Camps & Conferences “A Report and A Challenge” By Brad Anderson T
he Horizon and Quest Planning team are honored to serve the next generation. Each summer we are honored to hold our conferences at Bonclarken and see kids come meet and grow in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Now that these conferences are under the guidance of General Synod through the Committee on Conferences, we wanted to give you a report on them and encourage you and your church to participate this coming Summer.
The Nuts and Bolts
What does it look like to attend Quest and/or Horizon? We hear from God’s Word—The Lord blessed us with two men grounded in the Word of God pointing our student to that Word to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Rev. Andrew Shoger from Coddle Creek ARP Church in Mooresville, NC, spoke at Quest. The theme was “The Story of Scripture” and he preached through texts in Gen- esis, Romans, and Revelation relaying the unifying story of redemption. Rev. Jeremiah Thomas from Providence ARP Church in Taft, TN, spoke at Horizon. The theme was “Let’s Talk About Truly Living” with texts from John, James, Psalms, and Philippians asking students to con- sider what it means to know the Gospel and for it to be central. Each evening they opened God’s Word to tell the students before them that their only hope rests in the God of all eternity and his miraculous message of salvation in Christ alone. We read God’s Word—Every morning we have de- votions that walk our students through Scripture and a theme while emphasizing a time of prayer with helps from various catechisms. Rev. James McManus has been writing our student devotionals for years and we are thankful for his continued faithfulness. The theme for the Quest devo- tions were the Doctrines of Grace (TULIP) and Horizon’s devotions were the 5 Solas of the Reformation. We praise God and sing his Word—Each morning and evening session we had the Crossings Community band lead us in familiar hymns, psalms (varied arrangements), and some modern Christian worship songs. We are thank- ful for the Crossings group because they do their best to be faithful to God and represent the spectrum of worship backgrounds expressed in our denomination. During Quest, we have a speaker for two-morning ses- sions based on a three-year rotation through the Means of Grace: Year 1: Bible 101, Year 2: Prayer 101, and Year 3: Sac- raments 101. This year the rotation landed on Sacraments 101 and Rev. Josh Hjemvick from First ARP Gastonia (NC) spent time answering, “What is a sacrament?” and the sec- ond dealt directly with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It’s always amazing to hear the conversations that come from students as they are given the opportunity to directly ad- dress the sacraments.
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During Horizon we have morning seminars each day to challenge, edify, and equip high school students to engage life with a Christian worldview. Here are a sample of the Topics from this year: Overcoming Cynicism by Rev. Matt Lucas—How does Jesus lead us out of a cynical attitude? Is There a Way Back? By Rev. Evan English—How do
you respond when you are doing something wrong or get caught? Waiting by Rev. Matt Carr —So much of life as a teenag-
my graduation, my future... How can I wait faithfully? Navigating Anxiety (Girls Only) by Amy Kulbok--A con- versation for young women about the experience of navi- gating pressure and anxiety... and practical ways to cope. How can I change? by Rev. Neel Skelton –We are all changing all the time. The only question is... are we becom- ing the people we want to be?
The Numbers and a Challenge
While we are always happy to see returning faces and old friends, it’s of interest to see where our conferees call home. Here’s a chart that shows church participation by presbytery:
This year between the two conferences we had 21 ARP
churches along with one church from each the PCA, EPC, and PCUSA participating. Total attendance included 750- 800 youth and leaders. Of that number about 60 were the numbers are encouraging. That said, looking at total
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
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