Pentecostals Launch Major Thrust to Reach 1 Million Teens
Thousands of Pentecostal youth from around the country are "Experiencing the Dream" at Indy '07, a National Youth Convention at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
Students have united this week for the youth event of the Assemblies of God – the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world – to launch a major campus evangelism initiative called Dreaming 2015.
"Indy07 is our launching pad for the greatest student evangelism thrust of our lifetime," said Jay Mooney, national Youth Ministries director. "The vision is to reach 1 million American teenagers and have them grafted into a local church by the end of 2015."
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It's not another new program, Mooney explained, but the "call of the spirit" and a vision for a multitude of underdogs to become champions for Jesus Christ. And all of them are teenagers, said the youth director.
Dreaming 2015 aims for a growth from 370,000 teenagers to 1 million in less than a decade.
Mooney believes that this is the time and this is the generation from which the Pentecostal body can launch one of the greatest campus mission movements in the nation.
"Do you have a dream for a unique, victorious Pentecostal generation? A different kind of generation?" Mooney posed in a video.
Propelling the launch of the new vision are a team of top Christian musicians, speakers and new resources at Indy '07 . The Aug. 7-11 event also features a premier Fine Arts Festival, a daily Campus Tour, and an AIM (Ambassadors in Mission) Outreach.
The Campus Tour features performances by Group 1 Crew, Superchick and Kutless and workshops to help inspire and equip students to develop strategies to reach their campuses. The tour will culminate on Friday with the largest campus missionary commissioning service in the history of the Assemblies of God along with a World/U.S. Missionary Commissioning service. Thousands of students are expected to be commissioned as campus missionaries.
"I believe that this is the turning point that we all longed for in a future Pentecostal generation," said Mooney. "The campus becomes the most crucial battleground for our future success. It's here and here alone that we should choose to leave our legacy."
Indy '07 will also launch the Fire Bible Student Edition – a new Pentecostal study Bible for a new kind of generation – and a host of training resources, including an entire year's worth of sermons, PowerPoints and small group studies.
Indy '07 is taking place in conjunction with the biennial General Council meeting of the Assemblies of God this week in Indianapolis. Delegates will vote on a new head to succeed General Superintendent Thomas E. Trask who announced that he will step down from office, two years earlier than when his term ends. Trask was elected to his third four-year term in 2005 and under his leadership, the Assemblies of God has grown in membership to over 2.8 million in the United States.
The Aug. 8-11 General Council will join the Friday evening missionary commissioning service under the theme "Missions Everywhere."
