After 6 hours in a small car with five other people you realize two things: One, you have now become incredibly closer (pun intended!) with your brothers and sisters in the Lord, and Two: you have arrived at PURE Rebellion 2010, hosted by Calvary Chapel Aurora.
Pure Rebellion cries loudly for teens to come, take up their cross, and follow the Lord, rebelling against their culture to give God glory.
The conference began by exposing through statistics, medical information, and surveys, the reality of the results of premarital sex. Touching on the destructive physical results (sexually transmitted diseases, etc.), the sobering reality of teens' sexual involvement at an increasingly younger age, and how all of that comes home to affecting our relationship with the Lord.
Teens, who may have normally been hesitant about coming into a church/being at a purity conference, were welcomed in through the tones of the speakers and interaction between them and the Pure Rebellion team. Cell phones were used throughout the conference to give teens a chance to text in their answer to questions and polls. Rather than being a way to 'embrace culture', the use of the cell phones seemed to really encourage the teens to seriously consider the questions that were being asked and feel like they were lovingly being talked to rather than lectured at.
After covering the biblical definitions of purity and abstinence they explained how the choice of purity vs. sexual immorality affects every aspect of oneself: morally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally... The results of choosing to follow the Lord were vividly portrayed through a drama/dance that brought home how glorifying the Lord calls and strengthens others to do so as well.
Throughout the evening we began to see teens’ heartbreaking misconceptions about God and sex. When the speaker explained how God had gloriously designed the physical relationship between husband and wife as a holy, sacred, beautiful thing, I overheard a teen turn to a friend and say “I thought Satan made sex?” And when the poll question: “how does sin affect your relationship with God?” came up, one of the teens sent in a response basically saying, “God doesn't want anything to do with a sex driven monster like me.” The true answer to this teen's heartbreaking perception of being unforgiveable was portrayed in the 'Everything' drama. In spite of the main character being entirely covered with darkness and sin, Christ came to save her; powerfully displaying his love by fighting off all that separated her from Him and giving Himself to take the sin in her place.
This truth of the gospel and all that Christ did for us on the cross was clearly told at the end of the evening. Three crosses were brought to the front of the auditorium and after explaining fully from Scripture what it meant to have Christ as Lord and Savior, what He has done for us, and His complete forgiveness, all who wanted to come forward and pray at the foot of the cross were invited to come. There was no condemnation, no guilt tripping into a confession of faith, no emotional hype... just a clear, simple, call to decide to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. Those of us watching and praying were awed, overjoyed, and tremendously blessed as we saw, not just a few people go forward, but a steady stream of people, filling the aisles far back into the auditorium. It may have been a purity conference, but central to all of it was one thing alone, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
After we had helped tear down and enjoyed fellowship with other believers, we returned at an extremely late hour to the church we were to spend the night in along with members from Calvary Chapel Rawlins, Wyoming. We quickly became like family and the next morning was a blessed time of fellowship as we enjoyed breakfast together; talked, prayed, and shared the things that had personally hit home through the conference the night before. We returned home thoroughly blessed by seeing the Lord at work in the lives of the teens, fellow believers from Wyoming, and each other.
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