A brief history of Reformed Presbyterian conferences

Before there was an International Conference, there was a National Conference. Before that, there were presbytery conferences. Such conferences continue to this day, and are well attended and profitable in the lives of many. The idea for a national conference was first floated by the young people of Kansas Presbytery in 1923, perhaps inspired by the Young People’s Secretary, Dr. Delber H. Elliott. Dr. Elliott took the desire of the Kansas young people to other presbytery conferences in 1924, and the “Young People by a vast majority voted in favor of the proposal.”1

Synod endorsed the plan for a national conference to be held in 1926, provided that a minimum of 400 attendees could be assured. The first conference was a great success with 740 attending.2

While it is hard to trace, the connection between the young people and national conferences goes back even farther. On the occasion of the signing of the Covenant of 1871, “Andrew Stevenson from New York preached on the subject of covenanting and its benefits: ‘At present, we are sorely tried. We have educational and local prejudices. We are separated from each other in our fields of labor, with few opportunities of cultivating friendships or brotherly confidence‘“3 (italics added).

The covenant was adopted. One paragraph reads: “Aiming to live for the glory of God as our chief end, we will, in reliance upon God’s grace, and feeling our inability to perform any spiritual duty in our own strength, diligently attend to searching the Scriptures, religious conversation, the duties of the closet, the household, the fellowship-meeting and the sanctuary, and will seek in them to worship God in spirit and in truth. We do solemnly promise to depart from all iniquity, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, commending and encouraging, by our example, temperance, charity and godliness.”4 This paragraph became the driving force of the congregational Covenanter Young People’s Union (CYPU) meetings and presbyterial young peoples’ conferences. Strange as it may seem now, it was memorized and recited at each weekly/monthly meeting of the young people in the 1920s and at national conferences in the 1920s and 1930s. It became a unifying document for the young people across the RPCNA. It does not seem a stretch to believe that, by 1923, the young people of the denomination were ready for a larger demonstration of their unity and commitment.

The first national conference (1926) was held at Winona Lake, Ind, a conference center whose origins go back to 1894. Synod meetings had been held at that location for some time, so the facilities were well known. The 1926 conference was such a success that another was held in 1930, and another in 1934 and again in 1938. Winona Lake is a scant 57 miles from the site of the 2012 RP International Conference at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind.

In the early years, the conferences were a joint effort of the Covenanter Young Peoples Union (CYPU), the Women’s Synodical and the Synod. The front cover of the 1938 program tells the story: 109th Synod, 9th Biennial meeting of the Women’s Synodical Missionary Society; 4th Synodical CYPU Conference and Covenanter Juniors’ Conference. The 1938 conference lasted 9 days, including 2 Sabbaths, on one of which there was a communion service. Young people were very much involved in the planning of the conference, largely from what we would call today the “twenty-somethings.” Paul D. McCracken was general secretary; the average age of the five principal YP officers was 25, recruited in their early 20s. Registration fees for the 1938 conference were: $1 for adults; ages 6-12, 50c; under 6 free; not including room and board, which had to be arranged by each family responding to ads in the Covenanter Witness. The program booklet was 42 pages. I was 9 years of age and am in the front row of the conference picture, along with a host of kids who grew up together and have remained good friends through the years. By 1938 Winona Lake had become so familiar that two songs about Winona were in the printed program: “On Winona” by Boyd Wallace, and “Winona Days” by Remo I. Robb.

Other men deeply involved in the conference planning over the years included S. Bruce Willson, J.D. Edgar, and, following Remo Robb, Kenneth G. Smith.

The quadrennial conferences became the standard, but there were two interruptions. The first came with World War II, which effectively canceled the conferences in 1942 and 1946. With the war ending in 1945, plans were made to pick up with a conference in 1947 (to replace the 1946 conference). The second interruption came in 1973, when there was a gas shortage, which made the price of gasoline rise. The concern was that gas might not be available the following summer, and even if it were available, it might cost $1 per gallon. With those concerns, there was an interruption in the schedule. The standard quadrennial schedule was picked up again in 1976 and has continued to the present.

The first postwar location for the national conference was Grinnell College, in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1947. This was the first use of a college campus. The same facility was used in 1950 and 1954. Rev. Remo I. Robb was the young people’s secretary for several of these years. The emphasis of the conference in 1954 was Covenant Renewal, about which Dr. J. Boyd Tweed wrote: “The most important item on the agenda of the coming meeting of Synod will be the covenanting service,”5 although Dr. Tweed did not live to be present. There was a “covenant signing service” on Sabbath morning. In addition, subsequent signing services were held in many congregations.

In 1958, the conference was held at Lake Koronis, Minn., where the attendance overwhelmed the capacity of the conference center. The 1958 conference was memorable not only for the crowding but for a special demonstration of the moving of God’s Holy Spirit. At the consecration service, “84 responded to ‘dedication of life,’ 24 responded to ‘occupational service’; 16 ‘received ‘assurance of salvation’ and 23 ‘received Christ.‘“6 These are the people who have served as leaders in the church for the last half-century.

In 1962, the conference moved to Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Eight conferences were held at that location and the name “Carleton” became associated in our denomination with national conferences. That relationship lasted through 1992. People have lots of memories of Carleton, including the hot, humid weather, conflicts with the Minnesota “state bird” (mosquito), good programs, and controversial programs. One memorable evening was a program involving 22 speakers, matching the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet; this long program was competing with the ice cream social! In 1988 it became the International Reformed Presbyterian Conference, an acknowledgment of what was already the reality-visitors attending from nations outside of North America: Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Australia and others. During this period of time, Synod moved to shorter Synods in conference years, so that ruling and teaching elders could be together with their families. Then there was a decision to have no Synod during the conference year, or at least not at the same time as the conference.

It was also in the Carleton years that the planning for the conference, under the direction of Kenneth G. Smith, moved from elected young people’s officers to a conference administrative staff. This became necessary because of the more complex plans, including contracts with the colleges, being able to make adjustments from one year to the next and provide continuity in the planning. Names that were familiar in those years were Wilbur McElroy, Don Birdsall, Joe Lamont, Jim Pennington, and Jack McCready, all of them serving for multiple conferences. Dave Willson began serving as conference administrator in 1992 and has been involved in leadership capacity in six conferences (1992-2012), tying the record of Joe Lamont.

The conference location moved to Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Mich.) in 1996, where we gathered four times. Each time there was a change of location, anxieties arose about the new facility. Each time those anxieties have been overcome, and they will be overcome at this international conference as well. During the Calvin years, the names of Bruce and Kim Backensto (registrars) became familiar to us all.

So, on to Indiana Wesleyan University! Including the 2012 conference, national conferences have run for 86 years-with a higher attendance than ever. Starting with 740 in 1926, the anticipation for 2012 is to surpass the previous high of 1,600+.

What Has Changed?

The administration of the conferences has changed. The conference is no longer planned and executed by a combination of Synod officers, the CYPU and the Women’s Synodical. This has changed the dynamic of the conference. The leadership has come in other ways. Now we have presbytery youth representatives who come together each year to plan for youth activities.

Communication has vastly changed. With the variety of social activities, and because of technology, young people can keep in touch with each other more readily-and with more friends involved. The energies, creativity, motivation and Christian commitment are still very much alive throughout the denomination, albeit in different format.

The historical pictorial record has changed. In the earliest years, conference photos were taken with (presumably) all delegates in the picture, although each person appears quite small. Later, still pictures were taken, and a host of those pictures lie around in various forms. Some of these pictures made their way into the church magazine. In more recent years, the pictorial record has been through video, translated into PowerPoint rapidly enough to show each evening what everyone else has been doing during the day.

The psalters have changed. The 1929 psalter was published just in time for the 1930 conference; the 1950 psalter arrived in one of the Grinnell years; the 1973 psalter was pretty well accepted by the 1976 conference, and the present Book of Psalms for Worship will be used for the first time at an international conference in 2012.

Synod involvement in the conferences has changed. For many years, Synod met at the same time as the national conference, which had the effect of dividing families-husbands and dads often involved with Synod while the rest of the family was attending the conference program. That was changed in 2000.

The costs have changed. Despite the costs, even during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl years in the Midwest, families have found ways and made sacrifices to attend the conferences.

Accommodations have changed dramatically. We are told of air-conditioning in all of the facilities in IWU. Imagine!

The means of travel has changed. Trains and cars were the most common means of getting to the conferences. Model T Fords became common by 1926; Model As by 1930; and auto travel would have been over narrow roads, many of them unpaved. People will arrive at the 2012 conference by air from long distances and by comfortable, air-conditioned cars on wide interstate highways.

What Has Not Changed?

It takes a host of willing volunteers to make a conference of this size work. The names of key personnel are usually listed in the conference program. Those lists tell only part of the story, for they often do not included babysitters, counselors, photographers, exhibitors, discussion leaders, precentors, doctors, nurses, athletic leaders and participants. The history of our conferences has been a great testimony of the invaluable contribution of volunteers. These conferences would not have been possible had it not been for the host of willing and energetic volunteers.7

It is fascinating to review the programs of previous conferences and to see that the infrastructure of the conferences has remained essentially the same: strong preaching of the Word, vibrant singing of the Psalms, discussion groups allowing for more personal growth, and the care and instruction of the children. (Some who were children at earlier conferences are now babysitting their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.) Competitive athletic contests have been an active and exciting part of every conference.

Of great importance is that, in God’s good providence, the core commitment of these conferences has been a focus on young people. At the most recent conference in 2008, 47% of the attendees were college age or younger. Parents have brought their children; the children have grown and make sure their parents take them to the next conference-and in time, those young folks are married and bring their children and a new cycle begins. What began as a youth movement in 1923 has blossomed into something much bigger and better than any of them could have imagined.

The international flavor at one level has not changed. Sam Boyle was the conference president in 1930, at age 25. “President Sam (Boyle) says: ‘God gave us a beginning at Winona. The devil wants to make us pat ourselves on the back, to sleep now. By the grace of God I will not quit now. I feel the tingle of a real battle.‘“8 In December 1933, Sam Boyle, at age 28, decided to go to China. Reformed Presbyterian missionaries, numbering about 50 persons, had been in China since 1895. Sam Boyle’s commitment added to that, because money was scarce during the Dust Bowl days in the Midwest and the Great Depression that engulfed the nation through the 1930s. There was a great challenge for the young people in the church to raise money for the salary of the Boyle family.9 Mr. Boyle did not go out immediately and was present for the 1934 conference. God used that commitment in ways we are still learning about–even beyond our comprehension.

Reformed Presbyterians from other lands came to join us, with much profit. Out of this has come a unified sense of our identity and our mission in the world. The current interest in short-term mission work can be traced, in part, to the interest and energy of our youth who have a world vision.

One more thing has not changed. It is the biblical emphasis that has been a constant through the years. Many memories of conference attendees will go back to the influence of a speaker, or counselor, or a friend who has inspired them. Friendships have been formed around the Scriptures that have blessed our lives beyond measure.

There is something rare, if not unique, about Reformed Presbyterian conferences. The question needs to be asked: What has caused these conferences to continue for 86 years (1926-2012), and not only continue, but become stronger and larger? We look back and declare that the success of these conferences over the last 86 years has not been our ingenuity, but rather the grace of God leading us–first, by giving a group of young folks in the Kansas Presbytery the vision of a single conference, which has grown and continued to exist through good times and bad. It has continued for more years than could have been dreamed of in 1923, when those young people looked for ways to expand the “few opportunities of cultivating friendships or brotherly confidence.’” ¹⁰

1. Thompson, Owen F., Sketches of the Ministers, 1888 – 1930, p. 425.
2. Thompson, p. 425.
3. Carson, David M., Transplanted to America A Popular History of the American Covenanters to 1871, p. 66.
4. Constitution of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 2010 edition, p. 1-7.
5. Minutes of Synod, 1954, p. 15. Dr. Tweed died on March 3, 1954.
6. Minutes of Synod, 1959, p. 59.
7. Since anywhere from about 25 to over 50 names are listed as conference personnel in each conference year, it is impossible to list all those who volunteered their time, energy and creativity to the conference, and without whose service the conferences could not have been held. Many thanks are due to that long list.
8. Covenanter Witness, Oct. 1, 1930, p. 232.
9. I remember collections being taken in our Junior Society in the Seattle church for the “Sam Boyle Fund.”
10. Carson, p. 66.