With 825 students in attendance Feb. 6-7, the Collegiate Evangelism Conference – CEC – at Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria increased in number by 200 from last year, reported Janet Williams, administrative assistant with the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Collegiate Ministry department.
ALEXANDRIA – With 825 students in attendance Feb. 6-7, the Collegiate Evangelism Conference – CEC – at Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria increased in number by 200 from last year, reported Janet Williams, administrative assistant with the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Collegiate Ministry department.
CEC is a chance for college students and high school juniors and seniors to come together in fellowship, and to be revived by the teachings of Christ, Williams explained.
Vantage Point, the theme for CEC 2009, taught students how to live in a secular world with a biblical point of view.
“If we are going to be a people with a biblical world view, we must be people of the Word,” challenged Landon Dowden, featured speaker for the weekend.
Dowden is senior pastor at CrossPoint Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. He speaks at many events for the Millennial generation, such as the Louisiana Youth Evangelism Conference, Student Life camps and Collegiate Week at Glorieta Baptist Conference Center in New Mexico, to name a few.
Dowden, along with the Jeff Capps Band of Dallas, Texas, used worship and the Word of God to reach students from around the state.
CEC sought to help students find purpose in life, and Dowden preached that glorifying God is that purpose.
Dowden also challenged students to be in the Word daily and to seek guidance from it in all of life’s circumstances.
“I’m begging you,” Dowden said. “Let the Word of Christ live in you richly.”
According to Dowden, “250,000 people will die today and enter into eternity.”
In response to this, Dowden said that students should daily strive to look like Christ and share Him with the world.
CEC had three main sessions that included worship and a message, and there were also two opportunities for students to attend breakout seminars.
The seminars included topics that challenge and stretch the Christian faith in students such as the following: Christ and Culture, Depression/Cutting, Homosexuality, the Environment, Finances, and Bioethics.
In the Christ and Culture seminar, Tommy Moore of Shreveport spoke about Christians meeting the needs of others by serving.
“We have to love without an agenda, but when you love, the agenda is to glorify God,” Moore said.
Students were challenged on social issues, and were warned that serving others will often be at the expense of suffering.
Moore also reminded students that “actions speak clearer with words.”
Alana Pate, a junior at Louisiana College, attended CEC for the third time this year.
“The Lord used this time to remind me of my purpose and call to share Him with others,” Pate said.
Pate attended the Christ and Culture and the Finances Seminar.
“I was challenged to rethink why and how I serve others,” Pate said. “I also learned practical ways to save and be a good steward of my funds.”
Phillip Whatley, a student at Louisiana Tech University, attended CEC for the first time this year.
“In my life, God showed me that as Christians we don’t need to take God’s Word lightly,” Whatley said. “Some churches today are candy-coating the Bible and it needs to be taken seriously.”
In the seminar on homosexuality, Whatley learned how to witness to homosexuals and how to show Christ to them in a non-judgmental way.
“We as Christians need to stop trying to lead them to heterosexuality, and start leading them to Christ,” Whatley said.
Whatley said he learned that only Jesus can bring about change in the lives of people living in sin.
For Whatley, who is active in the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Louisiana Tech, CEC brought encouragement.
“The BCM at Tech is huge and is full of people who are positively encouraging me to live life according to God’s perfect will,” Whatley said. “CEC was like a big meeting of all of the BCMs in the state, and that was one awesome time of encouragement.”
Miriam Davis, a senior at Nichols State University, said she has attended CEC since 2005.
“Wow, God has taught me so much this weekend,” Davis said. “He showed me that I should live Christ in my life and not be ashamed of Him.”
According to Davis, one student from the Nichol’s University group made a profession of faith at CEC.
“I feel that God did a work in a lot of people this weekend, because His spirit was there,” Davis said.
Davis attended the seminar on the environment and said she learned how Christians can make an effort to care for the environment.
“As Christians we should be concerned about the environment and we should take care of it,” Davis said. “God has blessed us with all of this and we should show Him that we are thankful for all of His blessings.”
At CEC in 2009, students were challenged to take their vantage point and align it with a biblical world view. The purpose?
“It’s all for the glory of God,” Dowden said. “Knowing Him, obeying Him, enjoying Him forever.”