A Suffolk church will hold a five-day youth conference next week hoping to make an “impact” on local teens.

St. Paul Baptist Church, at 806 Lincoln Ave., will hold four days of inspirational messages from local youth pastors, including its own Dionte Futrell, on Wednesday through Friday and on Sunday. On Saturday, a field day celebration with games and activities will take place.

The theme for the IMPACT Youth Conference is “Think Different; Be Different,” Futrell said. IMPACT is an acronym for influence, maturity, purpose, achievement, character and training.

“We’re trying to help them with decision-making skills and such,” Futrell said.

This is the first time the church has held the youth conference. Futrell, who started at his current position in November, said he wanted to do something in the summer to help keep local youth out of trouble.

“Summer is the time they don’t have anything to do, they get in trouble, and they make careless decisions,” Futrell said. “I believe a lot of them want to do better. They just need that extra push and need to be around other youth who want to be successful.”

Futrell said the church has connected with other churches and community groups to get their teens to come out. Next year, he hopes to expand the conference to a larger venue to accommodate more people.

In order to attract young people, the conference is having drawings for a 32-inch television, an Android tablet and $100 cash.

“We’re doing some things to try to get them to come,” Futrell said.

On July 16, Pastor Danny Dillon will speak to the youth at 7 p.m. Minister Leray Smedley will be the guest speaker at 7 p.m. on July 17, with Pastor Jason Knight on July 18 at 7 p.m.

The field day will begin at noon on Saturday. Futrell will wrap up the conference with the morning message at 10 a.m. July 20.

For more information on the conference, call the church at 539-9692 or Futrell at 676-3820.