Lee County Youth Groups Meet For Disciple Now

LEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Young people from all over Lee County are coming together for the weekend and helping each other grow in their faith.

It was like an old time tent revival in Building Six of the Tupelo Furniture Market.  “Disciple Now” was supposed to start Friday night, but the bitter cold moved the start of the event to Saturday, as the youth groups from dozens of churches from the area came to worship and focus on God.

“Disciple Now is an area wide event. It’s many churches coming together and the goal is to encourage young people, if they are Christians, to encourage them in their walk with Jesus Christ, and if they’re not yet believers, to consider the claims of Jesus Christ,” said speaker Tom Richter.

One of the largest contingents at this weekend’s event came from Tupelo’s Harrisburg Baptist Church.

Michael Kelly is Minister of Students there.

He says the youth of today face different challenges than their parents.

“Now we have social media which leaves our kids feeling like everybody else’s life is perfect. They always see these perfect pictures or you’re going to have easier access to these exotic drugs that may not even have existed a hundred years ago. But the bottom line is, just like teenagers a hundred years ago, kids today have to choose who they’re going to be, who they want to emulate and who are they going to model their life after. One of the big takeaways from Disciple Now is we believe Jesus Christ is the perfect model for a young person growing up in the world today,” said Michael Kelly.

Kelly’s students agree.

“It’s hard because of all the peer pressures throughout high school and just like all the different people that you get to meet it’s just hard to stand firm, but it’s going,” said Gracie Hand.

“There are a lot of things that you can get into as a high schooler that you know you obviously shouldn’t. There is always that choice that you have to make whether or not to go somewhere or do something of hang out with certain people but weekends like this that’s why they’re so great,” said Ryan Malone.

Jillian Mitchell says the cellphone can be a big problem for a teenager.

“There are also temptations on cellphones with social media and everything else there’s peer pressure to be like everyone else and that can often be hard in high school because God doesn’t want us to be like everyone else. God wants us to stand apart and be our own person in him. So it can be really hard in high school with all the distractions and peer pressure that come along with social media,” said Mitchell.

These students hope to come away from this weekend spiritually refreshed. Disciple Now will wrap up Sunday.

Categories: Local News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *