Bermuda. Watkins Glen. Acadia. Stonehenge. Laguna Beach. Fujiyama. Grandma’s house. There are many wonderful and important places to go and things to see and do with your few days of vacation, in which you can leave behind labor, income, responsibility, and the pulpit or the crops, and try something different. Why would you spend these few days in middling accommodations, where you will stand in line to eat cafeteria-style, and where the entertainment is strictly amateur? Good question.

The benefits of the Reformed Presbyterian International Conference (RPIC) are not realized primarily within the course of a few days at the end of June and cannot be seen in smiling selfies posted on social media. The conference’s value is harder to see and measure. It lies largely in the heart, enlarged for Christ’s church, and revealing itself in future days and years. It is accessed through connecting with the people of your church, worldwide. RPIC includes the opportunity for our generation to grow together in spiritual maturity, admiration of Christ, capacity for worship, zeal toward service, and the desire to serve in Christ’s kingdom. We have experienced the benefits as a church. As we take the opportunity, we prepare the ground for future generations.

Pray Before, During, and After

Spiritual growth and renewal cannot be manufactured. It is not scientific. Even so, we can pray for revival and refreshment with confidence, because God has told us that His will and expectation is for us to grow, though the power and timing are His (Hebrews 5–6). Past conferences have served as occasions for vocational calling or clarification in many people’s lives. Pastors, missionaries, and other servants of the kingdom have had their start at RPIC. Let us pray together—through the spring and into the summer and as we gather in Indiana, and each day at the conference—that Reformed Presbyterians will be stronger, healthier, holier, and more resilient by the grace of God and the work of His Spirit.

Welcome Folks from Different Places, Histories, and Perspectives

RPIC presents an opportunity to hear how Reformed Presbyterians are building and rebuilding their souls, their churches, and their witness in contexts that are different than yours. Urban vs. rural, small vs. big, stable vs. transient, Old World vs. New World, First World vs. Third World, young and restless vs. old and tired—there are folks coming to RPIC who have seen things and tried things that you have not. Sharing a meal or an afternoon or a seminar with these folks will stretch and strengthen you. It has been the foundation of lasting long-distance friendships in many lives in our denomination. These connections may warm and enliven your affections. Come sit at a meal with these other Reformed Presbyterians and see.

Exercise Hope; Make a Plan to Grow and Change

Our church is small. Our growth rate is small. It sometimes feels like there is more subtracting in our church work than adding, and multiplication feels like a foreign idea. But we know that the church of Jesus Christ is a permanent, beloved, empowered, glorious, and precious institution, and that His saints are called to demonstrate the virtue of hope as we work toward His good purposes. One way to obey the directive to hope is to come to the conference intending to ask a good question, mend a fence, reach across a presbytery line, lift up the hurting, see more clearly, find a new way, or an old one.

Practice the Conference Psalm

We are using Psalm 93 as the center of our praise for the conference. It is our hope that this psalm will fix in our hearts and minds the themes that Pastor Warren Peel will explore (see “How Can We Sing the Lord’s Song in Babylon?”). We will sing it daily as it connects us to God in worship and unites us as believers in praise. The musical setting in The Book of Psalms for Worship (93B, Monk’s Gate) fits and supports the text and pleases the ear. But it may be that this setting is less familiar to you or your congregation. Work on it in your congregations and around the dinner table, and then bring the fruit of this labor to Marion, Ind., this summer.

Congregational T-Shirts at the International Conference

Since the patenting of the rotatable garment screen printing machine in 1969, the T-shirt has become a significant cultural billboard, proclaiming messages from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The use of T-shirts as identification and communication became a part of the Reformed Presbyterian International Conference in the 1970s. Congregations used the T-shirt to communicate their message by having attendees wear their local church’s matching T-shirts on a particular day at the conference.

Congregations have displayed various messages including their unity and zeal, their history, theme verses, or other ideas to the conference. Many versions of the Blue Banner have been reproduced, but there are certainly other options. The screen printer may work in one color or many; employ graphics or text; or print on the sleeves, the back, or over the heart.

If your congregation has the creativity and leadership to pull it off, you are invited to don your colorful, uniquely designed, matching T-shirts on Thursday, June 27.