Sometimes I just have to look back and laugh at the youth retreat where I became a Christian at age 15.

It was more like hazing than evangelism. Clocks were covered. Windows were blacked out. Bed times were late. Sugar was plentiful. Emotions were frayed. Deception was deployed. For every look to the Savior the students took another look to make sure the other sex noticed their godliness.

By the end of the weekend, almost every teen gave a public testimony to how their lives had been transformed by an encounter with Christ. Some of these conversions didn’t last the next week back at school. And some of them have yielded hundred-fold fruit over decades, like we read about in the Parable of the Soils (Matt.13:1–23, Mark 4:1–20, Luke 8:1–15).

I wouldn’t plan a retreat or lead a youth group this way today. I don’t remember responding to a clear gospel call. But this is the means God somehow used to save me from my sins. I can remember my heart strangely warmed by a Savior who loved me. And I can remember knowing how much these adults and older students loved God—and loved me.

In a new article, Alen Andrews reflects on his experience with Teen Mania, subject of a recent exposé. “Any Christian youth-focused initiative can create both positive and negative experiences,” Andrews writes. “Through the years, I’ve learned to look to Christ through the muddy waters of what I experienced at Teen Mania.”

I appreciate his mature perspective on how we can heal from a bad youth ministry experience and still see God at work in our lives.