just to find victory, though victory is essential—but to mobilize to obey Jesus in fulfilling the Great Commission. Tonight’s service was a very special time.
I felt like really all day today God met with us. I don’t know if you want to recap some of that.
Jim Van Gelderen: This has been just an outstanding conference. Let me just put it this way: anybody who’s listening, when a conference like this is put together, certainly we pray about it, but there’s a certain sense where we need God just to lead.
When the thing is said and done, we look back sometimes in absolute awe and amazement at how God leads the preachers to exactly what is needed and the progression. You just think, “Wow, God was in that.”
I know yesterday, Thursday, there were several messages preparing the way. But this morning, Pastor Matt Webber—God had put a deep burden on his heart—and this morning he told me, he texted me and said, “I’m free. I’m ready to go.”
And he gave us what we needed. It was a turning point in the week, and I sensed there was a breaking. People got free, and it just snowballed since then.
Bobby Bosler: Dr Jim’s session in the afternoon—the Lord really met there. I could tell from the moment he got up the Lord was working. Maybe you want to say something about how that ended up in that message there?
Jim Van Gelderen: We talked about really what faith does. The whole point is, when you trust God, He comes down, He enables, He strengthens. We gave an invitation for young people this week who had made a decision for the Lord and were not ashamed of it, maybe publicly or privately, and also those who were touched by the truth of dependence upon God to respond.
I don’t know, eighty or ninety percent of young people came and knelt, spent time with God, and then one young man just started praying out loud. We didn’t even mention that. Then I turned it into a corporate prayer meeting, and several prayed.
I call them cries of dependence. They weren’t just your “Thank You for this day” prayers. These were young people saying, “God, I need You.”
And there was a spirit of crying out to God across the room. It was really a sacred time. God encouraged hearts; there’s no doubt about it.
Bobby Bosler: Amen. Here this evening really was our call to action for the summit. We issued a twenty-one-day evangelism challenge, and the Lord really met with us in the message.
I know I had a sense of liberty. I knew the Lord was working. We gave an invitation at the end asking how many would like to actually commit to twenty-one days of trying to verbally engage somebody with the gospel.
I was overwhelmed—yes, overwhelmed—at the invitation. I was expecting, I don’t know, maybe fifty or sixty. Maybe one hundred would be good.
But I think there had to have been, I’d say, two hundred, easy. I think at least two hundred.
Jim Van Gelderen: Unbelievable. I was just practically in tears.
Bobby Bosler: We’re just thrilled with what God has done here this year. Obviously, in the competition, we felt like things went well. That was really exciting.
But the point of this whole thing is not the competition. The point is for God to inspire a generation to total dependence and total surrender, to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jim Van Gelderen: Amen. When I watched all those young people coming forward—and some adults as well, but obviously largely young people—you’re really starting to almost do the math, thinking, “Wow, if every one of these people do this twenty-one times, how many times will there be a gospel challenge out there on the streets or wherever?”
It just begins to be encouraging. And I’ll be honest with you, I think this is the kind of thing that will snowball.
We have some public school students here. I just would love to hear some stories coming out of public schools, with these young people challenging other students with the gospel. What God could do with some of these young people’s steps of faith—getting out of the boat—I believe we’re going to hear some walking on water.
Bobby Bosler: Amen. We don’t want to leave our other folks out on what the Lord did.
I know some of you—there’s just no logistical way you could have come to the youth summit—and you’re probably dying, thinking, “I want to be there. My heart is to be a part of the generation and what’s God’s doing there.”
What we’re going to be doing—we’ve done this in previous years—is getting all of the sermons and all of the workshops. We’re going to try and put them all in order on the website so that you can listen to those. We’re going to be praying that God will work in your heart just like He worked in the heart of the young people here at the Youth Summit in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
Jim Van Gelderen: Let me encourage a young person to listen to them in order. There was something about the order that God was just flat in—I don’t know how to explain it—and it will be a help to you.
Bobby Bosler: Now, the workshops—I heard great things about the workshops, and there’s a variety of topics. Perhaps you could pick a couple or three out that will just say, “I need to hear that,” I think.
Jim Van Gelderen: Each room was full, and I think we had—do we have ten workshops per time?
Bobby Bosler: Fifteen total.
Jim Van Gelderen: Fifteen total. And again, I think they were all full. People—young people—came, and I think were touched and helped.
Bobby Bosler: Amen. Amen. Well, we’re grateful for all that God did here this week.
We’re grateful for you and for your heart to surrender to God and to depend on Him.
Our battle cry is total surrender to God and total dependence on His power to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening.
