The Capital District Youth gathered over 120 youth from 12 churches at Camp Tejas on Feb. 23-25 for the Capital District Midwinter 2018. This year’s speaker was Rev. Hilary Marchbanks. She shared reflections on what it means to be created in the image of God. 

Rev. Marchbanks began with an exploration of the current definition of “image,” describing the often inauthentic representations of ourselves and others on social media. 

She then explored how the word “image” is used differently in “the image of God,” because being created in God’s image is not only on the surface, but the image of God is deep, genuine, good, worthy, and essential to our core. 

She continued over the weekend by encouraging the youth to connect to that image through individual prayer and study, and communally through worship. She closed by reminding the youth that their generation has the power to live out that image of God by working to rebuild our world in faithful ways. 

She thanked the youth for using their strong voices to help older generations understand what is important.

Thanks to Diane Kofahl, Youth Director at Westlake UMC, for her organization and leadership on this year's event!
 

Written by Jill Barre