Mark Almquist is a member of West Chehalem Friends and currently a senior at Newberg High School. His interests include writing and making music with his closest friends, traveling, playing jazz tunes, playing tennis, and spending time with good friends and family.
Nestled at the base of the Colorado Rockies, where a fresh accumulation of snow blanketed the ground, roughly 400 young adult Friends from across the country gathered for the Summit conference. Friends came from Southwest, Mid-America, Eastern, and Northwest yearly meetings. We gathered as a distinct part of Christ’s bride to discern, fellowship, worship, and simply have conversation about the church—this body, where trouble exists yet streams of goodness flow. This short four-day time period had many focuses, but simply coming before God as a group was rich in itself. Youth and adults engaged through seminars, spontaneous discussions, gathered worship, meals shared, and coffee houses. As I think about the week, I feel there are a few particular events where I was personally challenged to understand the type of church Jesus continually wants for us.
One of a these events was a seminar I attended. The topic of discussion was the challenging idea of war and peace. A healthy discussion where multiple views were expressed provided an honest and open community. Quakers believe in the promotion of non-violence to bring about peace. But we cannot just stand on our own ideas and lack necessary action to do anything to really bring about peace. Peace and non-violence are not only reserved for nation to nation. Are we promoting peace within ourselves and within our local church bodies? Let us strive to focus on that peace so freely exhibited by the living Holy Spirit, outwardly and personally.
Another event that is highlighted in my mind is a solo time I spent during part of an afternoon. I was led to a passage in Scripture titled in my Bible “Joy and Peace.” This comes from Romans chapter five, and I focused on the first five verses. “…we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
Hope is a blessing for remaining reconciled to Christ, and it is an outcome of suffering. As the body of Christ, we know we are going to suffer, but it is beautiful to know that hope can flourish in times of suffering.
During gathered worship on the final night of the conference we were given the opportunity to make a personal declaration and write those ideas on a tile to be hung up with all the other people’s tiles. The words that came to my own mind were and will be a reassurance of my passion to be a vessel of Christ. My tile read, “The source of all gifts both simple and complex is conveyed more and more clearly that I feel led to cry; I feel so held, so captivated by this Spirit, so in awe of his indescribable essence. My response to this ever-growing reconciliation is to do what I was constructed for; to love all the people I can, for they are Abba’s most treasured possession.” As the hymn “Come thou Fount” says, “…praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.” Love is a mount that we need to be more and more fixed upon in the church. I believe that if we can focus more directly on loving as the church, the minor problems may seem to fall in place. The time in Colorado is over, but the discussions and challenges are fresh and will continue to be stirred up. Summit was simply a venue where these thoughts were stirred. Let us continue to stir in the direction Christ has always desired for us.
