Rick Rhodes’ vision behind SOLD OUT was to get Biblical teaching on DVD for the purpose of taking Anabaptist teaching further than just a one-time event. The availability of Anabaptist teaching on DVD for retreats, training, youth rally’s, etc. is almost nonexistent. In order to produce a good DVD series, we needed to have an event where the teaching could be filmed. So a two night youth conference was planned, consisting of a time of worship and 2 teaching sessions each night. While the initial purpose of the SOLD OUT 2014 event was to get teaching on DVD, the event itself was very positive and impacting for those in attendance. God used the preaching of the Word to call many young people to submission and full surrender of their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ – a Sold Out life for the glory of God. To hear testimonies from some of the youth who attended SOLDOUT 2018, visit: www.soldoutforGod.org
The first SOLD OUT Conference was held in 2014, with approximately 250 youth attending. The second SOLD OUT Conference in 2016 doubled in size, with approximately 500 youth attending each night. The last SOLD OUT Conference in Jan. 2018 almost doubled in attendance again, as we had 830 youth/adults attend on Friday evening and 920 attend on Saturday evening. The growth in attendance has shown the interest and hunger in our youth, which excites us! We want to do our best in providing Biblical Anabaptist teaching for our youth today.
While the original vision was to produce Biblical teaching on DVD, hosting an event where hundreds of young people come together to worship and be fed from the Word has become a very integral part of the vision. In fact, we believe that if we focus on planning and hosting a God honoring time of godly youth coming together to worship and feed on God’s Word, the recording of the event will simply carry the message and impact much further than the speaker can go. Hence, the vision has become two-fold.
As church leaders and youth from other areas have attended previous SOLDOUT Conferences and caught the vision, request have come for Rick to do SOLDOUT Conferences in other locations.