2025 Ready Conference at Spurgeon College equips more than 1,000 youth
By Michaela Classen/MBTS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Spurgeon College, the undergraduate arm of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, welcomed more than 1,000 youth and youth ministry leaders to campus Jan. 24-25 to be equipped in their faith at the 2025 Ready Conference.
Attendees heard sermons from Matthew 5:1-16 by Adam Donyes, Brian Davis, Samuel Bierig, Jared Bumpers and Jared C. Wilson; enjoyed a concert by artist nobigdyl.; and participated in workshops to equip them in living and defending their faith.
“Investing in the future generations is critical,” said MBTS President Jason Allen. “That is why I am always so profoundly encouraged by our annual Ready Conference. To have over 1,000 youth and ministry leaders come to our campus to be equipped and built up in the faith is no small thing. I am grateful for all who came, and I pray that the Lord uses this conference in their lives for years to come.”
The Sermon on the Mount
Plenary sessions explored the first 16 verses of the Sermon on the Mount, focusing on the blessings of citizenship in Christ’s Kingdom. Adam Donyes, president and founder of Link Year, delivered the first sermon, on Matthew 5:1-2.
Establishing the context of Jesus’ sermon, Donyes noted that Jesus’ audience included His disciples, many of whom would suffer gruesome deaths for preaching His message. Donyes pointed out how the disciples’ willingness to die for their faith testifies to the truth of Christ’s Kingdom. “The only probable and logical explanation that 11 men would die is that Jesus really rose from the dead,” Donyes said. “He tasted death so that you and I don’t have to.”
Donyes called upon the students in the audience to listen, like the disciples, to the Word of Christ, warning them of the world’s lies. He reminded listeners that Jesus came to save and transform His hearers, satisfying their needs and desires with Himself. “He wants your heart,” he said. “You don’t have to try harder, and you don’t have to do more. He’ll produce that in you, by His good work as the Savior.”
Brian Davis, pastor of Exalting Christ Church in Minneapolis, delivered the second session. Preaching from Matthew 5:3-9, Davis focused on the blessings Jesus promises in the Beatitudes.
Davis opened by asking students in the room, “Do you know how to be happy?” He defined the blessedness Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount as the full and lasting joy received by knowing God.
“It is easy to think of this as a list of things that we must become on our own to be pronounced blessed,” Davis said. “This is rather, I think, Jesus describing the list of things believers become whenever He saves them.”
Referencing examples throughout the Gospels of those who turned from sin and trusted in Christ, Davis showed how each of the Beatitudes represent the blessings Christ offers in salvation and identify His followers as citizens of His Kingdom. “These are obvious features and traits of those who know Him. They have the same ethic, they bear the same traits, they have the same heavenly features,” Davis said, adding, “Because they are all united to Jesus.”
Pressley encourages Southwesterners to learn from New Testament believers
By Michelle Workman/SWBTS
FORT WORTH, Texas – Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley encouraged Southwesterners to never stop learning or growing in Christ during chapel Jan. 28, using believers Paul mentions in Colossians as examples to learn from and either imitate or avoid.
“I thank God that He gives us examples,” Pressley said, recalling when he was first learning to preach and would listen to other preachers and mimic them. “God gives us examples in this life to know and to imitate and be like. … I’m thankful that God gives us people we can pattern our lives after.”
At the end of Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, he mentions various fellow-workers that discipled, encouraged, comforted, traveled with and even suffered alongside him. Pressley examined these individuals and shared a list of things believers can learn from those men and women in Colossians and other descriptions of them found in Acts or other epistles.
“Learn to be dependable,” Pressley began as he spoke of Tychicus, who Paul described as a faithful minister and servant who he entrusted his letter to. “You’re going to serve the church, you’re going to serve the Lord, you need to learn to be somebody that actually I can depend on, that the people around you can depend on.”
Just as Tychicus remained faithful and served with no prominence the Scriptures mention, Pressley said all believers should strive to be dependable and faithful in life.
Pressley also pointed out Paul’s inclusion of Onesimus in his letter, saying believers can learn to find their specific purpose just as Onesimus, a slave, did as he followed the Lord and served with Paul.
“Regardless of your station in life, your purpose is to live your life to the glory of God,” Pressley said.
Like Aristarchus, who Paul called a fellow prisoner and who in Acts was abused during the riot in Ephesus, Pressley said believers must learn to be tough through difficulty, within and without the walls of the church.
“Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are going to serve the church … you’re going to have to learn to be tough in mind, body, and soul,” Pressley said. “To resist, to endure, to make sure personally you’re growing in your faith, that the joy of the Lord becomes your strength, that there’s a deep-seated contentment in Christ. You learn to endure and not complain.”
Pressley also said followers of Christ and those called to ministry need to learn to grow up, just like Mark who, though he initially abandoned Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey, would later write a Gospel and become a faithful servant and minister of the Gospel.
Similarly, Pressley encouraged youth and church leaders to be patient with those young or immature people they are trying to disciple and teach, because in time they also might grow up in their faith and be used by God as they become serious about their walk with the Lord and disciple-making.
Pressley’s entire message can be viewed here.
Related posts:
Southwestern Seminary community sees answers to prayer during 2023 
Roberts & trustees reach accord; severance approved for Whitehead 
YEAR IN REVIEW: Southwestern celebrates with gratitude God’s blessings in 2024 
Dockery encourages community among Southwesterners in convocation address 
FROM THE SEMINARIES: NOBTS Spanish program grows; SWJT announces book awards 
TIME magazine covers prompt closer look at ‘Truth’ 
For the Church National Conference focuses on ‘A Glorious Calling’ 
SWBTS to vote on presidential nominee Feb. 26-27
