Children and Youth Ministry Leaders Gather at Mt. Aetna

Over 100 local leaders attended the annual event.

Over 100 children and youth leaders from Chesapeake Conference gathered at the Mt. Aetna Camp and Retreat Center in Hagerstown, Maryland for the conference’s annual Children’s and Youth Leadership Convention, which ran from September 10-12. 
 
The convention featured seminars and breakout sessions for local leaders involved in ministries like Adventurers, Pathfinders, and Sabbath school. The featured speaker for the weekend was Christina Hernandez-Persia, a youth leader from the Southern New England Conference.
 
“The September Leadership Convention helps people—new and experienced—to build a strong foundation for whatever their ministry may be,” says Ann Reynolds, children’s ministry director for Chesapeake Conference. “It also allows them to build or grow their already existing network so that they can have shared resources.”
 
T.J. Gagliardi believes the convention is important for youth and children’s ministry leaders to attend. “If you want to be a leader, if you want to lead a Pathfinder club, and if you want to guide children into knowing God and learning about Jesus, these classes are very important,” he says. “You learn safety, you learn leadership, and you learn not to put everything upon yourself.”
 
Charles Koitering agrees and hopes more will attend next year’s convention. “For the people that didn’t come this year, we missed you, but we’re planning on seeing you next year,” he says. “It’s that interaction that’s just so important and that learning from each other’s experiences is really critical. I think it’s even more critical in this time now when we’re starting to try to come out of Covid.”