Around 750 youth have responded to the message that “Jesus loves you”, by committing or recommitting their lives to Jesus, at a conference in Katoomba, NSW.

The theme of the Katoomba Christian Convention youth conference –KYCK- was “This is love”. Over 5200 youth from around 250 different churches attended the conference which repeated across the last three weekends in the Blue Mountains. Over the conference, Dave Miers and Jeremy Dunne preached from 1 John, with Miers giving an evangelistic message entitled “Jesus Loves You” each Saturday night.

KYCK organisers estimate somewhere between 750-800 youth responded by either committing or recommitting their lives to Jesus. After the first Saturday, KYCK organisers posted on Facebook, “Tonight was an amazing night. Words can’t express how good God is… We lost count, but about 330 kids made decisions for Christ tonight…” After the third weekend they posted, “These kids are gonna be the next generation of leaders in the church. We’re living in exciting times!”

Dave Miers has been involved in the conference over the past three years, and says that in his experience the number of young people responding has tripled in 2013. In previous years, the commitments have been around a total of 300 across the weekends. “I’m not sure why there’s such a significant spike in numbers,” he admits.

Yet Miers goes on to consider, “The message from 1 John 3:16 is really convicting: that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and that we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. It’s especially convicting for Christian family kids. And they’re responding to love radically, in response to Jesus’ love for us. I feel the weight of that as I speak, and I wonder whether there’s something in how it’s framed in this passage, challenging us to take God’s love seriously, loving in a costly way, like Jesus has, that is getting such a response.”

At the end of the talk, Mier’s explains, there is a call to respond, and do something tangible – stand up, make some type of commitment. People were encouraged to recommit if they are Christian but aren’t taking seriously the call to entrust their whole lives to Jesus and love others in response, while those who don’t yet believe are encouraged to believe and respond in love.

Photos: Kyck on Facebook – Jimmy Knight.