Men's Conference

A couple of months ago, I (Ben) was humbled when I was asked to emcee the 2010 Upper Midwest Regional Men's Conference for Campus Crusade for Christ...long title I know. The conference happens once every two years, and the focus is on calling men to step out in faith and think about how Jesus can be Lord of their lives now, as well as after college as they consider where He may be leading them.

The only other time I had ever emceed was my junior year at the University of Iowa at the weekly CRU meetings. It was really encouraging hearing Troy Shirley, the conference director, tell me that he asked a number of men who they thought should be emceeing, and my name came up again and again. It was a lot of fun just being myself up there, helping cast vision to men to be "dangerous" for Jesus.

The reality is that a lot of men talk about serving Jesus with their lives. A lot of guys sing songs about investing their lives for God's Kingdom. Tons of guys think about going and bringing the gospel to the world....but the reality is, very few actually "man up" and go. I loved being able to talk about this, as well as other things the speakers touched on.

I would say the highlight of the conference for me was this: Jesse Guerrero, a freshman at UW Parkside, put his faith in Christ earlier this year, and he decided to come! It was awesome seeing Him really think for the first time about how he could live his life sold out for Jesus, and even wrestling with what that really meant. One of the days at the conference (it went Friday to Sunday), all of the guys went out and shared the gospel with neighborhoods in Minneapolis of churches that we had connections with. I was paired up with Jesse, and it was so amazing and humbling to think about the fact that Jesse was already multiplying his life and sharing his new-found faith in Jesus.

I hope this conference was more than just an experience for the 200 men that attended, but that it would part of what God is doing to spur them on to use their lives to invest in the Great Comission.