More than 600 young people from 40 churches in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Ohio, and Arizona came together for a youth conference hosted by Grace Family Church. The conference title and theme were " Transformed," and had an idea of being made into something, or changed for the better. The conference on November 7 and 8 had four seminars that were taught by Vitaly Pelikhatiy, pastor of Redeemer Church in Idaho, Dmitriy Zherebnenkov, pastor of Grace Family Church in Sacramento and Peter Kondrashov, pastor of the English ministry of the Bryte Church. All of the seminars were dedicated to the teaching of Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians.
- Pastor of Grace Family Church, Dmitriy Zherebnenkov was the one who had the idea for this conference, - said Denis Nedorezov, who was one of those responsible for organizing the conference. - When our church hosted a “Worship Night” for our Association’s youth event, he saw how the youth longs for fellowship and how they pursue biblical teaching and spiritual growth, he gathered a team and suggested to us to have a conference dedicated to that.
- We were discussing a name for the conference, - Dmitry Zherebnenkov continued. - We needed a short but captivating name that no one else had used before, and it had to reflect our goals for this conference. The goal of my ministry as a pastor is to help people to understand the need-to-know Christ and be transformed into His image. We set the same goal for this youth conference and that's where the name “Transformed” came from.
The Epistle to the Philippians presents a beautiful picture of a transformed person, his relationship with Christ, admiration for Him, and his imitation of Him. Each chapter of this short book was covered by a separate speaker. Vitaliy Pelikhatiy led the seminar on the first chapter, discussing the meaning of the Apostle Paul's words: "For me, to live is Christ." Dmitry Zherebnenkov led the seminar on the second chapter, titled "Imitating Christ." Peter Kondrashev led the seminar "Loving Christ" on the third chapter, and Vitaly concluded the study of this book with the seminar on "Experiencing joy in Christ."
The fourth session, "Questions and Answers," was a special for the youth since they had a chance to ask many questions about the practical life of a Christian:
- What does it mean to follow Christ? To live by Him?
- If God is sovereign in everything, even in how much revelation I receive about Him, how can I be motivated to read His Word? After all, only God Himself will decide how much He reveals to me! What's the point of reading the Word and praying if, ultimately, nothing depends on me?
- I'm constantly depressed, unable to meet God's high standards and am unable to go through these trials successfully in this training phase. What should I do?
- How can I overcome the doubts that overwhelm me and distance me from God?
There were many other questions, and the pastors who spoke at the conference openly shared their own experiences and pointed youth to the sources and ways that they could learn answers to such questions.
If you know English, be sure to listen to the recordings of this conference, and share it with your children as well.
- It's clear you were successful in getting the youth to be interested in this conference topic. What’s next? Do you have any plans for the future? - I asked Pastor Dmitry.
- Yes, - he replied. - We received many similar questions from young ministers from various churches attending the conference. After discussing this with our elders, we decided to plan a similar conference for next year in November.
May the Lord bless these plans and bring them to pass. We all need a reminder of the importance of living a life in Christ, of being rooted in Him and His Word, and to pursue holiness, "without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). This is especially necessary for the young people who are just embarking on their Christian path, and experiencing many temptations of recent times. May God help us all!
Olga Avetisova
Seminar recordings and radio interviews can be viewed and listened to at the following links:
- Transformed Conference (Day 1) (English)
Session 1: Loving Christ (Vitaliy Pelikhaty)
Session 2: Imitating Christ (Dmitriy Zherebnenkov) - Transformed Conference (Day 2 - Part 1) (English)
Session 3: Knowing Christ (Peter Kondrashev)
Session 4: Q&A - Transformed Conference (Day 2 - Part 2) (English)
Session 5: Rejoicing in Christ - Radio interview with pastor Dmitriy Zherebnenkov (Russian)
- Radio interview with pastor Vitaliy Pelikhaty (Russian)
