The Conference Wasn’t Life Changing? That’s OK

Adore Ministries along with Steubenville Conferences, completed our second Encounter Young Adult Conference. It was once again a phenomenal weekend. I spent Friday and Sunday shuttling attendees and speakers to and from the airport. Saturday I was a floater and helped out wherever help was needed. I was blessed to be able to sit in on an impact session and Saturday evening’s keynote and adoration. For me personally being with my fellow missionaries, running into friends from town and out of town and meeting people who have come from all over (22 different states this year) is my absolute favorite part of the weekend. But not everyone experienced or had as good of a time as they expected…and I think that’s ok.

I heard from so many people who had such a good weekend. They were touched by the talks, the time of prayer, the people they met, etc. They really felt fed. But then I spoke with a couple people (I’m sure there are more) who did not have the experience I’m sure they expected. I was told that nothing was really life changing  or the talks didn’t necessarily impact them. I have two thoughts on that:

1.     Did you come with super high and very specific expectations? Sometimes what we are hoping for is not what God has instore and if we are not open to what He has we may miss it. I spoke with multiple people who told me that they needed to open up, do away with their expectations, or even squash their personal negativity because things weren’t going their way. And then, then they had space to allow God in and boy did he do some work!
 2.     That’s ok. A conference should not be the only place to have life changing experiences. The struggle with youth ministry is that many teens wait for their spiritual experience to happen once a year at their favorite retreat or conference, especially Steubenville Conferences. But that is not how you strengthen your faith or keep it alive, especially when you are out of high school. We must convert and recommit ourselves daily. We must have a daily prayer life, be feeding ourselves with scripture, good books, spiritual direction, adoration, worship, confession, mass attendance, regularly. And these can’t be just things we do to check things off the to do list or allow them to become the motions we go through. We must be attentive and open to receiving and giving ourselves.

There is no other part of our life that is truly important to us where we seek to improve it once a year. And if we do, it most probably is not healthy at the moment. I don’t wait to check in with my wife and kids once a year. People at their jobs don’t seek to improve once a year when they may have a special training seminar. As missionaries we are required to go on a retreat at least once a year. But, we are expected to have a daily prayer life and devotion to scripture, mass attendance, confession as often as possible, spiritual direction, and if needed counseling.

If you are out of high school, or even in high school, retreats and conferences should simply be a place to be open to what God may have for you. At Encounter if you were able to stop and have a one on one deep conversation, sit in silence somewhere, go to adoration for a little while, zip around the lazy river, reunite with friends, listen to a talk that touched you, have drinks with new acquaintances, pray with someone, sleep in, etc, that was our goal. We hoped that we could love the people in our 10 ft. radius and that people came and felt loved. You could have met Jesus in a talk, during conversation, at the bar, or in the lazy river. We built no boxes to where everything would happen as we saw it should.

For me, God spoke during adoration. Through our backdrop on stage of Houston and a back yard and Fr. Joe’s intimate aggression with Jesus and getting in people’s faces and spaces, and nooks and crannies God told me he was coming in. After Harvey, that meant into houses, relationships, lives, where ever He was allowed in. But that was not the most important thing. I experienced/realized something else this weekend that had nothing to do with neither adoration nor talks. But it is going to be life changing.

So Encounter wasn’t life changing for you? That’s ok. Our whole goal was to love and for people to feel loved. Now, just pay attention and stay connected. Do not wait for next year.