We all need the church! Try to think of the church as a hospital for sick people. We’re all struggling with something. It may be a bad attitude, or it may be sexual intimacy outside of marriage. But your heavenly Father wants you in His house (the church) to encourage you, help you grow spiritually, heal your hurt, and help you get beyond your failures. A relationship is a deep connection between two people. You need to be introduced to someone before you can have a relationship with them. Therefore, to have a relationship with Christ means you need to be introduced to Him, get to know Him, and become connected with Him. We do that by confessing our sins, accepting His forgiveness, placing our trust in Him, and living in obedience to Him. Jesus Christ begs you to move away from casual Christianity. The world is filled with too many weak-kneed, wishy-washy Christians. He has a much higher calling on your life, and He asks for a much deeper commitment from you. He wants your all! He wants to be your Lord.

Susie Shellenberger has traveled all over the U.S. speaking and sharing with youth. She is the founding editor of Brio, a magazine published for teen girls by Focus on the Family. M7 staff asked Susie, who will serve as Wednesday morning’s plenary speaker, to provide an example of how to make faith relevant to young people.

M7 Staff: How can we share the message of holiness in ways that relate to college and universityage young people?

Shellenberger: We need to be willing to flex our methods without changing our message. Our message of holiness needs to remain constant, but we need to be willing to deliver it in creative ways. Here’s an example: A few years ago I wanted to deliver a message on sanctification to 500 students from a variety of denominations. I knew if I simply spoke in terms of “holiness living,” “being filled with the Spirit,” and “sanctification,” they wouldn’t automatically understand those terms.

So I set up a coffin in the front of the room with a sheet over it (no one knew what was underneath the sheet until the very end) and delivered a message on the importance of no longer running our own lives; the need to “die” to our own dreams, plans, relationships, etc. and submit to God’s authority in every area of our lives. I realize many people don’t like to use the word “die” any more when talking about sanctification, but there’s such truth to that being what we actually need to do. It even goes beyond death to self; true holiness is death of self.

So the message explained that whole process and how the Holy Spirit—with God’s supernatural power—can enable us to truly live holy lives after surrendering all.

At the end of the service, I challenged students to pray this kind of prayer. While they were praying, I removed the sheet so the coffin was visible. I told them if they wanted to seal their commitment, they could walk past the coffin and view the “dead” person inside. The only thing inside the coffin was a mirror. So when students walked by, they saw themselves and realized just how serious this commitment to holiness is.

They even took it a step further than I had anticipated. They not only walked by the coffin, but they stopped and wept as they saw themselves and realized that they were truly giving up “self.” And with no suggestion from me, they voluntarily began dropping things inside the coffin—pieces of paper with things written on them that they were giving up: CDs, cigarettes, etc.

That’s an example of delivering a message on holiness, but being flexible on the method. The message stays the same; but to reach this generation we need to be willing to think outside of the box and possibly change some of our methods.