University of Kansas student Kayla Burditt takes a selfie with the rest of the delegation from the state of Kansas Jan. 4 at the SEEK 2015 conference in Nashville, Tenn. The conference, sponsored by FOCUS Ministries, drew more than 9,500 college students and young adults from around the country. Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., is pictured at center. (CNS photo/Andy Telli, Tennessee Register).
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students implored nearly 10,000 young adults to put Christ first in their lives so they can help change the world.
“You were willed into existence because you were meant to be amazing. The invitation Christ is extending is to choose him first and become the man or woman you were meant to be,” Curtis Martin said during his keynote address Jan. 4 at the SEEK 2015 conference.
“If you allow Christ to be the principle and foundation of your life, you will be a world changer,” he said.
Sponsored by FOCUS and held Jan. 1-5 at the Opryland Hotel and Resort in Nashville, the conference drew young people from college and university campuses across the country.
Martin told attendees, “The great truth of the Christian Gospel is not that we love God, but that God loves us. … We need to respond with a full, all-in effort.”
“If you become who you are meant to be, you will set the world on fire,” he added. “Go set the world on fire.”
Attendees felt inspired to do just that.
“It moves my heart to tears to see people encountering Christ,” said Gage Shirley, one of more than 75 students from the University of Kansas in attendance.
The SEEK conference was the second for Shirley. The first, in 2013, came as he was going through a conversion in his faith and was helped along in that journey by older students he met through the FOCUS missionaries at the university.
Two years ago, Shirley said, he “saw how big the church is, and how many college students are pursuing Christ.”
His goal this year was to mentor younger students attending their first conference, just as he was mentored, and to discern the path his life should take after he graduates in the spring. Shirley said he is considering working as a missionary with several organizations, including FOCUS.
Heather Nelson, another Kansas University student at the conference, has already made that decision: she will become a FOCUS missionary after spring graduation, working on a college campus to help students develop a relationship with Christ.
The conference has been a learning experience, a surprise for Nelson. She said she thought the conference would be geared more for people still seeking a relationship with Christ, and as a student leader at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the university, she thought she already had that.
But by listening to the conference speakers, Nelson said she learned a lot that she plans to take to the Bible study group she leads at her sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta.
FOCUS has more than 400 missionaries serving on 100 campuses nationwide in a campaign to invite college students to build a relationship with Christ and the Catholic faith. The FOCUS model begins first with establishing genuine friendships and helping students, through small-group Bible study and one-on-one mentorship, to develop the tools needed to maintain their faith while in school. Students also are sent to share their faith with others.
SEEK and FOCUS help students know the love of Christ and develop a true relationship with him, Nelson said. “That’s what’s lacking.”
People may know about Jesus, Nelson said, “but they don’t know him as their best friend.”
