We Declare

The dry summer heat and the regular daily brownouts at Buenos Aires Mountain Resort did not dampen the spirit of the conferees as they hear one biblical preaching after another. By God’s grace, the SMO National Youth Conference (SMO-NYC) held in Bacolod on April 6-10, 2010 was a success if measured by the quality of messages preached and the impact it gave in the lives of student leaders, pastors, and missionaries.

Focusing on the theme – “Declaration: I am a Christian” – the nightly messages were preached by main speakers, Xerwin Ceballos, SMO Board Chair, Dennis Cortes, a practicing lawyer, Ruben Supan, a medical doctor, and Jun Oguilla, an associate pastor and theology teacher. The title of their messages were: The “Person” in our Declaration, The Principles in our Declaration, The Purpose in our Declaration, and The Passion in our Declaration, respectively. A call for consecration and dedication was made on the last night.

The morning sessions were divided into two: A mini-lecture and workshop on Spiritual Disciplines shared by Mr. Ceballos and a lecture and open forum on Christian Worldview given by invited speakers.

Mr. Ceballos gave a light lecture with his personal testimonies on Spiritual Journaling and Using Bible Reading in Personal Devotions. Each of his lectures was followed by conferees spending time to do related assignments. Prayer groups were formed to share ministry-related prayer request, this was also a time for conferees to get to know each other better.

In-depth lectures and discussions followed during a series on Christian Worldview. Different popular worldviews such as secularism, humanism, naturalism, materialism, relativism, and pragmatism were compared to the Christian Worldview. Lecturers were Atty. Cortes, Pastor Joseph Samuel, and Dr. Ruben Supan, MD.

Separate sessions for students and pastors/missionaries were held in the afternoon. For students, preaching messages on Holiness and Personal Purity were given by Pastor Aeron Caldeo, one of the SMO Bible Training Institute (SMO-BTI) lecturers, and Pastor Oguilla. The students also heard messages on “Doing Youth Ministry” by Pastor Elmer Genol, SMO Bacolod Coordinator, “Discipleship” by Pastor Rodney Necesito, SMO Metro Manila Worker, and “Evangelism” by Pastor Reuel Ben Seijo, a BTI lecturer.

The pastors and missionaries listened to preaching on “Doing God’s Ministry” by Pastor Renato del Mundo, SMO National Director, “Doing God’s Ministry in God’s Way” by Pastor Necesito, and “Doing God’s Ministry in God’s Way for God’s Glory” by Mr. Ceballos.

Young professionals and alumni had a special two-part session with Pastor Samuel and Aeron Caldeo on the topics “The Christian in the Workplace” and “The Christian Young Professional and his Role in Christian Ministries”.

Ministry-partner Afterglow Ministries prepared a 9-song musical presentation entitled “Indescribable” on the last night of the conference.

The SMO-NYC 2010 so far is the most regionally represented conference to date with delegates coming from the provinces of Cagayan, Mountain Province, Benguet, Bicol, Rizal, Palawan and Metro Manila in the Luzon area; Iloilo and Negros Occidental in the Visayas area; and, Misamis Occidental, South Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat in the Mindanao area. There were a total of 160 delegates.

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Our Missionaries and Mission Partners

 

SMO National Youth Conference 2010

Never has been a time in mankind’s history where information (whether in letters, images, voices or a combination of all three) is within grasped in an instant or in “real time”, until now. Fiber optics, satellite, microchips, among others, has catapulted information technology to almost unimaginable possibilities. Never has been the field so wide and ripe for harvest than in our time. To reach the ends of the world with information is now a clear possibility.

Everyone is placing their stakes in what information technology can offer, maximizing its benefits by transmitting to as many people as possible and in a less costly means, their ideas and commodities.

Youth ministries like ours have reaped benefits from this surge. Corresponding to our students, alumni, and supporters has been efficient and effective. The Gospel we carry and stories about our ministry could be relayed easily or be accessed by even complete strangers by typing http://smoworld.wordpress.com and pressing “enter” on their laptops. This is indeed an exciting time to do ministry. However, information technology has its downside when ministries, in an attempt to be “relevant” to the world, decide to highlight more on questionable methodologies rather than the unchanging and uncompromising message of the Gospel.

The “wired” Christian, overwhelmed by the tremendous flow of information and over zealous to adapt trends in doing youth ministry from what he downloaded from dubious Christian websites, may find himself and the ministry he’s involved in, corrupted and may self-destruct.

To avoid this, the Christian ought to give much importance in the study of God’s Word, so he could guard his mind well, be aggressive in his discernment, and strong in his conviction. In other words, he should possess a strong Christian worldview so he could be firmly stable in his faith and bold enough to speak his Christianity whether in cyberspace or inside classrooms.

This person ought to be articulate and unashamed to say – “I AM A CHRISTIAN.”

Student Missionary Outreach will be in the forefront of pursuing this message to the Christian youth of today, the reason why we chose “DECLARATION” as our theme for the SMO National Youth Conference 2010. SMO Bacolod will play host to this year’s conference which will be held on 6-10 April 2010 at Buenos Aires Mountain Resort in Bago City, Negros Occidental.

The Bacolod organizers expect a big delegation of youth participants coming from different parts of the country. A full information campaign is set to be launched nationwide on January 2010.