Jesus calls us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). This leads to two questions: 1. Who is our neighbor, and 2. How far should we go to love our neighbor? The parable of the Good Samaritan shows us that everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, disability, and economic status is our neighbor. The parable also reminds us that the call to love our neighbor is not optional. When it comes to loving our neighbor, we have no excuses!
MOVE will both encourage and challenge you to think of creative ways you can be loving the neighbors in your community!
To download registration materials and MOVE logos for advertising in your church, see the links at the bottom of the page.
MOVE stands for Mission Outreach Venture and Experience. It’s a two-day urban retreat that focuses on God’s call to compassion, mercy and justice.
High school students and leaders from Northwest Conference Covenant churches gather to worship, learn, serve, and have fun together. There are general sessions with amazing worship and an engaging speaker, a half-day of serving with local ministries and community organizations in St. Cloud, a time of experiential learning, late night games, and more. MOVE is designed and pulled off by a team of youth pastors from the Northwest Conference.
Stephanie Williams O’Brien
Stephanie is a church planter and lead pastor of Mill City Church in Northeast Minneapolis. She is also a professor of ministry at Bethel University and Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Stephanie has opportunities to coach leaders around the country through speaking, coaching and her podcast “Lead Stories” with her friend Jo Saxton.
She is passionate about communities and individuals participating in the mission of God to the world. In the fall of 2019 her first book will be published – “Stay Curious: How Questions and Doubts Can Save Your Faith.” Stay curious with Pastor Steph at: www.pastorsteph.com.
SHARK TANK — Saturday Afternoon Learning Experience
Just like the TV show Shark Tank takes the best ideas of entrepreneurs and makes them reality, so MOVE will take the best ideas of students and encourage them to create real ways to help their community.
Before MOVE even begins, youth leaders and students will work together to identify a very real need in their community and come up with a creative solution to address that need. While at MOVE, each group will create an idea poster that represents the need and their solution. They’ll present their idea poster at MOVE to a panel of Sharks and other youth ministries. Two Shark Tank grants will be awarded to two youth ministries to put their solutions into action.
The MOVE team will provide the poster board but groups are encouraged to bring their own markers, printouts, and whatever other materials they want on their poster with them to MOVE.
While this portion of the weekend requires some work before the event, Shark Tank wants to spur on students who attend MOVE to think innovatively about the issues their home communities face and create solutions that they can implement when they return home. We want them to imagine how to love our immediate neighbors with No Excuses.