In 1986, thousands of Wesleyan teenagers gathered in Urbana, Illinois, for a youth convention called PACE ‘86, a name that stood for “People Answering the Call to Evangelism.” The title was an ambitious expression of the organizers’ belief that the gospel could be carried by every generation into every location attendees came from. No one present could have predicted how deeply that gathering would shape lives across decades.
Reverend David Drury was 12 years old when he attended, and what he remembers first is not a specific sermon or song but the scale of it all. His church had a youth group. His district hosted rallies. Camp already felt big. PACE felt bigger than anything he had experienced. Massive auditoriums, well-known speakers, musicians and a sense of wonder created a larger-than-life experience. Because he was among the youngest participants, in particular, the gathering felt like stepping into a world that stretched beyond the boundaries of normal life.
PACE ‘86 happened before phones could record it, or social media could preserve it. “Many who attended have no photos proving they were there,” Rev. Drury reflected. “You just didn’t take pictures that much. The evidence is really more kind of written on our hearts, of having been there.”
Near the end of the gathering, leaders invited students who sensed a call to ministry or missions to tear off their registration wristbands and place them on the stage. Each band carried a name, and some basic contact information. Hundreds moved forward, and others remained seated while wrestling with what they sensed God stirring within them. For those who walked, the act felt simple but significant: like a visible sign of something inward taking root.
Dr. Tom Armiger, who helped organize the event while serving in the Wesleyan denomination’s youth department, remembers the response as remarkable. “There were around 8,500 in attendance, and the commitment response to evangelism and full-time Christian service was amazing,” reflected Dr. Armiger. “Some of our past and present leaders made life changing decisions at that event … one thing that the youth conventions did for the church was to provide a networking and training ground for young leaders in ministry and leadership development.”
That scene has since become part of Wesleyan memory; but the follow-up from the conference was where the leadership-development culture of PACE ‘86 really crystallized.
Because the wristbands contained identifying information, leaders could follow up with every student who responded. Those names became part of a network called “Fellowship of the Called,” a system of encouragement that continued through letters, mailed resources and ongoing connection through churches and districts. That structure (cultivated through the denomination and kept by some churches for years) allowed emerging leaders access to an ongoing network of support and development.
Years later, Rev. Drury served as an intern at a Michigan church and discovered that the congregation still maintained its “Fellowship of the Called” list from PACE. Nearly a decade had passed, yet the names remained, along with relationships that continued to nurture calling. Several people from that list now serve as pastors and church planters throughout The Wesleyan Church and beyond.
That pattern of intentional follow-through shaped leaders as well as students. As a church staffer, Reverend Steve Moore attended PACE. He remembers being challenged by Keith Drury to create a plan for students who left the conference with a growing burden for global mission. The result was an initiative called “Global Harvest,” that mobilized students for overseas ministry the following summer. Teams traveled to Brazil, West Africa and Hungary after receiving training together. Rev. Moore describes the experience as formative for him as a young leader entrusted with real responsibility, and deeply meaningful for the students who participated.
The conference’s language for calling (and aggressive follow-up) gave pathways for faithfulness in students’ everyday lives.
One challenge issued during the gathering illustrates how that formation took root. Students were urged to share their faith once a week until summer. As a pre-teen, David Drury returned home determined to keep that commitment. He joined an evangelism training with adults from his church, learned how they spoke about their faith, and soon found himself sitting in his school cafeteria talking with a classmate about following Jesus. The conversation ended in prayer over lunch trays, a moment he still remembers clearly.
Experiences like that shaped his understanding of calling, and with time he came to see a principle that still applies to ministry today. “We sometimes wonder why people aren’t answering questions we aren’t asking. So we say, why isn’t somebody feeling called to missions? Why? Why aren’t they saying, ‘I’m feeling called to plant a church?’ Or why aren’t people coming up and saying, ‘Wow, I just feel led to really share my faith at my high school,’ or ‘I’m feeling led to become a Christian writer’ And we muse about that, like, ‘Why are people not answering the call?’ And I think the reason they’re not answering the question is we’re not asking it enough,” Rev. Drury reflected. “In some ways, in our efforts to make sure nobody feels left out, sometimes we don’t help people feel let in to the call.”
Wesleyan youth conventions have often been labs for experimentation with this type of calling, because the teams who plan them believe that students can engage serious spiritual questions and respond with maturity. Behind the scenes at these conventions, the message to volunteers carries the same tone as the message given from the stage: leaders remember they get to do this work of accompanying others in their journey toward deeper knowledge of God’s call. And (at their best) Wesleyan youth conventions have also been the start of important conversations about calling that continue in local churches.
That seems like a central reason that PACE ‘86 continues to surface in conversations across the denomination: it fused the best of the Wesleyan posture around the next generation: an invitation to everyday faithfulness (“share your faith with those around you: your story can help communicate God’s story”) and vocational calling (with pastors and missionaries tracing their calling to that wristband-moment). Many people describe the same pattern: a moment of surrender followed by years of formation; while the wristband moment lasted only for a night, but the ripple still continues throughout our denomination today.
“I attended PACE ‘86. It was very instrumental in my life,” said Dr. Derrick Lemons. “Ultimately, I answered the call to ministry which led to where I am now — pastoring bi-vocationally and leading the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia.”
“It was life changing and where I felt God call me into ministry. It took 40 years, but I am on track to be ordained this summer,” shared Pastor Missy Clendaniel.
PACE ‘86 stands as a reminder that a single gathering can shape a lifetime when invitation and investment work together. The night students stepped forward mattered, and so did the years of encouragement that followed. Together they formed a generation whose sense of calling carried into churches, classrooms, mission fields and communities across the world.
For more stories of The Wesleyan Church’s history and impact on every generation, visit wesleyan.org/news.
Be sure to check out the True Wesleyan creed and our upcoming store at the 15th General Conference for our True Wesleyan limited-edition PACE ‘86 collection.
Rev. Ethan Linder is the pastor of discipleship at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana, and contributing editor at The Wesleyan Church’s Education and Clergy Development Division.
