The Atlanta 05 National Black Collegiate Conference, held this past December 27-31, at the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel Downtown, was a conference of firsts.
• The first conference that started with dozens of students coming forward for salvation and rededication on the very first night!
• The first time different speakers were scheduled for each evening and morning plenary session, thus offering students a larger variety of speakers. (Morning sessions were previously led by the same expositor each day.)
• The first time this national conference was held in downtown Atlanta, making it more easily accessible to the increased numbers of delegates and local special guests.
Close to 700 people attended Atlanta 05, making it the largest national Black student conference InterVarsity has sponsored thus far. This was the 5th triennial conference. Reverend Boris Collins, InterVarsity staff from the New England region, was the director of Atlanta 05.
At this year’s conference, the staff saw a noticeable increase in the spiritual hunger of the student delegates. According to Black Campus Ministry (BCM) staff Ericka Collins, students were lined up and excitingly waiting to enter the ballroom plenary session on the conference’s opening night. And on this night when the featured speaker, BCM’s Harvey Cozart, gave an altar call, students crowded forward by the stage and in the front aisle to pray to receive Christ or to re-dedicate their lives to Christ.
Spiritual hunger continued throughout the conference. Instead of attending the late night “café” times, several students chose to worship in one of the adjacent ballrooms.
Aberdeen and Roslyn Allen, from New Jersey, gave a compelling presentation. They graphically challenged students to refuse to take on the identity of stereotypical, media-driven figures as the highly-sexed or loud-talking black woman, or the thuggish black man, but instead to embrace identities as black women and men in Christ.
Quite unexpectedly, the same Scripture (Is. 61:1-4) was expounded two times in one day by both the morning speaker the Reverend Byron Williams, from Oakland, CA, and the evening speaker, the Reverend Dolphus Weary, from Mississippi. Reverend Williams challenged students not to settle for an individualized, narcissistic faith that is blind to the needs of the larger society. Reverend Weary challenged students to leave a legacy that improves the lot of the next generation.
There were also unexpected obstacles to the logistical functioning of the conference. Just ask any Atlanta 05 attendee about “the fire,” and “the elevators.” Yet several of the hotel staff commented how wonderfully the students responded to these challenges. Fire fighters told the hotel staff that Atlanta 05 students responded to the small fire in “text book fashion.” It turned into a wonderful witness for Christ. (A radiator exploded in one of the students’ rooms at 2:00 a.m., causing a small fire and setting off the sprinkler systems. Several rooms suffered smoke and water damage, including some people’s belongings. But no one was hurt.) Also, only two of the four elevators functioned half-way properly in the 25-story hotel that week, giving Atlanta 05 students great exercise since many had to take to the stairs.
Others attended Atlanta 05 as well: special guests, missions representatives, and black scholars and professionals (BSAP, a new initiative of BCM). During the special guest program held mid-week, the first BCM director, the Reverend Elward Ellis, joined the current BCM director, the Reverend Phil Bowling-Dyer, in bringing greetings to business people, clergy, and professionals who had gathered to hear a formal presentation about Black Campus Ministries.
All in all, Atlanta 05 proved to be unforgettable for students and staff alike, who pressed through to grab hold of God’s blessings.
The audio from each Atlanta 05 plenary speaker is available on our audio page.
Another article on Atlanta 05
