A maroon hood to go with his red coat
HENDERSON, Tenn. — Frances Johnson hurried home from Alabama Christian…
Sooners to leaders
First Oklahoma Lads to Leaders convention is ‘a good different,’ participants say.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — When asked how he liked the new venue for this year’s Lads to Leaders convention, Caleb Clabaugh hesitated … just a bit.
“It’s OK,” he said. “It’s different.”
This wasn’t, after all, the Omni Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, where the 11-year-old has participated in the youth training program since he was 3. More than 1,500 kids gather there each year during Easter weekend to give speeches, lead singing, perform puppet shows and answer Bible bowl questions.
Proud parents, including Christen Bernethy, center, and Shayla Clabaugh, right, take photos of their kids after the speech event at the Oklahoma Lads to Leaders conference.
Instead, Clabaugh was one of about 30 youths from the Sayre Church of Christ in Oklahoma who gathered on the first weekend of May for the inaugural Lads to Leaders convention in the Sooner State, hosted by the Southwest Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma, which formerly had no youth training conventions associated with Churches of Christ, now has two. Earlier this year Great Plains Leadership Training for Christ moved its annual gathering from western Arkansas to Norman, south of Oklahoma City.
Though smaller than the Omni Hotel, the new venue for Lads to Leaders had its advantages, said Shayla Clabaugh, Caleb’s mother. Instead of the nearly five-hour drive to Fort Worth, Oklahoma City is less than two hours from Sayre.
Participants in the first Oklahoma Lads to Leaders convention watch their children perform a puppet skit.
The Fort Worth convention also was “busting at the seams,” said Jamie Bess, a deacon of the Highland Church of Christ in Tecumseh, Okla., and a coordinator for the Oklahoma convention. The church of 250 meets about 30 minutes east of the OKC metro and has participated in Lads to Leaders for 12 years.
“It’s different,” Bess said of this year’s convention, echoing Caleb Clabaugh, “but it’s a good different, the togetherness and the intimacy of it.”
It may have been the smallest of Lads to Leaders’ 10 conventions in the U.S. — held in venues from Las Vegas to Atlanta — but the turnout of more than 220 participants was a record for a first-time convention, said Roy Johnson, the ministry’s executive director. Hosting the event five weeks after the other conventions allowed Johnson, an elder of the Sylacauga Church of Christ in Alabama, and other national coordinators to attend.
“I expect 500 in attendance next year in Oklahoma,” Johnson told The Christian Chronicle.
Related: A maroon hood to go with his red coat
Bess cited “the family aspect of it” as a reason for his involvement in Lads to Leaders. As children study the annual theme — this year it was “I Am Not Ashamed” from Romans 1:16 — parents learn alongside them. In addition to the convention events, the ministry has yearlong activities that encourage acts of service.
Phil Sanders
Lads to Leaders provides training beyond Sunday school, said Phil Sanders, a member of the ministry’s board of trustees and host of the TV show “In Search of the Lord’s Way.”
Sanders, who worships with the Edmond Church of Christ in Oklahoma, said that bringing the convention to OKC has been a dream of his. The Edmond church is a longtime participant in Great Plains Leadership Training for Christ and sent 140 kids and adults to this year’s convention in Norman.
Related: Training to lead
Many churches spend hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars on curriculum, Sanders said, but holding one or two hours of Bible class per week doesn’t change the fact that “we have a responsibility as adults to our children.”
In addition to training youths about God’s Word, Lads to Leaders trains adults to be effective mentors, Sanders said.
Students hold up cards with A, B, C or D and graders record their answers during Bible bowl at the Oklahoma Lads to Leaders convention. (See the correct answer at the end of this story.)
The program also is good for college prep, said Christen Bernethy, who accompanied a group of about 10 students from the Hydro Church of Christ in western Oklahoma. Her son, Parker, 25, graduated from Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee. The speeches he gave during his years in Lads to Leaders “prepared him for college more than some of his classes,” his mother said.
The Oklahoma convention had a few first-timers, including Abebe Thompson, 9, who fought hard through a case of nerves to lead two verses of “God is so Good.” His sister, Grace, 11, did signing for the deaf and gave a speech about not being ashamed to tell the truth when dealing with hard topics, including the essentiality of baptism to salvation.
The Thompsons, Laura, Grace, Allen and Abebe, are first-time participants in Lads to Leaders. Allen Thompson is known as Hassen in his native Ethiopia. Abebe, 9, is named after longtime Ethiopian evangelist Behailu Abebe.
Speaking of challenging topics, the Thompsons’ mom, Laura, served as a judge for this year’s debate: “Resolved: The use of instrumental music in the worship of God by His church is not authorized by His word.” Laura Thompson said she was impressed by the research and evidence presented by the students who participated in the debate. The family worships with the Highland church in Tecumseh.
Caleb Clabaugh
Caleb Clabaugh, of the Sayre Church of Christ, said that he’s thankful for the adults who have encouraged him to participate in Lads to Leaders. Myron Bruce, former pulpit minister for the Southwest Church of Christ, encouraged Clabaugh to try song leading. The fifth grader said he’s watched his father ask people if they know Jesus, which has encouraged him to speak about his own faith, unashamedly.
His speech focused on the Gospel’s power “to make us righteous,” he said. He quoted the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, who said “the righteous shall live by faith.” In addition to Paul’s letter to the Romans, Clabaugh also cited Acts 4:12, in which the apostle Peter states that salvation comes through no one but Jesus.
For Paul, “it took a lot of faith to pack up and leave,” time and again, to take the Good News to a new city, not knowing how people would receive it, Clabaugh said.
If Paul could do it, he said, maybe Lads to Leaders can, too.
Graders look to see if all of the students have held up an answer card during Bible bowl at the Oklahoma Lads to Leaders convention. (Scroll down to see the answer to the question.)
Ribbons for song leading await their recipients during the Oklahoma Lads to Leaders convention.
A participant in the first Oklahoma Lads to Leaders conference sports attire common to both the youth convention and the Sooner State.
Answer to question 3 in photo: C, disobedient to them.
Answer to question 4 in photo: D, unrighteousness.
