Olivet University students participated in an Easter conference hosted by Apostolos Campus Ministry at Olive's Downtown campus from March 25-27. The conference, themed, "Christ, Life of the World," united college students from around the nation together to celebrate the day of Christ's victorious resurrection.
Olivet students were invited to the event by Dr. Joseph Ray Tallman, Olivet's Director of Middle Eastern Missions, who is also serving as the Chairman of ACM. In a lecture Dr. Tallman delivered the night before Easter, he told students that Easter Sunday was a time of new beginning.
"It's a time for fresh beginning," said Dr. Tallman of Resurrection Sunday. "Yesterday joys or yesterday's sorrow, wonderful or not as they were, we need a new beginning."
Dr. Tallman referred to various statistics to show that new beginnings are needed on several different levels. He cited a 2004 Princeton study showing that six of ten Americans are satisfied with how things are going and only one percent say the moral values are very good as he pointed to the need for the nation to turn to Biblical values. He then hit a little closer to home by making a shocking observation about San Francisco, saying it is the only one major city that never experienced an awakening.
"A full-scale revival has never hit," explained Dr. Tallman. "The mindset of the people who are here never had an impact from God where the Spirit of God came down and put His spirit into their hearts." Numbers representing religion in America as a whole did not offer any solace. Although the majority of Americans believe in God, heaven, hell, and the authenticity of the stories in the Bible, a consequent impact reflecting those beliefs appears to be absent.
More than a merely a new beginning, "we need a spiritual renewal," said Dr. Tallman.
He then empowered the listeners to be vessels of a new spiritual beginning by reminding them the focus of Apostlos drawing from the book of Acts. He explained the three parts of:
1) Kerygma - Proclamation (Acts 1:18)
2) Konoinia - Fellowship (Acts 2)
3) Diakonia - Ministry / Service (Acts 6)
"You have the opportunity to continue writing the Book of Acts," he told the students. "For the holy spirit to send us and call us to do the things we need to do. Spring is a time to do it."
Then, starting from Thursday, the day on which Jesus gave his disciples a new command to love one another, Dr. Tallman explained the events that led to Jesus' resurrection on Sunday, saying
"Resurrection is the exclamation point of what Jesus did for your life." However, "many Christians stop in their Christian walk with Jesus on Sunday and leave it there," he warned and urged students to continue loving each other as the Lord has loved them.
Dr. Tallman and his wife then joined students in watching an evening concert with special performances by students from the Jubilee College of Music.
Following the conferences' plenary sessions, Olivet students also received the opportunity to learn mission strategies from representative missionaries and leaders of ACM groups around the nation in a mission's forum.
The Apostolos Campus Ministry is an interdenominational ministry committed to spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth, testifying to the eternal love of the Lord. More information on ACM can be found at its main Web site: www.apostolos.org.