Local churches in Southern California are collaborating once again to host the fourth annual SOLA Conference, a conference for college students led and organized by leaders of various local churches rather than a single church, para-church or campus ministry.
The upcoming conference will be centered on the theme, "Light After Darkness," and will explore a wide spectrum of issues that collegians may be struggling with, including personal questions such as uncertainties about the future in terms of vocation or calling; relational difficulties like relationships with parents, and the intergenerational dynamic in the immigrant church; as well as emotional, physical, and mental issues including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Such a theme "assumes something about the spiritual anatomy of a human being," said Steve Lee, who pastors college students at Living Hope Community Church in Brea, CA.
"Unless your whole being is healthy, there's going to be a gap in your spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is so much more than just the intaking of spiritual truths "” it's every part of our being. Our past, our hurts, our pains "” all of these are included in the continuum of spiritual growth," Lee explained.
"For too long, these issues have been brushed aside, while we see it being normative in this generation," said Michael Lee, the executive pastor at All Nations Church. "We want to preach and proclaim that the gospel reaches us in these dark areas "” and that there is healing and restoration. And we want to mobilize collegians to be agents of witness and restoration among their peers."
Ronnie Park, lead pastor at Good Stewards Church, said such a theme is especially significant for Korean Americans "” a demographic which makes up the majority of the congregations of the churches that are collaborating to host this conference.
"There isn't a strong practice in the immigrant church for dealing with these issues in a gospel-shaped way," Park said. "I think for me, why I really love this part of the theme is that we're trying to normalize a conversation and a discussion of these issues."
Having an open conversation on such issues is also significant considering some of the social aspects of the time in which collegians currently live, the executive team said.
"We've become this "Instagram generation' "” everyone wants to show the perfect self," said Eugene Park, college pastor at Gospel Life Mission Church. "And it provides a false notion of life, that everything about you needs to look good. And if it doesn't, then there's something wrong with you "¦ We're hiding our problems and kind of living in the shadows."
Steve Lee added that he hopes pastors would be open to "having people come up to them after the conference to say, "I want to share something with you that I haven't been able to thus far.'"
Over the years, the conference has been on a path of steady growth in scale in terms of response as well as organization. Numbers in attendance grew from some 200 during the first conference in 2012 to 400 in the conference that took place earlier this year in April. The executive team, which takes on the bulk of organizing for the event, has also grown in number, from four churches being represented in last year's executive team to seven in this year's.
Members of this year's executive team say that the growth could be attributed to a number of reasons, but they said that they had been increasing efforts to partner with more local churches to host the conference, which they cite as perhaps one of the main reasons for the growth in attendance.
David Park, the college pastor at Christ Central of Southern California, attributed the growth to the uniqueness of the conference.
"Here in Southern California at least, I don't think there's any conference that is similar to what we are doing "” one that is local church driven and targets collegians," Park explained. "Just seeing this partnership of local churches, I think that's one huge reason we're growing."
This year's conference will feature three pastors as its main plenary speakers: Chris Brown, senior pastor of North Coast Community Church; Alex Choi, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace LA; and Harold Kim, senior pastor of Christ Central of Southern California.
Others have also been invited to be breakout session speakers who will speak on more specific issues, including Benjamin Shin, the director of the Asian American Doctor of Ministry cohort at Biola University's Talbot School of Theology; Cory Ishida, senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of San Gabriel Valley; Richard Kim, the senior pastor of Gospel Life Mission Church; Brian Chan, the founder of Liferay Portal; and Eddie Park, assistant executive pastor of EvFree Fullerton, among others.
A pastor's luncheon will also be a part of the conference as in previous years, during which pastors of the various participating churches can share ideas and advice.
The conference will take place from April 15-16, 2016 at New Life Community Church in Artesia, CA. For more information, visit www.thesolaconference.org, or email michael@allnationsla.org.
