And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  Acts 2:42

Thirty-five of us spent last weekend in Pigeon Forge at the Challenge Youth Conference.  For most of us, it was the single, largest gathering of any kind that we had been to since 36 of us went to CYC last year.  Who could have imagined at this time last year what the next 12 months would bring?  Limited worship services, bible classes on zoom, non-traditional instruction for schools, no concerts, limited sporting events, quarantines, social distancing, and on and on.  CYC 2021 had limited capacity with social distancing, so there were only about half as many people as usual.  We still assembled with nearly 3,500 others in our session, for a total of nearly 7,000 Christians coming together to learn, sing and worship.

We so needed a mountain top experience like CYC to bring some of us back together.  I saw friends that I had not seen since last CYC.  As if I didn’t know it before, I realized just how much I missed the connectedness of God’s family.  The lessons were outstanding.  Many of the activities were inspiring and thought-provoking. But, singing with the saints, masks and all, was phenomenal.  The family of God coming together from all over the country and uniting in song was moving – “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”, Eph. 5:19. It reassured me of the importance of the family of God coming together physically, regularly. Seth Godin wrote recently, “Time is priceless. But the moments when we have a chance to connect, to be in sync, to bring out the best in each other – that’s time that’s worth cherishing.”  I cherish the time that I had with the 34 others from Summit, and the thousands of others from all over, at CYC this year. 

Let’s all cherish the times that we have to come together to sing, to study, to worship and to fellowship.