All told, more than 425 college students (did we mention College Hill sent 20 students - the largest group?) and pastors gathered in St. Louis to unwrap God’s Word and learn how to defend the Christian faith. Students heard from the plenary speaker, Mr. Craig Parton, who is both a trial lawyer and the U.S. Director of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Parton examined the remarkable decline of American evangelicalism, why so many are going to Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Calvinism, as well as why many Lutherans are trying to be Baptists at the very moment Baptists are wanting to know how to become Lutherans!
In addition to Mr. Parton, students listened to twenty seven sectional speakers who presented on topics ranging from C.S. Lewis to the joy of being single. Many of our students commented on how hard it was to choose which sectional to attend; they were all so good.
A highlight of the conference was worship. Each morning and evening conference participants gathered in the chapel for Matins and Evening prayer. Intercessory prayer was held in the chapel at 2:15 pm, each day. Compline was held in the hotel lobby. The message of Christ crucified and risen for us and our forgiveness was clearly proclaimed.
Unwrapped! was the first campus ministry conference in close to a dozen years. It was the largest campus ministry conference in over thirty years and the students from College Hill and St. Paul’s cannot wait for the next one!
