When Silver Became Worthless (a statement on United Student Conference 2018)

“When God comes, there’s no mistaking His coming.”
July 12th-13th, my dream came true. Since I was 16, I’ve prayed for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Searcy, Arkansas and envisioned a youth conference hosted at The River that lends itself to that endeavor. The last two years, United Student Conference was birthed and developed, but this year God showed His Glory and sent revival in such a strong way.
Its been 10 years ago that I gave my life to Jesus at a youth conference in which the presence of God was so strong none could deny His coming. That night forever holds a special place in my heart as it was not only the first night that I truly understood the Cross and felt the pains of death and depression leave my soul as the cleansing Love of Jesus filled my heart, but also the night I realized that there truly is a living God that shows his glory to his people when they truly hunger and thirst for it.
I experienced a true awakening that evening in Louisiana and I’ve never been the same. I gave myself immediately to long hours of prayer and reading God’s word which only enflamed my passion to see young people break off the subtle pains of religious monotony that once plagued me as a young church-goer, and come alive with a true, intimate relationship with the living Jesus.
Somewhere in that season of seeking the Lord in my high school years, a deep desire to birth a youth conference in the central Arkansas region gripped my heart and vision began to fill the pages of my devotional notebook. I remember writing dates, times, guests, service-lengths and the whole lot as a teenager and just dreaming of the day when I would see the powerful, tangible presence of God change lives wholesale in Central Arkansas, leading to awakening in youth groups, prayer meetings on school campuses, and revival therein.
That date came July 13th this year. United Student Conference took shape the last couple years. Each year, God has met us in power, but I fought the urge to cancel this event, feeling gripped by lack of resources, attendance and quite honestly, hype. Hype is everything in 21st century Youth ministry, so much so that though I can tell from first-hand experience it does not bring radical change like God’s presence, I had fallen prey to the all-too-familiar discouragement that comes being a mid-sized, lightly resourced youth ministry in a rural area.
After last year’s conference, God poured out a spirit of prayer on our youth ministry. Since then, for a year straight, over 20 jr. high and high school students have gathered faithfully every Thursday morning before school at 5:30am to seek the Lord, cry out for a move of God and pray for laborers to be released into the harvest fields. They were so consumed with a desire to pray that we began meeting Saturday mornings to pray as well, simply because, as they put it, “We want more.” Our leaders began praying on Monday evenings, with many students soon joining in. We truly began to understand just a small portion of David’s heart when he famously wrote “zeal for your house has consumed me.” (Psalm 69:9)
Those prayers culminated in the outpouring we witnessed at our third annual conference, an event that was almost cancelled. Originally set to be a three-day event with multiple guest ministers and a national worship ministry in tow, we experienced some serious, last-minute logistical errors that greatly diminished the ministry lineup and left me feeling greatly discouraged. After a month-long pause on promotion for prayer and direction, I felt the hand of God in the whole thing and decided to condense the event, bathe it in prayer, brand it as an event to gather youth groups in the area to pursue the presence of God, no-hype included, and our team sent out a set of simple fliers just two weeks before the event, obviously way behind schedule to be hosting an event of such magnitude. I was shocked when over 120 students showed up on Friday night the 12th, something our team and promotional push couldn’t take an ounce of credit for.
That night, we couldn’t even make it out of worship without God moving mightily in the room. Several students found themselves at the altar weeping, being set free from depression, cutting, and suicidal thoughts. The joy of the Lord filled the place and after Pastor Jacob Peterson’s message on the fire of God, the altar was again flooded, a fresh stirring leading nearly the whole lot to repentance for luke-warm Christian living. (Rev. 3:15–16)
The next day, we hosted several breakouts to equip students and youth pastors alike on prayer meetings, dance ministry, leadership, and so on. Our guests and partner ministry in Russellville, Adullam Outreach ministered in dance, testimonies, prophetic words and prayer, bringing healing and expectation for what was to come. But nobody could plan for what was to take place that evening.
Saturday night the 13th worship was powerful, students totally abandoned to the Lord. Hands were lifted and voices raised as the 100 or so danced before the Lord and rejoiced in Him. A message was preached about endurance in the faith through all persecution, loss and heartache and I gave an altar call at the end for anyone that wanted to go the distance with Jesus, not altogether expectant of what God was doing. Nearly every single student in the building rushed the stage and a manifestation of the heart of God unlike anything I’ve ever personally encountered suddenly rushed in the building to meet us. I can only describe it as the “groaning of the Lord.”
As the wind of heaven rushed in on the day of Pentecost, the heart-wrenching burden of the Lord to live out the great mission of our God simultaneously gripped the hearts of the congregation that evening and what sounded like agonizing groans of childbirth began to fill the room in every corner. Students were sobbing uncontrollably desiring to live whole-heartedly for Jesus. I was on my face in tears as well, as was half the worship band on stage, our guest ministers as well.
A phrase began to come out of the mouths of the young people as if someone had instructed them to say it, but nobody had! Muffled through sobs and tears, young people all around the floor began to cry out:
“Jesus, you’re worth it!” “Jesus, you’re worth it!”
Over, and over, and over. The Lord truly had broken off some of the hardest layers of the flesh of those in attendance, calling them to joyfully embrace of the cross of Christ and follow at all costs.
I’d never seen anything like it. I’ve seen mass-repentance in a room, I’ve felt the convicting presence of God, but nothing quite like this. It’s as if each person had come face to face with a new dimension of the faith, a calling to endure persecution, loss (even loss of relationships and friendships) on the altar of obeying the Lord and being lights to the darkness on his behalf. As if they were dying to themselves and taking on Christ
Nobody was doing it. Nobody was singing, preaching, or guiding the meeting. God had simply come into the room, and we were completely undone by Him. This went on for over an hour. The Groaning, the anguish, the repentance, the lovesickness, (Songs 5:8) the hunger, the desire to live consecrated.
It wasn’t to last though. God did what he always wants to do. He poured out the oil of joy for mourning (Isaiah 61:3) and he satisfied the cry of the hungry. After the sobbing, after the burden, after the trembling, came the joy. Students began to smile, and then laugh, some uncontrollably. Many were suddenly swept up in an ecstasy of sorts, as if every care in the world, burden and pain had lifted and been replaced with an intoxication of holy laughter. Some were stumbling, falling over themselves and laid out just laughing, praising, and repeating. It began to spread throughout the entire crowd until everywhere there was joy unspeakable, full of Glory. (1 Pet. 1:8) The pains of childbearing gave birth to the joy of new life. It was good. It was right. It was beautiful to behold. God had come, and with Him, had come fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)
This too lasted for an hour or so. The meeting was un-end-able it seems. Students began to dance before the Lord as undignified as I might imagine David had. They began to run around the room shouting for Joy, testifying and praising God for His visitation.
I stood agape at the sight. I just laughed and cried and continued to give God glory for showing His glory. One man came to me, hugged me and said,
“Just as the children of Israel built an altar when they crossed over the Jordan, you will remember this night as the night you crossed over into something.”
One of the guest ministers came to me, hugged me and looked around, as shocked as I was saying,
“Jarred, this IS revival! This is what we’ve been praying for! This is it! We’re in it!”
I agreed wholeheartedly.
As beautiful as the night was, I awoke the next morning feeling light, happy, joyful, full of the glory of God, but I was hungry for more. You see, as much as I love gatherings, meetings, conferences, and as much as I love when God shows himself to a generation, my concern with events is their tendency to not bear real, long-term fruit. Discipleship is the answer to fruit-bearing in the kingdom of God, and the modern American church has often become so drunk with hosting great events that we’ve neglected to plow day-in and day-out in the harvest field of souls that would come into the kingdom if we’d get back to the main, consistent, work of the ministry.
So my internal question was “God, what will all this mean next week?” He knew what He had in store.
Over the next week, messages, texts and emails poured in from the youth pastors who’d attended the conference testifying as to what had begun to take place in their youth groups. Teens were testifying at service on Sunday morning in one church and the whole church service was swept up in a measure of revival as the youth cheered, danced, praised and began to shout about the goodness of God! Other youth groups were leading their church by example in passionate praise that Sunday. Other groups were rushing through Wal-Mart evangelizing every night that week. Prayer meetings were starting up at almost every church that had been represented!
In addition, Videos were being shared on Facebook of young people “tearing down their idols,” by smashing xbox’s , PlayStations, vapes, and so on with sledgehammers. Screenshots of deleting Instagram, snapchat and Netflix, secular music and more — anything that wasn’t producing fruit of desire for God and distracting from purpose had to go, and the young people were no longer playing games. It was admittedly convicting to me in my own personal life as I came face to face with the same passion I burned with as that 16 year old that was fresh off his first power-encounter with God! Their hunger for God had outgrown their hunger for the world.
One of our youth leaders, reflecting on the conference shared a verse at prayer one evening and drew a powerful thought from it:
All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. — 1 Kings 10:21.
He said,
“It’s as if we’ve finally seen gold and the silver of the world has become meaningless –that which was worth our attention, affection and time, has now lost its glimmer in the light of Christ and the calling!”
Soon our whole youth group began to call things that weren’t related to prayer, evangelism and discipleship silver, as a derogatory term.
One pastor said,
“Jarred, the fire of God that burned at The River spilled over into our ministry and turned the whole thing around!”
Another said,
“My kids came to the conference with no desire for Jesus and left completely ON FIRE for Jesus!”
Another said he’d not seen this type of powerful encounter since the Brownsville Outpouring in the nineties. I get it, as I ‘d not felt this life changing of a corporate anointing since that beautiful night 10 years ago.
Many revivals of ages past include these same manifestations of God’s Spirit when he rushes into a place — the laughter, the sobbing, the “laid-out-in-the-floor-ness,” as I would call it. All documented. From the great awakenings, to the Cane Ridge revival. From the Welsh revival to the Hebrides revival. From the Moravian Pentecost, to Azusa to Brownsville. All include these unusual manifestations that emboldened hearts to live aflame for the Lord. Just as the apostles left that upper-room with an unquenchable passion for the Lord, area prayer meetings, evangelism-efforts, and youth services have been impassioned ever since and the young people are reaching their generation.
Time will ultimately tell of what this weekend meant, but as for now, it’s clear to me that we’ve been granted a measure of revival. Prayed for, yet unplanned, unexpected, underfunded. But isn’t that how God would have it!? When He comes, it’s completely evident he came. I’ve waited a month in reflection and prayer to write this statement. I wanted to get past what I would identify in youth ministry as the ‘camp-factor,’ meaning, a temporary passion that fizzles out momentarily. I wanted to be certain of what I felt the Lord saying to me.
This statement isn’t to give glory to ourselves, myself, or any man. This statement serves as an altar to the Lord. An altar to the evening God rushed in and changed everything. An altar to the weekend that ‘turned this whole thing around.’ An altar that brought fire where there was no desire. We believe revival is coming and is already here! We believe that God is going to move in this generation like never before. That God is going to visit this region in power and glory, with the result being a great harvest of lost souls brought to life in the name of Jesus.
We believe, and we hope you will join us. We truly are a generation UNITED in pursuit of the presence of God, and we can’t stop!
Expect invitations to unite with us in pursuit of His presence soon. We believe that the Lord is stirring something special and as he leads, we plan to gather and follow. We’re stirred concerning next year’s United Student Conference, but a year is a long time and we can’t wait to gather. Soon. More to come on that, but for now, I pray this statement finds you well, stirs your heart and encourages you to believe for the suddenly of the Lord. (Acts 2:2) The exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ask or think or imagine. For in case we’ve forgotten, our God is over all the earth, God of the impossible, faithful, and able.
Hungry for More,
Jarred Moss
