RELAY 2024 - SG Young Adults Conference
An update from Jared Mellinger (Senior Pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA, USA), and Jon Payne (Senior Pastor of Redemption Hill, Georgetown, TX, USA)…
On January 4-6, 700 young adults from 50 Sovereign Grace churches—including people from Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom—gathered in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania for the first Relay Conference. We gathered to hear God’s word, sing God’s praises, build relationships across churches, and to invest in future leaders. We also played games and had a lot of fun.
God is generous and faithful, and he did far more than we imagined. The entire conference was remarkably blessed, as God’s presence was manifested, friendships were made, lives were changed, and partnership was strengthened. In addition, over fifty people attended a four-hour pre-conference for young men exploring a call to ministry.
It is difficult to convey the gift it was to gather with the many young people from our churches, many experiencing global partnership in a tangible gathering for the first time. The grandchildren of our founding pastors were in the room, ready to receive the call of the Lord to love the doctrines that we hold dear. That profound link between our past and our future was felt in song after song and message after message. We felt privileged to witness it.
Timon Lau, a pastor from Sovereign Grace Church, Toronto, drove over 10 hours with over 55 young adults to attend Relay. Timon shared,
“The conference was a beautiful display of our gospel culture and gospel partnership, especially for most of our young adults (and a large portion of our church) who are fairly new to Sovereign Grace and its values. It was such a joy to have them experience the family of churches that I have come to know and love. I'm excited for how the rich deposits of grace and friendships formed will impact our own church and Sovereign Grace as a whole in the next 15-20 years and beyond.”
Timon’s reflections capture the reasons for Relay. The Leadership Team has a desire for every church in Sovereign Grace to be a multi-generational church, and for Sovereign Grace to be a multi-generational family of churches. We have a desire to build together, and to strengthen churches by influencing young men and women for Christ.
After all, the real action is not at conferences, but in local churches. Yet conferences can be used by God to deepen our love for Christ and our commitment to his church. And this is exactly what we saw God doing during our time together.
C.J. Mahaney preached the opening session on extravagant devotion to Christ, and Jeff Purswell preached the next day on a love for God’s word. Dave Taylor also joined us in preaching on our gospel mission. Sovereign Grace pastors taught breakout sessions on holiness, spiritual gifts, godly romance, faith for missional risk, and wisdom from Proverbs. Bob Kauflin led the singing. The time of prayer and ministry on Friday night was a highlight for many. The result of the conference was many young adults returning to their churches with faith and joy.
A founding generation prayed that God would show his power to their children and their children’s children, and that God would establish the work of their hands. This conference is evidence that God is answering those prayers.
We are already counting down the days until next year—Relay 2025 will be held at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA, USA January 2-4. We are asking God to use this conference for his glory and the strengthening of our churches for decades to come. May the children’s children of Sovereign Grace live for the glory of Christ alone.
