Recently, six members of our staff team attended Cross Con 2025. It was deeply encouraging to see a new generation embrace a fresh call to go into all the world and make disciples.
The Cross Conference is a gathering for 18-25 year-olds held in Louisville, KY for two-and-a-half days. The Kentucky International Convention Center was filled to capacity with young men and women eager to hear from John Piper, David Platt, Trip Lee, Kevin DeYoung, Mez McConnell, and scores of other speakers. The aim is to draw their hearts to a life lived for the glory of God and to consider global missions.
NEU Church Planting attended as exhibitors, meaning we paid for space to set up a conference display and took six staff members, shipped 85lbs of literature to give away, and stood on our feet for a long time! Conferences are hard work and expensive!
Why the effort? After all, most 18-25 year-olds are not ready to plant a church.
It’s more than worth the effort for the sake of God’s glory, for the mission of Christ, and for the needs of the urban poor. As students from all around the country were hearing about missions, we wanted them to consider missions in the inner city. And we want them to start thinking about it now.
So we considered it a privilege to share the heart of Christ for the least, the last, and the lost. We explained that we are looking for missionary-minded men and women who will help plant churches among the urban poor. We invited them into our internships and into our apprenticeship program.
It was a blessing to hear from many who are already committed to the mission of Christ. One young woman explained that she is in school for cosmetology and is committed to using her training to go anywhere as a missionary. Another young woman said she and her husband are committed to church planting, but don’t know where. (Yes, we talked to her for a while!)
We went to Cross Con prayerfully asking God to provide laborers. And with that hope in our hearts, it was worth it! Please pray with us that God would bring some of the students we met to New England to plant churches as missionaries to the inner city.
