Jill Schramm/MDN Brian Young teaches a workshop on apologetics, attended by young people at the For the One Youth Conference Saturday. The conference, part of Pulse North Dakota, was held at West Minot Church of God.

More than 100 youth came together in Minot this past weekend to gain new insights and tools to equip them to take their faith into their schools and communities.

Pulse Evangelism, with a team of about 20 interns, worked with local churches to organize the For The One Youth Conference Friday night and Saturday as part of the Pulse North Dakota evangelism campaign that began with The Reason Tour in December in 2023 and officially kicked off in February 2024. The youth event brought in rap artist Tru Serva, evangelist and recording artist Maddie Rey, along with Pulse founder and North Dakota native Nick Hall and other Pulse evangelists who conducted workshops attended by about 125 youth and 20 youth leaders.

High schoolers Keely Shea and Caleb Wagner were among youth from sixth grade to college drawn to the conference by the quality of speakers and the chance to learn more about evangelism.

“I’m always looking for opportunities to grow in my faith, especially in the area of leadership,” said Shea, of Minot.

“People have talked a lot about stepping out of comfortability, and one thing that I’ve been realizing is that comfortability can tend to be an idol. You can want to stay in your comfortability and value that more than the lives of other people,” she said. “I think a lot of times I ignore God’s call because I want to stay in my comfortability and I don’t want to fail or look like I failed.”

Shea said she expects to step out of her comfort zone more often because of the conference. She said she hopes to invite more people to church and help a friend on her faith journey that began following an invitation to church.

Wagner, of Billings, one of about 40 youth who traveled from Montana for the conference, said he loves getting involved in the church. When he saw the lineup of speakers and worship leaders for For the One, he knew it was the real deal and he wanted to be there.

Hearing Hall speak was a highlight for him.

“His sermons have been so good. I can connect to them,” he said. His favorite session, with speaker Mark Warder, introduced ways to open faith conversations and pray with people.

“I love to talk to people about Jesus, but I don’t know where to start,” Wagner said. “So, when Mark just brought up these 10 questions you can ask someone, that really helped me a lot to get an open perspective of how you can outreach with someone, to speak to them about Jesus.”

Wagner said he’s excited to return home to introduce the evangelism tools to his friends who weren’t able to attend.

Hall called youth evangelism training the heartbeat of Minneapolis-based Pulse Evangelism, which he founded while a student at North Dakota State University.

“People will say the next generation is our future, and I like to add that they’re only our future if we make them our present. So, if they aren’t a priority now, we are going to lose this generation. And it’s not just faith that’s on the line. I think it’s values, morality. It’s work ethic. There’s a hundred things that follow behind having a relationship and a foundation that comes from God,” Hall said.

“My life was really changed when I was a kid and a teenager and coming to events and camps and conferences – people who spoke into my life and challenged me and showed me that it was possible to live a different way and to be passionate for Jesus,” he added. “It’s really a huge part of the Pulse North Dakota campaign, but I think it’s just a huge part of our heart as an organization.”

The Minot Ministerial Association has established a team of individuals to guide the Pulse campaign in the Minot region, one of eight regions in the Pulse North Dakota campaign.

Jeff Anderson, senior campaign director, said the next event in Minot will bring church and civic leaders together on June 17 to learn more about the campaign. On July 17 an evangelism training for the church at large will take place, and on Aug. 9, public outreach will occur involving a Pulse evangelism tour stop in Minot.

“Something very unique about Pulse is its commitment to help those who respond to the gospel,” Anderson said. “You have an outreach event, but then you have discipleship. You have that follow up. So, it comes full circle. Individuals then refer them back to local churches.”

Kristan Van Houten of the Pulse executive team said if churches are doing a great job, the question might be asked why Pulse’s ministry is necessary in North Dakota. The answer has to do with connection among the churches, she said.

Although Minot churches already connect in ways not often seen in other communities, Pulse is coming alongside to assist. Van Houten said many churches would be hesitant, but not in Minot.

“Here, they’ve said, ‘We want to do that. Teach us how to do that. We want to make an impact in that way,'” she said.

Hall said the Pulse North Dakota campaign has a plan but it also looks to see where God wants it to go.

“So, there’s been some changes. In some ways, it’s gone, I think, better than we could have hoped in that people want more,” he said, indicating the campaign’s end may not be the effort’s end.

“I think what’s going to end up happening is we’re going to be continuing to do efforts across the state long into the future.”