More than 350 young adults from around Australia recently came together for a weekend of revival and renewal at the annual Converge camp.
Held at the Stuart’s Point Convention Centre (NSW) on February 10-13, the spiritual weekend inspired Millennials aged 18-30 to “live the next level”.
Returning for his second year, US native Jeremy Anderson challenged those who attended to let God name and claim them and use them to be something more amazing—to step up and make a difference.
“Your condition is not your conclusion,” he said during one of his evening presentations. “God has called us to run into burning buildings, into Babylon, into our local communities, into our churches . . . be a light in dark places.”
“He was like a personal trainer for life,” said Jessica Symes, co-organiser of Converge. “The whole weekend was like a battle call.”
Tertiary and Young Adult Ministries director for the Adventist Church in South Queensland, Alina van Rensburg, was the morning speaker, and reiterated the importance of “We, The Church.” Her focus was on each person being the body of Christ —a community of believers—people doing life groups together. [pullquote]
“The Church is not the administration or the politics,” she said. “The Church is us.”
Highlights of the weekend included daily personal stories of faith, one baptism and five others who recommitted their lives to Jesus, and a leaders’ breakfast where more than 50 young people came because of their desire to step up, challenge and change the church. Together, they shared stories and experiences, and were prayed over.
“The focus of Converge is to build community, not run entertaining programs for young people,” said Pastor Jeff Parker, Youth director for the Adventist Church in Australia and coordinator of Converge. “It’s so exciting to see so many of our Millennial generation who are willing to converge in the one place to worship Jesus Christ. This very capable generation is already making a difference in the world—we need to let them do it in the church as well.”
Converge will return to Stuart’s Point in February 2018 for its third year.
