More Than A Photo: NEXT 2011 Conference

Every year around Memorial Day, the young adults in my church attend a 4-day conference with a few thousand other college-age kids from churches across the country. It originally was called New Attitude, but a few years ago they changed the name to NEXT (www.thisisnext.org). The conference is put on by Sovereign Grace Ministries, and most of the church's who participate in NEXT are Sovereign Grace churches (my church is Sovereign Grace Church in Fairfax, VA). The conference began about 12 years ago, and is always an amazing 4 days of teaching, worship, and fellowship.

In years past, NEXT was held in Louisville, Kentucky and Baltimore, Maryland, but this year they moved it to Orlando, Florida. I've gone to two NEXT conferences prior to this year's, and both the 2009 and 2010 conference were in Baltimore. I LOVED the inner harbor and being in that city, so I was a little apprehensive about Orlando. However, it ended up being an amazing, beautiful location, and a great place for NEXT.

We got there early Saturday afternoon (05/28) and returned home latelate Tuesday night (05/31). Those 4 days were amazing for me... The focus of the conference was on learning how a Christian worldview applies to all areas of life, such as the role of reason in the life of faith, New Atheists, humanity in the eyes of the world and the Christian, etc. Lately I've been struggling to solidify WHY I believe what I believe. I've grown up my whole life going to church and having "church language" poured in my ears. It's so easy for me to say the "right answer" and not even take a second to consider if I fully believe what I'm saying. This NEXT talked about Jesus Christ as the Truth and where in Scripture we find truths about Him that impact our worldview, and how this in effect impacts how we share the Gospel with others. It was AMAZING.

I'll share more specifics in my next post. ;) For now, enjoy this first round of photos!

My darling sister Molly and two of my very best friends, Liane & Charis Okada. We basically spent all 4-days together. It was perfect.

Me and my friend Beau from the Sovereign Grace church in Chesapeake, VA....

Home friends and fellow Fairfax church attendees...

Me'n Claire Rossell... I love this girl :):):)

My friends and our seats in the first session, Saturday night....

This next photo is of one of our pastors at SGC Fairfax, Vince Hinders. He's THE BOMB. He has been such means of grace in my life as a pastor and a friend, and I could talk to him all day long. He loves to tease me about being "Trouble," and I often see this finger of his in the air.... Haha, love it.....

NEXT is big on having testimonies shared at the end of each worship session, and I definitely looked forward to hearing these stories of God's amazing mercy, love, and faithfulness poured out in men and women's lives!

Joshua Harris, the EMCEE for the conference and Senior Pastor at Covenant Life Church in Maryland.

Jeff Purswell spoke the first night, on "God on the World: The Bible's Framework for a Christian Worldview." Such a great way to start off the conference!

Hanging out on the Saturday night after the session...

Danny Stehlik, goodgood friend who used to live in Virginia but ~~deserted us~~ moved to Arizona with the rest of his amazing Stehlik family in 2005 (or 2004?). He goes to a Sovereign Grace church in Gilbert, AZ, and we were thrilled to see him and hangout during NEXT.

Heh heh, maybe he wasn't as thrilled to see us as we were to see him...

Hanging at the tennis-made-into-basketball-courts...

Clarky :) Love my lil brother...

Anna Remer :) Such a wonderful friend from church and home. :)

Aint my sister so preeeeetty???

Sara and Charis... love these two.... :)

Haha, Ben's face....

Chaaaaariss :) :) :)

Haha, Nat Nat...

Morning Session on Sunday...

Josh doing announcements...

Session #2 (Sunday morning) speaker was Scott Oliphint, who taught on the topic of "Think or Believe? The Role of Reason."

The conference staff provided us with paper bag lunches on Sunday and Monday. They consisted of a sub, a bag of chips, and a cookie. It was such a blessing to have those two meals covered by the conference. :)

Sunday afternoon lunch... So beauuutiful, Nat :)

Just sittin under some palm trees... No big deal :P

Mollllllly, I love you...

Anna .... You're so beautiful, and such a cutie :):):)

Sweet Megan...

Haha, NAT! You make me smile so big! :)

Ohhh, and the sky? It was INCREDIBLE. I will never ever get sick of the Florida sky... I could photograph it forever...

Heading to the pool for a relaxing Sunday afternoon swim....

Sunday afternoon Breakout Sessions! I attended Kevin DeYoung's session on "Jesus and Other Religions." It was so good!

My darling friend, Alexandra, whom I met at CNU through the Chesapeake church and who also does Campus Crusades for Christ within the Tidewater region of Virginia, also attended the NEXT conference (and the same Kevin DeYoung breakout session on Sunday). It was so good to see her. :)

In the auditorium before the Sunday night session... Apparently Clark and Nat found something very funny :P

Ohhh the faces...

Mols, I love the happiness of our smiles in this photo...

My friend Gabe stole my camera and played with the settings to take this cool photo (along with others, not shown)....

Another young woman giving her testimony...

Josh Harris giving announcements...

A man named Nathan Sasser gave away a book every session that was correlated to the speaker's message that session. He was so comical and I loved these parts of each session!

D.A. Carson spoke Sunday night on "The Gospel and the Post-Modern Mind."

After the Sunday night session, these three amazing girls and I snuck off to have a good, deep heart-to-heart on what God had been revealing to us thus far into the conference. Can I just say that this talk was one of the most wonderful I had all conference?!? I love these girls so much. Li, Mol, & Char.... thanks for being such faithful friends and sisters, and for never giving up on me. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!