This Week in Montreat #2

Thousands of youth and middle school conferees are looking forward to summer youth conferences here. We know this to be true because we have continued to receive new registrations for the 2020 season. This week, however, we also began in earnest our efforts to serve the youth of the church right now, in this time of crisis and anxiety.  On Thursday evening, April 2nd, Rodger Nishioka and fellow 2020 conference leaders are kicking off a new weekly series of online gatherings, called “Montreat Now.” In addition to offering each installment live, sessions will be recorded for youth groups around the denomination and beyond. Our hope is that hundreds – perhaps thousands – will participate. At their best, Montreat youth and middle school conferences are about living in Christian community – strangers becoming friends as they worship, sing, pray and play together. We believe that convening our youth conference community now will help leaders and participants alike understand better the effects of the bewildering, often painful disruption and anxiety we are experiencing. We see an opportunity to interpret these events through a lens of theological and biblical integrity. We see an opportunity to celebrate that, even in a time of crisis, Christ is alive in all of us.  I am so grateful to Rodger and the rest of our volunteer leaders, and to staff Carol Steele and Evelyn Coleman. They are all adding this new dimension of Montreat’s ministry to their ongoing responsibilities. Bless you all!  __________________ While some good ideas lead to new services, others run aground on the ever-changing reality of the coronavirus. Wednesday, we received word that Buncombe County authorities were issuing a “Stay Home - Stay Safe” order, an important and necessary step for public heath but one which effectively limits our staff deployment and halts some new plans to serve. (For more details on the local order, see here: https://www.buncombecounty.org/countycenter/news-detail.aspx?id=18580) This week the Montreat Store and Assembly Inn kitchen began offering inexpensive takeout meals to locals at a time when grocery store shelves in the area are increasingly sparse. In the wake of the county’s order, we’ve had to suspend that effort for the time being, lacking sufficient staff to implement our plan. Today, again following the spirit of the order, we also closed access to our recreation facilities, including trails, tennis courts, and Robert Lake Park.  These measures highlight the strange fact that, while some areas of our staff are in overdrive, others are forced to simply bide their time until conditions improve. In that vein, Lewis Galloway, a board member and Presbyterian pastor, offers a meditation on the gifts of stillness in these times. You can read his reflections here, and I encourage you to share it with others.  More to come! Gratefully,

Richard DuBose President Montreat Conference Center