‘Next to communion with God’, wrote John Trapp, ‘is the communion of saints’. This year’s Banner of Truth Youth and Ministers’ Conferences, the first to be held in person since Covid struck, provided a wonderful context to focus on these two kinds of communion.
The Youth Conference drew around 270 young people aged 16 to 25. As they left, some 220 ministers gathered for three days of fellowship, Bible exposition and sung worship. Taking up the theme of communion with God, there was teaching on prayer and repentance (Jeff Kingswood), God’s electing grace (David Campbell), true spirituality (Conrad Mbewe), ministerial rest (Andy Hambleton) and a two-part meditation from Mark 6 on the example and experience of communion with God found in that chapter, with Christ allowing His disciples to ‘make headway painfully’ (Robert McCollum Jr.). In his closing sermon, Meirion Thomas directed hearers to the centrality of the Lord’s Supper in the life of the church.
