By Stephen Johnson
This past weekend, 140 college students attended IGNITE’s annual Fall Retreat. They enjoyed a weekend full of rest, new and growing friendships, and worship and teaching. My prayer, each year, is to see students trust Christ as their Savior and to see others grow drastically in relationship with God in the span of just a few days. I believe that the Lord answered those prayers this year!
We were joined by Joel Busby, Lead Pastor of Grace Fellowship in Birmingham, Alabama, who taught about the cost and joy of discipleship from the gospel of Luke. His messages were both convicting and encouraging as he taught boldly from Luke 9 that a “crucified Lord will have crucified followers” and from Luke 18 that following Jesus is far better than we could ever imagine. Jesus’ words in these passages are extremely important for college students to consider and be fueled by as they live as missional ambassadors to FGCU.
Finally, our prayer that the Holy Spirit would cause the hearts of students to be stirred by the gospel was answered! We had numerous conversations with students who had never heard or understood the Good News of Jesus before attending the retreat. Please continue to pray for those students and praise God for the seven students who declared by baptism that, “Jesus is Lord!”.
“Fall Retreat opened up a door to connect me with a much larger community, and gave me the opportunity to share the grace and mercy the Lord has had on my life to connect me with guys in a Christ centered way. I learned the importance of discipleship and hope to carry out the lessons throughout my days. I couldn’t be more blessed to have been apart of such a life changing experience.”
“As a freshman, Fall Retreat opened the door to meet so many new people and grow in my faith. It helped me create the community I have been longing for and made me so thankful for where I am.”
“I say this often but a year ago my life was about the pursuit of my flesh and selfish desires. I never thought I would be where I am now in my pursuit of the Lord and HIS plans for my life, instead of my own. Ignite and Fall Retreat in particular has helped shape and mold my heart and mind in ways I am so grateful for.”