This update is from Anthony Mullins, coordinator of GCI Generations Ministries (GenMin).
It’s my pleasure to report the recent successful completion of GenMin’s Converge East gathering near Columbus, Ohio (I reported earlier on Converge West, which was held in the Los Angeles, California area). Now that these two events are in the books, I find myself often thanking God for the people who participated. From our camp coaches (pictured at right) who did a superb job organizing both events, to the young adults who invested their time and money to attend, to the church pastors and other church leaders who not only came but gave generously of themselves to the younger generation, to the denominational leaders who value this ministry and show it through their support and, above all, to our relational God—the love, freedom and binding together of Father, Son and Spirit were on full display in both locations.
We had a record crowd at Converge East of 167 people (see the group pictured below). The combined attendance at the two Converge gatherings was a 37% increase over last year, falling just short of our goal of 250 people total.
The feedback from Converge East has been encouraging—many commented how much they were blessed by the event. Particular mention was made concerning the time in which we gave one another verbal affirmations in small group gatherings. One young adult told me how much it meant to have GCI veterans like John Halford and Jeff Broadnax speak to them encouraging words of life. We also were blessed by the life-giving, gospel words spoken by the various Converge East presenters: Meredith Macy, Heber Ticas, Gary and Cathy Deddo, Jeff McSwain, Jeff Broadnax, Mark and Anne Stapleton, Greg Williams, Jon Kuhn and others.
During the Saturday afternoon session, we rallied around Dan Rogers and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing over him (see picture below). Dan will be retiring at the end of this year from his responsibilities as director of GCI-USA Church Administration and Development, and we wanted to express to him our deep appreciation for his unwavering support for youth ministry in general and GenMin in particular throughout the years. Dan, you are a blessing!!
For those not able to attend a Converge event this year, we’ll be posting video vignettes of some of the meetings and interviews with some of the leaders. We’ve embedded below one of those videos—this one excerpts a presentation from Michelle Fleming about this year’s GenMin camp teaching curriculum, which she authored. Stay tuned for other videos here in Weekly Update and at these other GenMin media locations:
- Our website at http://www.generationsministries.org/
- Our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/109129609109038/
- Our Twitter feed https://twitter.com/genmin1
All in all, it was a wonderful Converge experience this year and I conclude this report with our Converge 2014 rally cry: Let’s build something together! Thanks to God, that building is under way in and through the body of Christ, the church. I always encourage our GenMin folks to be active participants in their local congregation, for that is the primary means that Jesus is using to advance the Kingdom of God.
Watch on YouTube at http://youtu.be/tFlKjU6mstE
The conference not only put us in touch with people who will help us with our revamped camp, it rejuvenated and fired our people up! It was also ironic that Heber Ticas talked about being missional with people with issues that many of us have never faced before–we had just discussed on the drive to Converge that we needed to prepare ourselves for that kind of daily mission!