USA (MNN)–550 college students gathered in Atlanta last week, intent not on transition but on transformation in the new year.
The Atlanta ’05 gathering is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s National Black Collegiate Conference, focusing on Christian leadership development.
The conference theme, Identity Theft: Expose, Reclaim, Prevail, aimed at creating a new identity perspective for black Christians who want to transform their culture.
Speakers used the theme to examine the cultural identities that influence behavior, thoughts and personal interactions and to compare them with the identities that God desires.
The closing speaker was Reverend Byron Williams, a syndicated columnist and Pastor of the Resurrection Community Church in Oakland, California
He charged the gathering: “We are the ones sitting in this room that have the burden of bringing good news to places that don’t have it. So, I encourage you to go everywhere and take the fire of your faith.”
“We are called upon to continue what Jesus has started,” he said. “It’s not enough to be satisfied with individual redemption.”
Williams issued this challenge to the students, “You see, church, it’s our job to turn midnight into morning, turn despair into deliverance. Turn mental rigor mortis into spiritual resurrection.”
