There was a hush across the hall. Daniel Shillingford, youth minister at Edmonton Baptist Church in North London, was concluding a testimony of how God had interceded into his life at aged 17. 

He explained to the 700 young people at the first ever Baptist Assembly youth concert, 20/20 Putting Faith into Focus, how he had got involved in a bank scam with his best mates. 

However the words of scripture he had seen on God Channel and heard from his mother led him to pull out just as he was due to start withdrawing thousands of money transferred illegally into his account.  He realised that God sees everything and 'could not be mocked'. 

'God is intimately involved in your life,' said Daniel, as he asked all of us to stand up and say the sinner's prayer. 

He then asked after a count of three for Christians to sit down if they had said the prayer before but for those who were saying it for the first time and meant it, to stand. One, two, three.

The majority sat down but remaining were over 40 young people making a commitment to follow Christ for the very first time.

20/20 was like no other Baptist Assembly event I had been to.  It was a mixture of worship, music, drama and poetry, mostly performed and led by young people for young people. 
 
The talent, energy, humour and faith of these young people was inspiring.  Justice Dance Group, who looked aged about 15-16, did a style of dance that was a bit like breakdancing but a completely new take on it - never seen anything quite like it. 
 

There was quite a large involvement from Edmonton Baptist Church including their drama group that performed a lengthy but amusing skit about the distractions that take young people away from spending time with Jesus and the youth band performing an impressive gospel version of Matt Redman's 'Ten Thousand Reasons'. Lois Delong, a talented young poet, read 'Gotta Have Faith' about sharing your problems with God.  It ended with the line 'Don't be put down by what you can see, but trust and believe that He will set you free.'

The second half of the concert featured more established acts including well known Christian rapper Jahaziel, Guvna B and Rachel Kerr, a gospel artist with an amazing voice.

Daniel, who organised the event with the London Baptist Association and the Baptist Assembly, said before an offering to cover the costs of the free concert, that the plan was for more of these concerts, with 'young people leading young people - we want to see more of that'. 

A new Baptist initiative has started and more importantly 40 young people have started their walk with God.