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Youth Congress 2007 Preview: Todd Gaddy
July 16, 2007
By the Staff of ninetyandnine.com
Todd Gaddy is the General Youth President of the UPCI. He has elected to forgo another (probable) term in office so that he can start a home missions work in Maryland with his family.
He answered our questions in mid-July, 2007.
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90&9: What’s the first NAYC you attended and what do you
remember?
TG: 1993 in Indianapolis. I remember the altar service following Youth President Jerry Jones’ now classic message “I’ll Take the Hard Road.” Face on the concrete, I prayed earnestly that God would use me and that I committed to following Him and His way.
90&9: What’s your favorite NAYC memory?
TG:
I’ve got a bunch of them. Some are spiritually significant. Some
are just plain funny.
Certainly, being a part of a Youth Congress worship experience where multiple
thousands are worshipping together is a profound thing. It still almost
overwhelms me.
I also remember Nathan Keating’s “Grace and Truth” message in Nashville in
2003.
I remember praying for a kid in Nashville who was standing by the platform.
I kneeled down to touch his head with my hand, and as soon as I made
contact with his head, he took one step back and proceeded to throw up. Not
your typical response needless to say. :-)
And I guess my favorite part about Congress is seeing our team (GYD staff,
speakers, support staff, volunteers, musicians) all “do” their ministry.
Individually we can make some impact, but it’s always amazing to see it
all come together to produce, by the help of the Holy Spirit, something far
greater than anything we could ever orchestrate.
90&9: What do you see as the biggest challenge for Apostolic youth
today?
TG: “Being the church” or living an intentionally missional life in all parts of life is, in my opinion, the biggest challenge for Apostolic youth today. It’s also my biggest challenge, by the way.
Without
a true missional (i.e., living out the fact that our life story is simply a part
of God’s bigger story of redeeming humanity to Himself) approach to life,
it’s easy for our existence to revolve around going to church (a good thing
certainly, but not the definition of what it means to be a Christ-follower), not
doing bad stuff, and doing good stuff. It’s my opinion that we view what
being a Spirit-filled Christian is in very narrow terms. We were meant to engage
the culture, be salt in the midst of a bland environment, and a
light in a dark place. We were created to “be” the church and fulfill
God’s mission of reconciling man back into relationship with Him, in
every aspect of our life.
90&9: The biggest challenge about preaching the final message of Youth Congress is . . .
TG:
Realizing that people have expectations about the final night and how it’s
“supposed” to go, but simply being myself and allowing God to use it as He
sees fit. This is a challenge because my style tends to be a bit different
from some others, and even preachers at Youth Congress feel some peer pressure.
I’ve tried to reconcile in my mind, though, a few years ago, to be who I
am and put the responsibility on God to maximize whatever is delivered for any
eternal impact.
90&9: (Excluding the Bible and family), I can’t live without…
TG:
Politics. OK, maybe I could live without it, but I really enjoy
keeping up with the latest in politics (especially as things gear up to a
general election).
90&9: The last item I downloaded was…
TG: An article on how to go on a low-information diet (infrequent checking of email, less web browsing, etc.) Very challenging and inspiring. Have I done it yet? No. Will I someday? Probably, in some form.
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