Steven Fonseca, youth pastor for the North Cascade Church in Burlington, Wash., attended the Seventh-day Adventist Global Youth Leaders Congress, held in Kassel, Germany, from July 31 to Aug. 4. He joined approximately 1,600 other global Adventist youth leaders, including Ben Lundquist, Oregon Conference director for young adults, at the event which featured speakers such as Ty Gibson, Ted N.C. Wilson and David Asscherick.
Fonseca, found Gibson’s presentations to be an intellectually refreshing and Christ-centered perspective of the gospel. “I was inspired to go out and present the gospel to anyone, but especially those who live in postmodern societies,” he says.
Surrounding the overall congress theme of “Pass It On,” Fonseca found several facets of the event that were very helpful to him.
- The opportunity to share experiences with youth directors and pastors from the most postmodern cities of Europe. This was helpful, given Fonseca’s position in the greater Seattle area, a population considered to be one of the most postmodern groups in the country.
- Workshops by Steve Case, Allan Martin, Ben Lundquist, Katia Reinert, Gilbert Cangy, James Black and Baraka Muganda were especially insightful.
- The South German Union provided progressive audio visual and graphic design elements that were, according to Fonseca, a significant step up from other similar events.
A couple of the projects noted by Fonseca during the congress involved innovative media. Twisted Reality is a video production that uses fiction and everyday youth experiences to promote life changing conversations in small groups. The other is a youth version of Steps to Christ presented in a “Netflix” type series.
For additional perspectives on this special event, go to the Adventist Review online.
