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Colton Weltman listened intently as evangelist Ryan Fontenot shared the gospel with the audience of nearly 750 youth and leaders at last year’s Empower Conference Student Rally.
“I want you to know tonight that God loves you. God absolutely loves you,” Fontenot said. “Jesus loves you. Jesus will meet you. Jesus won’t leave you right where you are. … You come to Jesus in order to get right with God.”
Colton, then a junior at Hebron High School in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, wasn’t sure. He had gone to church some and had even been baptized at a Christian summer camp. But was he saved?
Soon after Colton’s camp baptism, his dad, Dean, who had been partly raised by his Jewish grandparents, became an “overnight convert” after recognizing the messianic message of Isaiah 53 while listening to sermons on the Torah.
“I thought I had accidentally skipped to the New Testament, but when I realized I was listening to the prophet Isaiah, I immediately knew Jesus was the Messiah,” Dean recalled.
Afterward, he said he began to see Jesus everywhere in the Old Testament. He started taking the whole family to church, eventually finding a home at Lewisville’s Lakeland Baptist.
Colton attended last February’s Empower rally with friends at the invitation of Lakeland youth pastor Matt Wooster. And Colton had questions.
“I figured I should just be part of the group and go,” Colton later said. “It turned out pretty good,” he added, noting it was “pretty cool to see all those people give their lives to Christ that day,” a reference to the 18 young people who expressed a decision to follow Jesus at the rally.
Colton wasn’t one of them. Yet.
Wooster recalled that at the end of the rally, as Fontenot issued the gospel invitation, he turned to Colton and asked, “What do you think?”
Colton mentioned his prior baptism. When Wooster asked him why he had been baptized, the student replied, “It seemed like the next best step to take.”
Wooster responded by walking Colton through the meaning of baptism as a public demonstration of faith in Christ. He shared the Romans Road to salvation with Colton, echoing Fontenot’s message.
“We prayed together about the Holy Spirit moving Colton towards submitting his life to Jesus,” Wooster said. Later Colton texted Wooster, requesting a graphic of the Romans Road.
Saved from sin
Back at Lakeland, Wooster and Colton chatted as the teen was about to drive off after the next Wednesday night’s student service. As they talked, Colton brought up the student rally.
“Can I make Jesus my Savior?” he asked Wooster.
“You mean right now?” Wooster answered.
“Yep,” Colton replied as he got out of his car to stand by Wooster, who led him in prayer to ask Jesus to become his Savior.
“I had him pray in the clearest way he knew how that sin was his biggest problem and that Jesus was the solution,” Wooster said. “ … He was able to say in his own words that he needed forgiveness from sin and a relationship with Jesus, and that he needed to submit to Jesus. We prayed together, but in all that had transpired, the Holy Spirit had worked in his heart.”
“I thought I was saved. I thought I had already done everything right. But from our conversation, I realized I hadn’t. I didn’t feel like I was saved,” Colton said. “I hadn’t prayed a prayer like that. Not like that.”
Changed forever
Fast forward one year.
Now a senior at Hebron, Colton confirmed that Jesus continues to work in his life.
A competitive skeet shooter at school, Colton now clearly understands his life had fallen short of the target of God’s holiness and that he had found the answer in a relationship with Christ.
He likes to tell others that story, he says, “all the time.”
Toward the end of this fall’s term, he shared the gospel with another student in shop class. When the semester ended, their class schedules would change.
“I’ve talked to him every once in a while [about the Lord]. He knows he is a sinner. He doesn’t know Jesus,” Colton said. One day, “I just told him straight up: ‘The only way you’re ever gonna feel better is through Jesus. You’ve got to stop living this sinful life that you are living. As soon as you do, you’re gonna feel better.’”
Colton invited the friend to church.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to see him again. Hebron is a big school,” Colton said. “But I told him to let me know if he wants to go to church.”
The entire Weltman family is active at Lakeland, including Colton’s mother Chinh and siblings Grayson and Emma.
Of his son’s first baptism, Dean said, “I don’t think he understood the meaning of being a Christian,” but since then, with his time at Lakeland, he “really came to understand and appreciate Jesus.”
Since Empower, Colton admits he is “taking Jesus seriously, reading the Bible, hanging out with people who are likeminded,” and trying to “implement what Jesus teaches” into his life.
