Strathallan School, near Perth, hosted this summer’s Contagious Scotland youth conference – with the title ‘Dem Bones – When God meets a dead man’.
100 young people and leaders attended the week-long event, under the leadership of Andy Prime, associate minister at Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh.
Looking at Romans
The conference was packed full with preaching, discussions, seminars and music as the young people explored the doctrine of salvation. The morning teaching was based around the book of Romans, with a particular focus on words mentioned in Romans 8.29-30 such as foreknowledge, predestination and justification. The evening preaching looked at Bible narratives of conversion and of life coming to dead people.
The teaching was both stretching and challenging, but leaders were greatly encouraged by the way young people responded. By God’s grace the following comment from a teenage girl was not untypical: ‘One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is that God chose us to be with him – when he had no reason to. We didn’t do anything extraordinary and yet he chose us. I’m coming home from Contagious feeling more excited to go to church. I also feel more determined and not ashamed to tell my non-Christian friends at school about Jesus’.
The school provided not just excellent facilities for the teaching but also a great base for all the other activities that took place during the week. Alongside the teaching to the young people, a training programme for young leaders was run for the first time at Contagious Scotland. The TaskForce training scheme saw young people aged 19–22 serve practically during the conference and also receive training in leadership from experienced church workers.
The Contagious Scotland conference was one of five arranged by Contagious Bible Ministries that took place over the summer. In total, over 700 young people and leaders attended the conferences.
