The “Dare” Conference brought together more than 50 people from Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Cheboksary, Yoshkar-Ola, Nizhnekamsk, and Naberezhnye Chelny. “I would like young people to perceive their faith not as a heavy cross, but as a blessing,” noted Arina Voronina, one of the organizers of the event, “so that [they] feel comfortable in the church and they can invite friends here.”
At the conference, questions were raised about how to acquire deep personal faith, learn to perceive God as a loving Father who gives blessings, whether it is realistic for a Christian to achieve success in profession and business, and what Protestant values lead to success. They talked about how to minister to people outside the church, cooperate with the older generation, and how young people can become the strength of the church.
These questions were answered by the speakers Sergey Komarnitsky, pastor and founder of the "Your Name" Church (Moscow), Sergey Butov, an entrepreneur and author of the book The Truth of Life from a Financially Free Man (Moscow), Ekaterina Voronina, a blogger and information producer (St. Petersburg), and Tikhon Chumakov, one of the organizers of the Adventist Students Ministries (SAS) project and intern at the Institute for the Dynamics of Geospheres of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow).
When asked what thoughts the youth had taken from the conference, the participants gave the following responses: “Being an Adventist is cool”; “Don't be afraid to start doing something”; “God wants to communicate with me”; "We urgently need to learn how to manage our budget"; "Serving is awesome!"
Young people left the conference more thoughtful and desirous to continue serving God more consciously and effectively.
This article was originally published on the Euro-Asia Division’s news site