(This was first announced in our email newsletter, if you have not received our email please email us at info@usmbyouth.com)
We are excited for YOUTHCON ’19 and look for our promo pack in the mail shortly but in the meantime, we want to give you some heads up on who is going to be there.
First, we have Scot Pierce, Sara Jo Waldron & Hallie Bontrager will be our hosts for the event. You will start to hear from them in the next several weeks.
A common way to plan a convention is to pick a theme, hire a speaker and let him/her come with 6 talks. We decided that for this upcoming event we wanted to plan a little differently and we wanted to share our process with you.
We understand that there will be many different students at many different places in their faith in attendance at the YouthCON in Glorieta. Students will register and attend because it looked like a fun trip, or because of friends, maybe because they want to grow in their faith. Some are going to go because they are searching, some will go because they are ALL in and want to express their commitment to faith and some are looking for the next level in their Christian walk.
Imagine a funnel. (Thank you Doug Fields, the godfather of youth ministry) the wide end is the most basic commitment and the narrow end is the most committed. All that to say we will have students in attendance from all over the spectrum. So here is our plan… We want to address each student in an engaging, loving and challenging manner. We want to INVITE each person to take one step towards a deeper faith, wherever they may be starting. SO, we want to talk about our lives and the world we live in as a narrative, a story. Each of us has pages of the script and an important role to play. (see EPIC by John Eldredge) We want to introduce students to Jesus and invite them to begin a relationship. We will also talk about what it means to be a follower of Jesus and look at what our role might be in the Kingdom story. We will talk about a big God that loves us like crazy, rescued us and wants to include us in his world no matter what think of our inability. We also want to talk about His invitation to join him in reaching others that all may know him.
We decided to think about the people that we knew who was the best at these topics and invite a handful of people to teach and speak from the main stage. Several of the speakers are (more to come):
Ryan McCullough
Kat Smith
Tam Hodge
Randy Friesen
Bill Hogg
We are excited that Ryan and Brie Wallace will be leading us in worship and James Isaac is back to direct the house band.
OneTimeBlind will be with us, making us laugh, cry and think.
We are heading back to where it all began for us in 1975. Glorieta, New Mexico. Check out this amazing, newly renovated camp.
We have been thinking, planning and praying over this event for several years already.
Watch for many more details, promo kits and fundraising ideas in the weeks to come. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Neil Bontrager & Kyle Goings
CoDirectors, USMB National YouthCon ’19