Since the publication of their book Do Hard Things, Alex and Brett Harris have toured the country to present conferences. A small group from my church, with the support of our church leaders, was able to go down near Washington D.C. in September to take part in one. What an amazing thing for me, being from a small town where most the believer I know are the people in my church, to see this huge auditorium full of (mostly) other Christians, ready to get going and Do Hard Things.
When I got home, people asked me what I learned, what my favorite parts of the conference were. Here are a couple of things I took away.
The day was broken up into sessions, Brett and Alex taking turns speaking. One session though, they gave to their dad, Gregg Harris. He spoke about parenting and raising Rebelutionaries, but eventually he worked carefully up to an invitation. Most of us have been in churches of conferences where they give an invitation at the end of the service. "With all heads bowed and no one looking around... please raise your hands really quick if you said that prayer..." Well, this was not a typical invitation. With all heads up, and everyone looking boldly around, those who had prayed stood and declaired Jusus Christ as their Lord. His point in this was "If you can't to stand and declair Jesus as your Lord in a building full of other Christians overwhelmed with joy and ready to recieve you into the family, how are you going to go home to your friends and familiy and be able to tell them?" I hope I don't come across as bashing churches who do give the typical invitation, but my personal view was that this is much more in the way of not being ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
Alex and Brett giving away books by way of a rocket launcher.
Another thing that I came away with was this; the Harris boys are well aware that many conferences and church events give youth a spiritual high that they loose as soon as they go home. They have the same friends, same family, same routine, same good and bad habits, same good and bad influences in their lives, and so they go home and become the same again. The whole point of the conference is to encourage people (of all ages, really) to let God use them to be the best they can be, and how can they do this if they forget the whole thing a week later? Well, they have a very profound saying. "If you want to change something in your life... you have to change something in your life." Profound, isn't it? Just think about it for a minute. They are right. It does us no good to decide we are going to be stranger for the Lord, live in a better way, make a difference in the community or our homes, then just sit there wondering why you can't seem to make anything better. You seriously, literally have to CHANGE SOMETHING. Realize the bad influences in your life and get rid of them, challenge yourself to overcome procrastination, become an active part of your church family, there are so many things you could change if you just CHANGE.
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