How RP International Conferences have helped my family and many others

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be with your family and other members of your tribe making the trek to Jerusalem during one of the festival times in the Old Testament? What excitement you would have felt as a young person or adult walking with your friends and family, camping along the way, and joining the throng of people journeying to that special place! As you came in view of the city for the first time, imagine the sense of awe you would have felt as a covenant child, one who had been taught the significance of the promises of God regarding the coming Messiah.

Psalm 122, one of the psalms of ascent, expresses the joy and thanksgiving of such a journey. As ones united to Christ, we sing of our desire for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem, the Old Testament picture of God dwelling with His people, the Church. We find joy every Lord’s Day in joining His people to worship Him. On Saturdays when our children were growing up, we would often express our excitement: “Tomorrow, we get to go to church and worship the Lord with His people, hear God’s Word preached, and sing, and pray!”

Yearly, many of our families across the denomination express a similar and perhaps even increased excitement as we prepare to attend presbytery camps and conferences, and every four years we have the privilege of attending the RP International Conference. These festal gatherings have been of great value to our family in many ways. From the perspective of a first-generation Covenanter, and a wife, mother, grandmother, and teacher, I will highlight three specific ways the Lord has used International Conferences in our family’s life.

Strengthening Our Home

First, the Lord has graciously used conferences to strengthen our covenant home in worship and in our union and communion with Christ. The singing of the Psalms by 1,400 worshipers is one of the most powerful experiences of the International Conference. I often hear people remark that this is the highlight of the conference for them. I will never forget hearing the Psalms sung at the 1970 International Conference at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. The chapel was a gothic-style stone building with wonderful acoustics, and the singing of the Psalms in that building was awe-inspiring. I had never had such an experience!

I had come to faith in Christ three years earlier after seeing the lives of my parents, Bill and Lois Long, powerfully changed by the grace of Jesus Christ. We were members of a new congregation in West Lafayette, Indiana. I had met my husband-to-be, David, at Geneva College and had begun to learn more about the denomination, but there were many doctrines of the church I did not understand or appreciate. Being at Carleton increased my appetite to grow in my knowledge of the church and application of biblical worship.

David’s parents faithfully and sacrificially took him and his sisters to presbytery and international conferences, and we began to develop a zeal for establishing a covenant home and continuing the tradition. That summer, in preparation for Carleton, I memorized Colossians in response to a challenge issued by Ken Smith, Sr., then director of Christian Education for the denomination. The importance of our union and communion with Christ was cemented in our minds that summer and became foundational in our marriage and the rearing of our eight covenant children.

I am confident He will use this year’s conference in similar ways. The program for the 2012 conference has an exciting and practical theme of “How to Live the Christian Life.” The topics include instruction in how to cultivate holiness, our prayer life, effective family worship, living Christ-like through affliction, and running the Christian race to the end. We can expect the Lord to use these teachings to equip us as we do battle for His Kingdom when we return home to the mission fields where He has placed each of us.

Calling Us to Serve

Second, the Lord has used the International Conference to call us and our children to service and give us a broader view of the church worldwide. Every conference presents opportunities for growth as gifted men preach and teachers bring lessons from God’s Word. Men and women have been called to the pastorate or missions at many of our International Conferences. Paul Faris, a dearly loved grandfather of our children, first heard the call of God to preach when he attended the Winona Lake conference in 1938. Sam Boyle told our children many times of his response to the Lord’s call to China at the 1934 Winona Lake conference. Many other men and women testify to similar experiences.

At Calvin 2000, the men and women from Japan came to my juniors class and taught the children Psalm 34 in Japanese. Our children fondly remember the experience, and we are thankful for the way the Lord has used the conferences to unite us with brothers and sisters from Japan, Cyprus, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, and China and to give us an increased heart to pray for Christ’s Church worldwide.

Providing Fellowship

A third highlight that follows closely with the second is that the Lord uses the International Conference to provide opportunities for fellowship, meeting old friends, meeting new ones, and building lifelong relationships with other saints. The conference is a time of reunion for many families and friends, and what better place to gather than in the worship of God? This past summer at our presbytery’s family conference, Covfamikoi, our entire family reunited. Daniel and Natalie were home from Sudan, and though now outdated (our 21st covenant grandchild was born to Zachary and Flo Blackwood, Oct. 29), the picture shows our immediate family including my mother.

It was at the 2000 Calvin International Conference that Daniel met Natalie Weir. Because I had been teaching all week, I had not been aware of this budding relationship, and when he brought Natalie to my classroom to help load up all the supplies at the end of the conference, I sought out Bill and Rose Weir to affirm our hearty approval! We rejoice in the Lord’s grace in giving our children desires for life partners who are like-minded, willing to serve Him wherever He leads.

As a teacher at many of the annual and quadrennial conferences, I have had the wonderful privilege of knowing many children and through them becoming acquainted with their parents and grandparents. I find great joy in having them approach me as adults to express how the Lord used the teaching at a particular conference to increase their zeal for Him and His Church. May the Lord be pleased to use all the teachers at the 2012 conference to urge us and our children to greater zeal and obedience.

A caveat that I would like to include is that all of us who attend need to reach out to those we don’t know, especially those who are new believers and/or new to the denomination. We should pray for awareness, sensitivity, and the ability to joyfully, gently, and patiently include men, women, and children who are “first-timers” or maybe even coming for the second or third time. I clearly remember my experience of sitting in the chapel at the 1970 Carleton Conference. I was sitting in a pew behind two elderly women at a program during which young people from around the country were being recognized for memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism. In my ignorance I unwisely vocalized my skepticism: “Who would ever want to memorize the catechism? Why not just memorize Scripture?” The two ladies turned around and rebuked me, saying, “Young lady! There is much value to memorizing the catechism!” Since that time I have come to truly appreciate the discipline of memorizing the catechism, and I laugh at my outspoken and immature response that day. But I also know that a gentle answer might have encouraged me to pursue memorization of the catechism sooner.

At the Calvin conference in 2004, I brought a single mom with two small children and was disappointed at the many times I walked into the dining hall at mealtime to find her and the children sitting by themselves at a table that could seat eight. Of course, reaching out to others goes both directions. If we know of new people from our congregations who are planning to attend, we need to encourage them to introduce themselves to other conferees. Recently, I asked this mother about her memory of the conference. She said, “I felt the sense of unity in Christ among the people yet felt like an outsider.” She remembers people gathering in the dorm lounge in the evenings, but she felt uncomfortable and admitted to feeling jealous that everyone had these “neat families.” I write this to heighten our awareness and hopefully increase our willingness to reach out warmly to others at the conference. We should eagerly ask others to share of God’s work of grace in their lives. As we listen, we will come to know them in Christ, and we will rejoice!

Psalm 102 speaks of the work of Christ, who in His affliction and suffering, set us free to the end that we “may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem; when the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms to serve the Lord” (NASV, Psalm 102:20-22). We look forward with excitement to applying this Scripture at the gathering of saints this summer. We should prepare by praying expectantly, asking the Lord to use the conference to move us in powerful ways to serve Him willingly and boldly. Do you want to be challenged and equipped to be used in the building of Christ’s Kingdom? Come to the RP International Conference 2012!