Regional Youth Leaders’ Summit 2019
Praise team leading praise & worship during the divine service of the Refresh Summit in Kingston.
From January 11 to February 3, 2019, Ontario Youth Ministries hosted 4 Regional Youth Leaders’ Summits across the province: GTA for the 5 central regions, Kingston for the 2 eastern regions, Kitchener for the 2 south-west regions, and Sudbury for the 2 northern regions. Fittingly, it was themed "Refresh" in order to retool, refocus, and recharge youth and young adult leaders in the churches and public campuses of Ontario.
The intent of the event was to bring leadership training closer to youth leaders, whereby their ministry leadership needs and those of the youth in their sphere of influence were served contextually. In addition to the training aspect, worship services were inspiring and interactive; moments for group discussion, including leaders meeting with their regions, were informative, and special features, such as the Ministry Shark Tank in the GTA, initiated creativity.
Pastor Jose Sanchez leading a plenary session.
The keynote speakers were chosen from among leaders of the regions, which pooled their resources: Pastors Paul Smith (GTA), Bob Winsor (Kingston), Junior Garcia (Kitchener), and Daniel Saugh & Aundrea Thompson (Sudbury). Their messages focused, to some extent, on the discipleship conversation Ontario Conference is focused on for 2019. The presenters were a mixture of pastors and lay leaders who had demonstrated interest in the subjects they were invited to lead.
Andrew Conroy, one of the plenary session presenters, said this in reflection: “You provided an excellent summit, along with your support staff, and a tremendous amount of useful knowledge was exchanged. I certainly came away blessed and armed with new material.”
In total, it is estimated that approximately 330 registrants attended the “Refresh” Regional Youth Leaders’ Summits. God be praised! The next training event will be the biennial Youth Ministries Convention in January 2020, to launch the year.