For several George County high school students “magical” time occurs once at the beginning of every year. This magical time is called Disciple Now, or D-Now.
A group of youth pastors come together to make this weekend possible for their students. Barton Baptist Church was the host church this year. This year the youth went to Winter Jam, a concert with various Christian artists. Later, the participants will stay in homes on that Friday and Saturday nights, then make their way to worship and recreational games with surrounding churches on Saturday. To conclude the weekend, the youth go to their home churches on Sunday.
The main purpose of this weekend is for teenagers to grow side by side in various areas.
“I was expecting to get closer to the Lord myself and also the people around me in my church,” junior Houston Herrington said.
Herrington was one of the 200 students who came to D-Now. His expectations to grow closer to the Lord and the people around him were surpassed.
“They were exceeded because I got closer to a few people in my church, and I saw people get closer to the Lord as well,” Herrington said.
Freshman Hailey Rogers testifies to seeing people come closer to God.
“I saw a lot of people get saved and a lot of people decided to get baptized, which is good,” Rogers said.
Youth pastor Jacob Milstead states that the impact of D-Now may not be visible for quite some time, but he did see students reaching out in a positive manner.
“One of the tough things about events like this is a lot of the changes you won’t see for months because it is a change in direction, it’s a change in attitude, but we did see responses. We had people who wanted prayer for certain things, who were making decisions and wanted to change the way they were living. We expect to see changes and growth and maturity from this for months to come,” Milstead said.
According to Milstead, by teens coming together it does not only benefit them but also the community.
“This year the focus was more on the students and on preparing them to live a meaningful life. If we have young people in George County that know and understand that a meaningful life isn’t just a life filled with things, but a life lived for the Lord, a life lived for His purposes and His glory. Then we have people who will continue to have an impact, not just the event, but they themselves will be impactful and do good for their community wherever their community is. As long as they follow Christ they will continue to do good wherever they are,” Milstead said.
As we can see, Disciple Now was impactful and will continue to be, as many are already looking forward to next year’s event.
