Last weekend was the Northern Rivers Youth Convention [1] at Lennox Head. It was a little lighter on than expected, but still, big things happened! (What an exciting age and stage to have godly Christian leaders investing in the Next Generation of our district).
A very cool story from the weekend was a young teenage girl from Byron Shire who has been on the edges of the life of a local church family. Yet, as the weekend progressed, her year leader posed a question to the group about where they were: ‘10 out of 10’ in with Jesus OR way back at ‘1 out of 10’. She scored super high! This simple little task revealed that this young woman’s heart is being drawn to Jesus. Her local leader was shocked and didn’t realise she was sooooo keen. Please commit this young life to prayer.
Again, SCPC has had a massive role in the weekend. Cam was absolutely the engine room, ably supported by Sarah, Luka, Henk and some of our other great youth leaders. We also had cameos from our music team helping out over the weekend, along with Susan and I operating as Camp Mentors, [2] where we were aspiring to create a ‘non-anxious presence’ [3] without, cramping the style of our youth from SCPC!!
Weekends like this remind me and other regional leaders of the impact SCPC has not only had in Lismore, but across our region. It is likely 70% of the event was fuelled by SCPC. If this makes your heart skip a beat like it does mine, can I encourage you to keep giving generously to our general account. Your generosity feeds into initiatives like this, as all our ministry efforts come from the same giving. Giving to our general account keeps our heartbeat strong in next generation ministries. We have had a very slow start to the year financially in a pressured financial season. Yet, we want to be strong in this area to position ourselves to employ a next generation pastor on the 1st of January 2025.
Finally, plans for YC25 have already begun, with serious thought being given to a possible location move to enable the convention to keep growing, particularly with community youth who don’t know the hope of Christ. So please pray for wisdom in this space. How cool would it be if 13-18 year olds across the Northern Rivers came to see how brilliant Christ is!
Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8
SP
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[1] Presbyterian Youth NSW is the administrative backer of this conference.
[2] Interestingly, I created this role and others at YC ten years ago, after adopting them from my three years of student ministry with Presbyterian Youth NSW in 2007-2009.
[3] This language is borrowed from family systems theory, that encourages leaders to stay calm even when faced with complex pastoral or physical crises.
