The CHRISTeens youth conference, hosted by the West Side Church of Christ, opened with a spotlight shining vertically on a young man who clasped his hands at his chest and recited the Lord’s Prayer.
But he stopped short of saying the entire prayer, his voice going silent after “and forgive us of our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”
He bowed his head for a moment, and then stage lights came up just enough to illuminate a cast of young people, who alternately voiced two dozen questions with one word in common — the theme of the recent weekend conference.
Forgiveness.
CHRISTeens celebrated its 39th anniversary this year. The annual youth-led event started in 1985 with nearly 700 young people. By 2012, as attendance kept increasing, the fire marshal suggested CHRISTeens had outgrown West Side. So, beginning in 2013, the church moved it to the 1,800-seat Center for the Arts at Russellville High School.
The aim of the planners of the high-energy and intensely Christ-focused weekend is to teach in a way that the lessons stick when the students return to their daily lives.
The speakers included Dennis and Terri Rine of Searcy, Ark., who talked about working to forgive their son-in-law, who murdered their daughter.
And Mindy Lancaster, whose mother was murdered by her father.