Lutheran Youth Conference - We recently received a letter from Nadine Reed, a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Tomball, Texas. She writes about an alternative youth conference sponsored by Higher Things: Dare to be Lutheran. On their website: www.higherthings.org. Higher Things indicates the following:

Mrs. Reed attended the July 29 conference this summer with her pastor, two other adults and twelve youth. She writes, "I wouldn't have missed it for the world!"

Higher Things began when a group of pastors got together to prepare an alternative to the Missouri Synod's national youth conferences. The first conference, in the summer of 2000 at Laramie, Wyoming, was called "Dying to Live." The Second, held last summer in Duluth, Minnesota, was called "Making Waves." The theme for year's session in Arlington, Texas, was "In His Face." Next year's conference will be in Seattle, Washington.

Mrs. Reed attended the National Youth gathering in San Antonio with her oldest son and his youth group. At that youth gathering, communion was brought down from the ceiling in a gigantic pinjata in the shape of a lamb. "Our Associate Pastor at the time gave 'debriefing sessions' after each meeting," she writes, "in order to let our kids know what was right and what wasn't right."

Since then Mrs. Reed and the youth of her church have attended all three of the Higher Things conferences. She feels that the Missouri Synod youth conferences have mixed worship, Bible study and fun in such a way that youth have a hard time telling the difference. With the Higher Things conferences there is no doubt about which is which.

Each conference features three traditional Lutheran worship services per day, services that include chanting, hymns and organ music. Mrs. Reed writes, "My son was able to 'preach' two of the sermons to my mother when we got back home."

Intensive Bible study is conducted daily at the main sessions by pastors and professors from all over the United States. This year's "In His Face" theme was expounded upon by Rev. Chad Bird of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Rev. Bird spoke on what it truly means to be "In God's Face" - our relationship with Him, being close to Him, and worshiping Him.

The conference also offered a choice of six different In-Depth Sectionals, divided into three sessions, one each day of the conference:

·        Genesis Creation Verse-by-Verse and Science

·        Matrix Matters

·        What Makes God Pleasing Music

·        Understanding Lutheran Worship

·        Evangelism According to the Gospel of John

·        Surviving the Secular University