Young people attending this year's On the Edge weekend "submerged" themselves in urban ministry in New York City and, at the same time, examined the spiritual condition of their own hearts. They heard challenging and inspiring messages from guest speakers and engaged in thought-provoking workshops and Bible studies. Youth also shared their concerns about life and ministry in intimate divisional prayer cells and united public meetings.

On Friday evening at Star Lake Camp, first-year Cadet Pamela Maynor offered a stimulating message from Mark 5:21–43. Maynor intertwined the stories of two people in need: the daughter of Jarius, a man of privilege and power, and the unnamed sick woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment.

Saturday morning, delegates boarded buses bound for the Greater New York Divisional Headquarters in Manhattan, where they heard Drew Forster explain how to recognize the marginal people who generally go unnoticed in our midst. He spoke from Mark 2:1–12, which records Jesus' healing of the paralytic man. He had been "invisible" to everyone until his friends lowered him on a stretcher into Christ's presence through a hole they had carved in the roof. As a result of the friends' persistence, Christ healed the man and changed his life forever.

Forster stood near a massive painting of Commissioner George Scott Railton that hung in the hall. On the other side of the room, another large work of art depicted Railton and the famous seven Salvation Army women ("lassies") who had come from England 125 years ago and submerged themselves in New York City to officially launch the Army in America.

At the conclusion of Forster's message, delegates were encouraged to name an "invisible" person in their lives needing Christ's life-changing power. They wrote the names of those people on a piece of cloth representing a stretcher.

Saturday evening, Bart Campolo, founder and chaplain of Mission Year, a national Christian service program, used the "good Samaritan" story to illustrate vividly how a person's encounter with calamity can be a matter of timing, rather than a sign of God's judgment.

"Some people are in the wrong place at the wrong time," Campolo said, pointing to the man who had been beaten by robbers and left for dead.

"Had the Levite or the priest arrived a little earlier, perhaps [he] would have been the one attacked and later found by the Samaritan," Campolo suggested. He then described people who suffer in the world today because they were "born in the wrong place at the wrong time" and challenged delegates to humble themselves before ministering to them.

"The first step in helping others," he said, "is to realize you are no better than the person you are going to help; you are just better off."

Sunday morning, Major Mark Tillsley, School for Officer Training principal, challenged delegates to submerge themselves in God's agenda, not their own.

"Ministry doesn't always have to be 'cool' or 'cutting-edge,' " he said. "We need to recapture the reality that there is no work that is beneath us.... Rise up, generation, and go into those places and let people know there is hope!" Seekers came to the front to kneel and pray; Tillsley invited even more to come.

Sunday afternoon, Captain Vangerl Dupigny, the corps officer for the Newark Urban Ministry, an incarnational urban initiative, called delegates to recognize ministry opportunities, no matter how small.

"It's not the big things, but the little things that start ministries," she said. "It's the practical things, like starting a homework club. You can have a grandiose ministry, but you can also do it one person at a time," she said.

Dupigny challenged delegates to be sensitive to the voices of people in need.

"Who 'cries out' in your neighborhood?" she asked. She urged the young people to walk with Christ.

"I cannot walk the streets of Newark without having a personal relationship with Jesus—you can't do this business without Him."

Young people attended Bible studies and a variety of seminars that dealt with the marginalization of people in corps, community, and global settings. These sessions helped delegates understand how to move themselves and others from the margins to the center of ministry and effectively address the problems caused by poverty, oppression, and injustice in the world.

Some delegates joined outreach teams that ministered in the streets of New York. Still others shared their testimonies among the delegates, revealing how Christ has made a difference in their lives.

"On the Edge 2005 challenged young adults to imitate the lifestyle of Jesus, who reached out to the marginalized people around Him," said Major Ivan K. Rock, territorial youth and candidates secretary. "And He calls us to do the same. This is the heartbeat of Salvation Army mission!"