The first week of April, on my spring break, we had the delight of attending a youth conference! It was a 3-day event held at West Coast Baptist Church in Lancaster, CA. The church is pastored by Dr. Paul Chappell. It was our very first time going there, and I’m quite excited to share with you dear readers about it.
The theme of the conference was “Launch Out” at His Command based on the passage in Luke 5:1-5 where Christ told Peter to launch out for a catch of fish.
It was amazing to see how in the middle of a bare Californian desert…
The Lord raised up a testimony of His grace through the establishment of a church and Bible College…
…along with a wonderful aesthetic campus
It was refreshing to see so many conservative youth and people all gathered in one place, and you could see many among them were genuine, respectful, modestly and elegantly dressed…
There was good preaching…
An inspiring and well played drama of the pilgrims combined with a story contemporary of missionaries…
And complete with authentic looking costumes,
It was also nice to see the church promoted God-honoring music to worship the Lord…
Despite these wonderful aspects of the program, there were a few things that shadowed the joy. There were many “game sessions” at the beginning of the services which were loud and got the young highschoolers agitated, some games that were inappropriate, so we did not participate in them. A few other things too, like “funny commercials” that really weren’t funny. I have to be honest and mention these negatives as well, because they were part of the conference, and I must tell my perspective as a first time visitor. In light of this, I pray for the church and pastor that they will realize the need to change those aspects.
Now back to the positives, here’s a glimpse of their College Choir singing on the last day of the conference…
Oh, but there’s more!
Each person attending receives a little gift…
You can visit the little cafe and bookstore on campus…
We explored the lovely classrooms and premises…
Fellowshipped with like-minded believers…
A highlight of the 3-day conference is that you can attend sessions of classes taught at their Bible College. They have classes on subjects of hymnology, the Life of Paul, Romans, etc. I really didn’t feel like I was studying. It felt like I was in church! 🙂
All too soon we had to say farewell…
And everyone launched out back to our little corner of the world where God wants us to make a difference…
But maybe next year we could go back again…