08219
March 19, 2008

National Black Presbyterian Caucus schedules youth leadership event

July 16-20 conference is for youth aged 5 to 18

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — More than 300 young people aged 5 to 18 are expected to converge on the campus of Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, TX, this summer for the 2008 Youth Leadership Development Conference of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus (NBPC). 

The conference sponsored by NBPC and coordinated by its Southwest Region — which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana — is set for July 16-20 on the historic Prairie View campus near Houston. Registration deadline is June 1.

The theme of the event, which will include participants and NBPC and denominational staff and leaders, is “That the Generation to Come Might Know,” taken from Psalm 78:6-8.

According to the conference brochure, the purpose of the event “is to call a new generation to invite Jesus into their lives, to become more and more like him every day, and to serve him where ever life leads us!”

The conference will include worship and Bible study, inspirational messages from conference leaders, a variety of workshops to help participants grow in faith and develop their leadership skills, a night of movies, recreation and games, a picnic and a closing banquet.

NBPC President the Rev. Gregory Bentley, pastor of Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa, AL, will speak at opening worship. The Rev. James Lee, pastor of Houston’s New covenant Fellowship Church will be the banquet speaker.

Some of the workshop leaders are: the Rev. Lonnie Oliver, pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on church polity; Sophia Hardy, a Memphis public school teacher and the Rev. Brian Henderson Pastor of Parkway Gardens United Presbyterian Church in Memphis on “Civic Issues and Character”; the Rev. Hugh Davis of Elmwood Presbyterian Church in East Orange, NJ, on “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “It’s My Time, Success is not by Accident”; and Terri Brown, a guidance counselor with the Memphis schools on “Succeeding in School by Establishing Good Study  Habits.”

One special event will be a conversation between junior high and senior high students about Christian lifestyles led by Prairie View A&M student Tylervich Tyler-King.

As a service project, participants are asked to bring a personal care item — socks, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, etc. — that will be delivered to a local shelter.