The Kingdom Youth Conference
This June, Jessup’s Office of Church Relations is hosting their inaugural summer youth conference aimed at middle and high school students. Known as The Kingdom Youth Conference, the three-day camp welcomes students to experience the 125-acre Jessup campus, make new friends and grow together in Christ.
“Our main objective is to be able to provide meaningful resources to the Church,” said Associate Director of Church Relations, Roenz Balangue. One of those resources has been the largely successful Regional Youth Worship Nights and held at Jessup for the first time in 2023 when 300 high school students throughout Sacramento came together to experience worship through fellowship, music and preaching. “We recognize that experience helped to lay the groundwork for future opportunities,” Balangue said. “It continues to demonstrate that our campus has the potential to host something more intentional for local youth.”
The Kingdom Youth Conference is also somewhat birthed in response to the escalating cost of traditional youth ministry camps and designed to be discipleship focused while providing an increased level of biblical rigor. “We’re not trying to replace any programs that already exist out there,” Balangue said. “Instead, we’re looking to provide a quality solution at a more affordable cost. We’re also striving to provide opportunities and spaces for youth pastors to connect and grow relationships with their students.”
Local youth pastors are encouraged to bring their youth groups to the conference. Already on board are groups from Bride Church of Yuba City, Bridgeway Christian Church, Harbor Church in Folsom and Life Community Church in Roseville. The theme of the conference is centered around “identity.” Pastor Lance Hahn from Bridgeway Christian Church is the keynote speaker, sharing with the youth at five separate sessions during the conference. Breakout sessions will discuss topics such as apologetics, biblical literacy or interpretation, practical theology and mental health, for example.
There’s also plenty of fun and relationship building slated on the docket. Campers have a variety of opportunities to choose from such as playing fun games, jumping around on inflatables or making smores under the stars, to name a few. Students can expect to experience many of the things traditional Jessup students do to build connection and community while on campus.
Whether it be sharing meals in the award-winning farm-to-fork Crossroads Cafe, worshiping together or doing some kind of team building exercise, the Jessup experience is woven throughout the conference. In addition, worship sessions are led by one of Jessup’s worship bands and sought-after professors are leading breakout sessions.
The Kingdom Youth Conference is held June 15-18.
