CE&P'S YXL Draws 85 People to Covenant College

Education and Publications and assisted by Covenant College, was held July 9-14 at the college atop Lookout Mountain in GA. More than eighty people including leaders from more than twelve states came together for a week of training, fellowship, fun, and service. The conference began with Monday evening dinner and worship and concluded with breakfast on Saturday. 

Danny Mitchell, CE&P’s conference director and coordinator of youth and family ministries, said, “There is something pretty amazing about spending the week with high school students in any setting, but when you come to a beautiful location with solid biblical teaching and worship, plus the other activities designed to foster leadership, then you have the recipe for a great student leadership conference. Add to that the prayers of hundreds of people from around the country, it should come as no surprise that at YXL 2007 we witnessed the Holy Spirit transform lives.” 

The theme of the conference - “CONNECT: Who I am, where I am going, and what I am becoming” – set the stage for the week. The surrounding philosophy of the conference was “Making Kingdom Disciples, a world and life view.” The purpose was to train these teenagers for more effective leadership in the church, home, and community. There were seminars on the kingdom of God, world and life view, and postmodernism. Much was accomplished during the week through lectures and interaction with the students. 

The evening worship services included key leaders in the PCA and worship led by Covenant College’s Third Lobby. The speakers included Charles Dunahoo from CE&P, Mike Higgins from Redemption Fellowship Presbyterian Church, Rod Mays from RUM, Niel Nielson from Covenant College, and Danny Mitchell from CE&P. Their topics ranged from: knowing what we believe, character development, and commitment to one another. 

Morning devotions were led by Dennis Bennett of CE&P and were based on character development and spiritual maturity. Students were given workbooks for the week containing material related to the morning devotions as well as to their own personal evaluation.

A new activity was added to this year’s conference in cooperation with Hope for Chattanooga, an inner city ministry led by Paul Green. Each afternoon while three other groups were involved in other activities, a group of 20-22 went to Hope for Chattanooga for a service project. The students had very positive reaction to this activity. 

Dunahoo said that this year’s conference laid the foundation for future conferences by expanding on the kingdom/world and life view focus. With Covenant College's assistance, Dunahoo indicates that future conferences will include several different tracks to cover not only the first time participants, but returning students. A third track is being planned for 2008 for youth leaders.  

Dunahoo stated that CE&P is also pleased with the affiliate conference of YXL in New Mexico for those from the southwest region. Part of CE&P long range scenario for YXL is to have several conferences around the country discipling youth leaders in the kingdom world and life view philosophy. 

Click here to view more information and pictures from the 2007 conference.