10 of our high school students as well as 5 adult sponsors and 3 delegates recently attended MennoCon'19 -- the biannual national convention of the Mennonite Church USA. Their actual words and reflections and experiences will be available soon as a podcast but in the meantime, you can look through the archives of MC USA's articles & photos from the last week to get a taste (yes, I had to do it -- this will make more sense once you see what the name of the archive is!) of what happened and how it impacted Mennonite people around the nation (and world).
We believe this is such a powerful experience that we spend the year prior to the convention hosting fundraisers and selling/auctioning items to raise enough money for every youth in the church who wants to attend to have the opportunity to do so. This year we partnered with another local Mennonite church to charter a bus to Kansas City, and that turned out to be a great experience for our youth as well.
Our church's Congregational Principles and Practices, in part, read as follows: "Welcome and celebrate the gathering of God's diverse people in our church and community (intercultural, intergenerational, and interchurch)." and "Nurture authentic relationships with God and one another in Christian community so that we might stretch and grow in Christ individually and collectively." We believe that attendance at MC USA's convention is a great way for us to live out both of these practices and principles in a meaningful tangible way.