RICHMOND – While many teens were enjoying Spring Break on vacation, over three hundred youth gathered at Central Baptist Church in south Richmond for weekend of mission service projects.  Sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, the weekend was called Mission Madness and took place April 9-11, 2010.  “We call it ‘madness’ because youth groups come from churches all over Virginia and are intermingled to serve on different mission sites,” said Rob Fox, field coordinator for CBF Virginia. “This mixed-up madness process allows each church youth group to experience a number of different service opportunities, as they mix, mingle, and make new friends,” said Fox.

Mark Snipes, minister of youth from Central Baptist Church, first approached Fox with the idea.  “Our church has been intentional about directly serving our community, and this seemed like an exciting next step,” said Snipes.  Fox contacted long-time friend, Scott Ford, of Birmingham, Alabama, to coordinate the mission weekend.  Ford has coordinated similar mission gatherings for youth in Georgia for the past ten years.  Ford said, “each weekend promises to be memorable, meaningful, and transformational for the youth with the key purposes of ‘loving God’ and ‘loving neighbor’ in community with other Christians for the good of God’s mission.”  Ford continued, “We want to cultivate life-long mission service habits in these young people.  We want them to go mad about missions.”

Alongside the service projects, teens had opportunities for worship and play.  “Marnie Fisher Ingram was the preacher for the weekend, and her husband, Daniel Ingram, led worship on guitar,” said Fox.  “After a day of hands-on missions, we reward the youth with a Saturday night celebration. We are Baptists who work hard, and we aren’t afraid to dance!” Fox commented.