The gathering of an army is important to re-align the vision of every soldier. And the teens of Acts Church came together for their first Gathering on the 21 of August to catch the heart of "reaching the world of teens, and the world through teens." A total of 127 partners of Acts Church showed up, of which 97 were teens.

After a time of worship, Acts Church’s Associate Pastor (teens), Pastor Andy Yeoh invited our Recess Revo coordinators up to share their most memorable experience of impacting their schools. We had representatives from 17 schools, each with a story to share on how they prayed in school, helped their teachers and basically made the difference.

Then Pastor Andy hosted a mini talk-show where four teens shared their testimonies. William shared about how his life was changed after accepting Christ and Arthur showed how obedience bears fruit as he led someone to Christ. Brian Ong shared about his experience in inviting people to church and proves that invitationalism can be second nature when we catch the urgency to see lives saved. Brenda Ian shared on how she has been growing in her faith after being rooted in Acts and she has been bringing her friends to church as well.

After listening to the inspiring stories of the teens, Pastor Andy reminded everyone that they were called to be in the army of Christ with a mission to reach out to this generation of youth. He shared on the essence of being a soldier on such a mission.

A soldier (teen) is always available, accountable and is united with the rest of the army. This means every teen believing in the same vision, going on the same mission and carrying the same values. He also emphasized that every teen needs to be rooted (in church) in order to grow their faith and nurture godly values in their lives.

Pastor Andy ended the night by challenging every teen to take up the call to respond to this mission and to indeed reach out to the world of teens because lives are at stake. Many were encouraged and have committed to be rooted to continue fighting the good fight of winning their friends to Jesus.

Throughout my time here at Acts Church, there was always an emphasis on the importance of invitationalism because our friends need to hear about how much Jesus loves them. And I really believe in this.

Inviting my friends to church and Home Parties has become such a natural thing to me that I never miss out on an opportunity to invite them whenever I am talking with my friends. It wasn’t always easy and I have been turned down many times. But I believe that there is something here in Acts for them and they will be blessed when they come. So I continually invite them, more than once if I have to.

Every teen in my school has heard about Acts and have been invited to come at least once. So far, I have brought about 40 over people to church and I am glad that quite a lot of them have returned and chosen to be rooted and serve in Acts.

God can bring the people in. We just need to be willing vessels and invite because God changes lives!