On Saturday 30 September, over 750 people gathered in Madrid to address their questions, as well as those of their friends, at the XØ2023 (Crossover 2023) event.

Among the 750 people, more than 600 were teenagers, young people between 12 and 18 years old, the target audience of the Crossover project, developed by the Pontea foundation.

The event revolved around the most important questions that young people have about their faith, their life, their identity and other relevant issues for adolescents.

Pontea aims to bring together teenagers who have grown up in the church as well as those who have never had any contact with it. They also recognise that, among the former, many follow their parents' faith routinely, and hope that the event can be a challenging and fresh experience for them.

A safe space

Crossover offers safe spaces to address those questions, provide answers as much as possible and present Jesus and his message in an honest, close and real way, using understandable language that connects with the concerns of teenagers.

The day was fast-paced and dynamic in order to capture and hold the attention of the young people. A wide variety of audiovisual resources, musical performances, interactions with the audience, among other things, were used, which effectively complemented the more formal parts of the program.

There were question and answer blocks, discussions on sexuality with speakers Gerson Mercadal and Juan Hernández, and on mental health and suicide with Dámaris García and Mery Iglesias.

Going deeper

There were also two talks with a more traditional format: one on whether you are a Christian just because your parents are, by pastor Alex Sampedro, and a final talk inviting teenagers to know and trust in a Jesus who knows them and cares about who they are and the difficulties they face, by Andy Wickham, director of Pontea.

One of the most exciting moments of the event, which responds to one of the main goals of Crossover, is when adolescents are invited to take a solid step on their journey to know and follow Jesus.

The organisers estimate that around 200 teenagers expressed a desire to take that step during the gathering.

The team, also responsible for organising Reboot in 2017 and 2019, is especially grateful for the personal stories and experiences coming in from all over Spain about what XØ2023 meant.