Three-day church event to host high schoolers from around area

High school students from throughout the area will gather this week in Jackson to strengthen their Christian faith, share fellowship and help the needy.

The student leadership event "Disciple Now," or "D Now," will take a "God-sized swing" for the fences, said student pastor Jonathan Cunningham.

Churches from all across the county are set to converge today through Saturday at Connection Point Church, where high school students will be treated to live music and pack more than 50,000 meals for disaster relief. Sam and Meagan Schneider of Inland Cape are among food donors and gave more than 5,000 pounds of rice to the effort.

The three-day meeting of church communities will be an example of how a grassroots initiative can reach beyond locality and affect the world. Cunningham said the student-led food relief effort will reach as near as Kentucky and as far as overseas, proving civil society is alive and well in Missouri.

Cunningham said the first goal of D Now is to allow students to rededicate their lives to Jesus or just figure out who Jesus is. The second goal "is to show students how to grow in their faith. Third, after the event, is how to take that faith outward, how to live a life of faith out in 'the world.'"

He explained, "Church isn't just on Sunday. It's not even a building. It's a collective body."

For the high schoolers in attendance, Disciple Now will be a chance to move away from the distractions of everyday life and focus on faith, he said.

Tonight will kick off with a party-like atmosphere and a concert featuring Christian hip-hop group Social Club Misfits. Friday will be structured around sessions with guest speaker Adam Bush, from Church on the Move.

Students will spend their nights in host homes volunteered by local residents. There, students will engage in fellowship and respond to the issues raised in Bush's talks.

On Saturday afternoon, students will pack meals distributed by Hope International to send to those in need and, later that evening, enjoy a large communal dinner of their own.

A Cape Girardeau native, Cunningham has been pastor at Connection Point Church since August 2018. Although he is the voice behind the event, he said his philosophy is about letting students take the lead to overcome divisions.

"A lot of times churches, are separate. ... The awesome thing about D Now is that we have many churches come together. ... I firmly believe that students are not only the church of the future; they are the church of right now. Whenever I can give them the ability to walk in their calling, that's my job," Cunningham said.

Participating churches include Cape Bible Chapel, Lynwood Baptist Church, First Baptist in Jackson, Zion United Methodist in Gordonville, New McKendree United Methodist and Crossroads Church, in addition to Connection Point Church.