wfn.org | Youth Jam brings life-changing experience to 3,000

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 21, 2002  News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.	10-71BP{540}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

By Kay Panovec and Matthew Laferty*

AKRON, Ohio (UMNS) - Amid the stage lights, smoke machine and thumping bass,
lives were changed. 

And that was the point at Youth Jam, which drew 3,000 youth and youth leaders
to the John S. Knight Center in Akron Nov. 15-17.

Sponsored by the East Ohio Conference on Youth Ministries, Youth Jam is a
yearly event that began in 1991 as a way to bring young people together for
workshops and Christian entertainment. The first event drew about 300
participants. In 2002, the event was sold out.	 

"The East Ohio Conference really does an outstanding job," said Kara Lassen
Oliver, an executive with the United Methodist Youth Organization in
Nashville, Tenn. Only a handful of conferences hold such events, and East
Ohio's is the biggest. The Youth Jam is "a model of what youth events can
be," she said, noting that it has been used as an example for national-level
youth gatherings.
	
Powerful preaching by the Rev. Stephen Handy culminated in an altar call that
drew hundreds of youth to the front of the stage. Handy, a staff member of
the United Methodist Publishing House and assistant pastor of Gordon Memorial
United Methodist Church in Nashville, was the keynote speaker for the
weekend.  

Handy challenged the youth to make their commitment to Christ "not a memory
but a lifestyle."

The weekend was filled with concerts, workshops and worship. Participants
could choose from nearly 40 workshops with such topics as dance, signing,
prayer, choir, Bible study and leadership development. 

"God is here with us. It is an amazing feeling. I couldn't imagine doing
anything else. There's nowhere else I'd rather be," said Katie Starling of
Kinsman, Ohio.

The event also featured the Western Samoan R&B gospel group the Katinas, the
comedy of CPR, drama team Wildest Dreams, musical guests Aurora and Candle
Rain, and motivational speakers Laurie Polich and Josh Weidmann. C.J. Jenkins
served as worship leader.

"This is the kind of event that can give you hope for the present and the
future,'' said Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton, Ohio East Area. 

# # #

*Panovec is the director of communications for the East Ohio Annual
Conference. Laferty, age 16, is a member of the East Ohio Conference Council
on Youth Ministries.

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United Methodist News Service
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