The Middle School Conference is designed for youth who have completed fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth grade by summer 2020, and for their group leaders. Adults must be fully registered and housed with their youth in campus housing. The daily schedule includes keynote, worship, recreation, singing, small groups, and many other activities.
The conference will be held at Maryville College, a PC(USA) affiliated private college, located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Planning to Gather
We miss being together. We feel strongly that being together in community is one of the main ways we live our call to Christian discipleship.
So, in the hopes that pandemic circumstances will improve to allow us to be on site together in 2021, our directors, planning teams, and leaders for Youth and Middle School conferences are at work to create on site, in person conference experiences. They have met virtually to select themes for each conference, and in January our leaders will take the next steps toward building these conferences. Both teams emphasized the central importance of making connections with one another and with God, and of course we know that conferences allow for that growth to happen in a unique way.
Being together next summer may require some modifications for maintaining social distance and maximizing time outdoors. As the summer approaches we will be preparing those modifications and telling you about them. Get ready! We will modify as we go according to what’s required!
Prepared for Adaptation
Even as we plan for gathering, we have to be prepared for just about anything. Last spring taught us that we can adapt to some curveballs when necessary. Between March and June we had multiple conference plans – from “normal” to “online” and a few in between – on the table all at once.
If necessary, we’ll adapt again. Our goal is to be together, and we hope that means face to face. But we’ll be prepared to adapt if the pandemic and good sense require it.
Need to talk to a real person? Contact Hope Barker, Youth Conference Registrar, at hopeb@montreat.org, or call 828.419.9828.