Blog

On the last weekend of February 2023, the Summit Planning Team gathered in Southern California along with a few young adults from each region to discuss Friends Summit 2023. Here is what a few of those young adults had to say about the weekend and the upcoming conference:

“I was honored to be able to be apart of the Summit Planning Team! We had such a good time in California. There were lots of good conversations and good food and I love the strong sense of community in the Friends Church! I didn’t know some of the people there but it was easy to connect with each other and laugh together and now I’m looking forward to the next time I get to be with them!”
–Madi Yost, Mid America Yearly Meeting

“My experience at Summit planning week was nothing short of amazing. As an Eastern Region youth pastor, it was so encouraging to learn about Friends Church-North America and connect with other people apart of the other yearly meetings. I came into the weekend knowing two people and left knowing several others, not just as acquaintances but as the family of God! I was a stranger to many, yet I instantly connected and grew close to others from other parts of the country. What a blessing it was!

The week has made me ready and excited for Summit in December. I am eager to make connections with my newfound friends again, as well as be filled and encounter the presence of Jesus. I got to meet and fellowship with the Summit planning team. They love Jesus, care about the Friends Church and Quaker heritage, and want to see many young people gather to empower the current and future leaders of the church! I am marking down the days until Summit already!”
–Jeremy Davis, Eastern Region Yearly Meeting

“During a time that university classes, winter months, and work shifts had worn me down, meeting to plan for Summit 2023 in California with other young Friends was nothing short of refreshing. I was able to form new, close bonds with young adults who are equally devoted to growing leaders in our churches who can immediately make an impact. I loved hearing others stories, ideas, and passions for how we can use Summit to change the lives of young people in our church.

I’m excited that Summit will target young leaders in the church that need a space to grow and to be listened to. Our group wants to emphasize to the youth and young adults that they can make an impact on ministry now, not just later. I look forward to seeing my newly met friends and seeing what God has in store at Summit this year.”
–Conard Harrison, Northwest Yearly Meeting

“Before I went to Summit I was going through my daily routine, just waiting for school to get out. I had no motivation to do more than go through the motions and just get high school over with.

Summit helped me regain confidence and gave me a renewed desire to be transformed by God. I went home with more desire than ever before to reach out to the students at Newberg High School. God has been teaching me the importance of noticing and paying attention to people outside my circle of friends, and this was greatly enforced at Summit.”
–Grace Anderson, student, Newberg High School

“When talking with a friend soon after returning, I found a metaphor that felt right: being at Summit was like suddenly recovering from a lingering stuffy nose that I didn’t know I had. If I were to pick one word to describe Summit 2018 it would be encouraging.

In light of the recent turmoil of the NWYM, I came to Summit with many questions and left with renewed sense of hope that God is still working through the Friends locally and nationally. He is calling us together, as kingdom disciples, to work in the fields of reconciliation. There is so much to be done, and I can’t wait to jump in alongside old and new friends!”
– Samuel Swan, Intern, Twin Rocks Friends Camp

We love hearing about how Friends Summit 2018 impacted the lives of those who attended. Here is a little blog post from Friendswood Friends Church in Texas that has four of their young adults sharing about how God spoke to them at Friends Summit 2018.

FRIENDS 2018 SUMMIT BLOG

Greetings to you as a fellow friend and brother in Christ, and fellow participant in the upcoming Friends Summit 2018!

We have you registered for Friends Summit 2018!  So glad you are coming!  We need you to know that this event has moved!  We will not be meeting in Denver as was planned and contracted.  Rather we will be meeting at Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs.  PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE EMAIL. 

The summit planning team knows of this change and has been working together to finalize Friends Summit 2018 and will be in communication with you as a region/yearly meeting, local church or resource person as needed to make sure you are aware of this important announcement.  If you aren’t aware of who your planning team point person is, please see the official list of the summit planning team:

Jesse Penna, EFC-MAYM
Micah Darden, EFC-SW
Jason Morones, EFC-SW
John Grafton, EFC-ER
Joy Lujan, NWYM
Jacob Newton, NWYM
Chris Stanfield, RMYM
Matt Macy, EFM
Brockie Follette, Kaleo Academy
Katy Moran, Kaleo Academy

This has come as quite a surprise to all of us.  Just in the past 3 weeks, we have discovered some serious contractual misunderstandings with the management of Marriott Denver.  We have been working hard at solving these misunderstanding, only to discover just in the past few days, that the most appropriate way to avoid jeopardizing a great Summit experience, was to cancel our plans for this hotel.  But we are praising the Lord for how He has provided for Friends Summit 2018!  We called a few hotels in the area last week, and found Cheyenne Mountain Resort happy to accommodate us at the same rates, same conference space requirements, and even better accommodations!

For those of you who are flying into Denver

Please contact me at jesse@efcmaym.org by or before Thursday, December 20 or ASAP, if you need help with any logistics.  We don’t take this change lightly in how it impacts you and we want to work with you so that you have a great experience.  We would like to help you with any needs you may have due to this change in location.

• Travel from Denver International Airport, to Cheyenne Mountain Resort.  And back!  It’s exactly 90 miles from DIA to the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.
• Travel for ‘Lunch on your own’ plans
• Any pre or post conference hotel accommodation reservations or plans

Thanks in advance for your gracious understanding, for working with us patiently to sort out whatever needs you have due to this adjustment, and for your flexibility in how this impacts your expectations and experience.

Please provide for me

1. The name of the main contact in your group.
2. The main contact’s cell phone number.
3. How many are in your group.
4. Your group’s flight itinerary.

For those of you who are driving to Summit 2018.  

Please contact me at jesse@efcmaym.org by or before Thursday, December 20 or ASAP if you have extra seats in your vehicle. 

It will take “all hands on deck” to make sure we can efficiently and safely provide all transportation needs and so we are looking for adults who can help with transportation beyond your own group.  We are also working with local Friends Church persons in RMYM and will start there, but would like to have a list of potential free space in the vehicles that will already plan to have at Friends Summit 2018.

Please provide for me:

1. Your name
2. Your cell phone number
3. How many seats you could make available
4. Any other relevant details about luggage space, your availability to make an extra trip if needed to get everyone transported, your expected arrival time to the area, how flexible you may or may not be, etc

We will send more regular conference information soon, as we all prepare to arrive to Cheyenne Mountain resort ready for a great experience.  We are excited about being together soon!  We are praying for “conversations that could change your life” as we corporately “Empower a leader, change your church, fuel a movement”

On behalf of the Summit 2018 Planning Team,

Jesse Penna – Planning Team Facilitator

When I think of Summit, I think of collaboration, Kingdom chasers and changers, leaders, mentoring and the here and now of the Friends Movement.

We live in a time that the world is getting smaller, social media and news coverage give us a contact far beyond what we can ever imagine. The hard part is that we end up living almost in a bubble of “things that are out there” but that we will never experience. Summit gives us an opportunity to see, experience and be exposed to things that God is doing in real peoples lives, not just short video-clips of people we don’t know but we want to do.

Summit is an opportunity to open the realms of how we can take who God has created us to be, think outside the box of the environment we are used to, and see something bigger, other people we can connect with and do ministry with, leaders that have been down the road as well as dream in ways that we never thought possible.God is giving visions and dreams to teens and young adults and I, as well as other leaders, want to be able to help explore what those are and figure out how do we make them become reality. It is a chance to push past the norms, and be part of something much bigger, The Kingdom of God, in a way that we cannot even imagine.

Summit is a chance for the “more mature” to be intentional in their investing in todays generations. It is designed to help be a catalyst for continuing growth, listening and discipling. We all need people in our lives to help with accountability and pushing us to the next level. We need people to believe in who we are and who God created us to be. This is an event that helps to capitalize on that and train both sides of this. Our “more mature” needs some help and investment in how to be better and mentoring, and our “now generations” need to have people they can rely on and be known by.

I am excited to watch The Kingdom expand and grow, not because of an event, but because of the leaders that will continue to hear the voice of God and grow and have a fire that burns deep inside of them that God will place there, with others surrounding them and encouraging them to do what God has called them to do.

Scott Biddle
A water walker, searching for fellow water walkers

Hey!

My name is Nick Mayer, and I am the Youth and Young Adult Pastor at Cornerstone Friends Church in Madison, Ohio. I’ve been working with the youth and young adults at Cornerstone since 2014. Enough about me though, how about we talk about Friends Summit!

My first and only attendance to Friends Summit was in 2014. In the words of Andy Bernard from The Office, ‘super duper honesty time’ I did not really know what to think about Summit. When our group first arrived to the hotel where we were staying at it was packed. I’m not a big crowd person so when I saw this I was a bit turned off. That soon changed though.

Friends Summit 2018, not to get too cliché, is a gamechanger. As young adults, many of us are in this phase where we are not quite sure what our future holds. I was in that place back in 2014. I was not sure if I was really feeling called to ministry. I was not sure if I really had a place in the Church. This is where Summit came into play.

Worship. Worship at Sunday morning church is great. I am telling you though, worship time at Summit with a room filled with young adults, who all are relatively in the same area of life mentioned above, is beautiful beyond measure. If there was ever a time where the Presence was felt, it is during worship. Speakers. Dynamic, relatable, and thought-provoking. Each speaker brought a different element, a different piece of Scripture, a different meaning and gave it life. If there is ever a time to bring a notebook and pencil, this is it.

Classes/Discussion Groups. This part of Summit I really appreciated. There are these breakout sessions between speakers that give the young adults time to be in small groups. I remember listening to different perspectives and learning more about different Friends churches. Also, there is a class for everyone!

Relationships. Out of everything that happened at Summit, the relationships that grew and were made was by far the most important part of the conference. The group I attended Summit with got much, much closer. From worship, speakers, small groups, and eating food we always had something to talk about. It was fun, challenging, and well needed! Along with that, our group became friends with a group from Salem Friends. The relationship has grown to a point where we keep in touch and look for ways to get together!

There is nothing I would change about my 2014 attendance to Summit. It was truly amazing. All of it. My past experiences has me excited to see what 2018 brings. I’m looking forward to seeing what gets put together from their meetings with each region! If you are up in the air about going take a leap.
Go.
You will not regret it.

See you there. Come say hi.

Nick

Two youth from EFC-ER in Michigan want to tell you why Friends Summit 2018 is so awesome. We hope you’ll plan to attend Friends Summit this December!

Hello there! My name is Josiah Brown, and I am a two-time Friends Summit attendee who is pumped about this year’s conference. I’ve now been a part of the Friends Church in three different states: I grew up in a Friends Church in Oklahoma, went to college at Friends University in Kansas, and am now working at a Friends Church in Texas. Probably just like yourself, I love the Friends Church, and I care deeply about our direction as we move into uncharted territory.

At Friends Summit 2018, we’ll be having conversations around questions that get to the heartbeat of the Church, and might just help guide us into that uncharted territory. These conversations are designed to equip and inspire us, so that we can “lead the charge” back home in our local contexts. The website you’re currently on (friendssummit.com) has some great information about what you can expect from Summit, and lists a few of the questions you will likely encounter, such as…

How do we become people who can lead Friends into a future filled with dangerous opportunity?

How do we discern what God might do through us in the local church, in our communities, and throughout the world, for God’s Kingdom?

What might happen if young adults with a vision had partners, support, and resources from existing Friends ministries?

If you care deeply about the Friends Church as an outpost of God’s Kingdom, please don’t miss Friends Summit 2018! I believe that we really are “better together,” and that God’s Kingdom works its way into our lives and our communities when we find time to be together, ask good questions, and listen to what one another, and God’s Spirit, have to say to us. I sincerely hope that you and I will have one of these kinds of conversations. May Friends Summit 2018 be a catalyst for conversations that change us, our churches, our communities, and our world.

See you there!
Josiah Brown

Hi!

My name is Jacob Newton. I am a youth and young adult pastor at Meridian Friends Church in Meridian, Idaho. I have enjoyed working with youth as my job for almost 6 years now. I attended Friends Summit 2010 when I was in college and have enjoyed being a part of the planning committee for Friends Summit 2018. The team meets via phone and Google Hangout every month to work out details and we also meet together in person every couple of months. In May, we’ll all be gathering in Ohio to have a 3 day planning session.

I know there have been a few blog posts before mine (be sure and check them out) as well as some promotional material online. It may be hard to think about an event that will happen in December while it is April. But, it will be here before you know it! We all know how sometimes we wait for things that seem so far away and then before we know it, it is here! Summit 2018 will be like that.

I encourage you, if you are reading this, to serious begin planning and talking about some logistics or travel and fundraising for Summit 2018. The conference will be an amazing time in Denver and we really want YOU to be there with us. But getting there isn’t something that will just happen the week before. Talk to your friends, parents, youth pastor, pastor, and/or church elders about making plans for you and others from your church to attend Friends Summit 2018.

See you in Denver!

– Jacob Newton

Some youth and young adults from NWYM got together to answer some burning questions about Friends Summit 2018!