“...makes me feel as though I am in a room full of Nate Saints ”

Mike Durning, wrapping up here at the SGI conference.

I have to leave before the last plenary session so I can get back to my church for Prayer Meeting tonight, but I wanted to make a few comments in closing.

There is no way my blogging can do justice to this conference. This conference is far and away the best Missions Conference I have ever attended. The fact that it is geared toward young adults—the prime audience for missionary recruitment—is therefore all the more important.

While I recognize that everybody is more upbeat at a conference, camp, or retreat, the atmosphere of dedicated fervor in the rooms, over meals, in prayer, makes me feel as though I am in a room full of Nate Saint’s—though I hope they don’t experience his shortened life-span. The talk is not about the trivia common among even Christian college students, but about private Bible study and prayer, missions plans, mission trips already taken, etc. I am more hopeful for the state of World Missions in the coming generation than I have ever been before, after observing those who are preparing to go.

So my challenge in this: Michigan, January, 2011 may not be the most appealing venue, but every pastor, every church, every college, should try to get their missions-minded young adults here next year. Something big seems to be brewing—perhaps something as big as the Student Volunteer Movement of the early 1900’s. Hopefully this one will be better grounded and not go astray as that one did. But I promise you don’t want your college students to miss it.

Register early. If you all try to come, you’ll overwhelm their resources quickly.