 
What does a heart for evangelism look like?
passionate youth worker, unpaid and eager for training strains to catch the full meaning of translated message during one of the general sessions at the Protein Conference. The youth worker, hardly older than a "youth" himself quickly takes down a few notes and reflects on how this new evangelistic approach might benefit his testimony next time he goes out and witnesses to his friends. There is no context in this individual's head for "if I go back out to witness;" it is only "when I go back out to witness."
"These kids have a heart for evangelism, they desperately want to see their friends get saved." says Peter Kelley. Peter has been profoundly impacted by his recent experience at the Protein Conference held in Riga, Latvia, September 25-27, 2003.
The Protein conferences are held bi-annually in Latvia's capitol of Riga. These gatherings are designed to help encourage, educate and edify the body of youth workers around the country. This past conference's theme was "Why we do what we do." The speakers and planners of the conference answered questions such as what is youth ministry, where is youth ministry, when is youth ministry and how much does it cost to do youth ministry?
The Latvian Evangelical Alliance youth network, under girded by Bridge Builders International and Partners, plan, produce and put on this event twice a year. Donors to BBI and Partners have generously supported the full time staff person at the Partners office (most recently Kristine Namavire) to engineer this event and lead the network. Also, churches around the Riga area have generously donated their buildings to host the 200+ students at the conference. Most recently Good News Church, a Russian charismatic church in Riga hosted Protein. "They treated us as royal guests" remarked Chuck Kelley who was also in attendance at the conference.
Peter describes his exposure to the Latvian youth leaders as very positive and humbling. "They don't just sit around and write down the information we give them. They actually go out and apply it right away." The air of urgency among the youth workers at the Protein conference was evident. There is unfinished business outside the walls of the church.
Peter has spoken at two Protein Conferences, one in the spring of 2002 and this most recent one during September of 2003.
The day would start and end with worship and a "plenary" session. These large group sessions were lead by a pastor and experience youth leader. The first plenary session was held on Thursday night at the genesis of the conference. The speaker, Pastor Martins Irbe, asked people to come down to the front of the sanctuary to kneel and pray, thus revealing their openness to what God was doing to do that weekend. Chuck Kelley said he (while kneeling himself) observed around 80% of the crowd come forward.
Peter Kelley's topic for the plenary sessions was "where." Peter said that he struggled at first to come up with things to talk about but ended up giving some important exhortations on the significance of retreats for youth groups and "where" one's heart should be before going into youth ministry.
Chuck Kelley gave the main talk at the last plenary session on Saturday night. He addressed the issue of "cost." Chuck also asked for, as Pastor Irbe had earlier in the weekend, for people to come forward who were in full obedience of God. Chuck's main point during his address was the importance of youth workers to stay in youth work for the long term. Chuck says, "there is a trend in Latvia currently for youth workers to only stay in youth work until they are married. Young leading the young trend is a good thing, but there needs to be some long term and older commitment as well."
To testify to this tendency, Chuck was the only person his age at the Protein Conference.
Between the two plenary sessions, the rest of the day way divided into 90-minute classes, free time and meals. There were elective classes and "track" classes that the youth leader participants got to choose from. The tracks were designed to help the youth leaders by offering various levels of group development; ie: beginning, intermediate and advanced. Each track class gave specific ideas, concepts and encouragement to the youth leaders in how to grow and edify their groups. Peter's track was for beginning youth groups. He specifically addressed the area of outreach. Again, Peter said he was struck with the leaders' deep desire to learn more about how to reach out to their friends with the Good News of Christ.
During the elective time, the youth leaders were allowed to choose various class offerings in areas of the ministry that interested them. Peter taught a class on "leading youth in worship." He said that he gave the basics on how to set up a worship team, how to practice and prepare the team for worship and how to pick out songs appropriate for the purposes of whatever youth event.
Free time and meals were spent together. The youth leaders all stayed in a gym the entire weekend, sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags. These young youth leaders just enjoyed being together and having fellowship with each other. Peter was glad to see that the schedule of this Protein conference allowed for more free time. He feels that a large part of the important interaction and relationship building that takes place at the conferences only happens during free time.
Peter said that the most rewarding thing that he witnessed the whole weekend was the maturity and amount of growth he saw in some of the youth leaders that he has known for a number of years.
Specifically, Peter tells a story about the youth pastor from Ventspils Baptist Church named Kaspars. "He used to be so young," Peter recalls of when he first met Kaspars. "Now he demonstrates maturing and wisdom in so many ways. He is one of the first youth leaders in Latvia to be taking his group to other countries to do missions. He uses solid evangelistic approaches like dramas and street witnessing."
It is this sort of differed gratification that is most rewarding for Peter. He has enjoyed seeing so many of these young Latvians have their hearts changed by the Good News, get saved, turn their lives around and now passionately follow and serve their Lord everyday on the streets and in the churches of Latvia.
The next Protein Conference will be on April 16th through the 18th, 2004 in Riga. The guest lecturers at the conference will include Dale Gustafson of Calvary Church, Los Gatos, California and Ingemar Martinson from Sweden.
3 November 2003
Jeremy Andresen is the Ministry Intern at Bridge Builders International. His church has had a sister church partnership in Latvia since 1998. He has been to Latvia on two separate mission trips.
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