From a Recent Massanetta Springs Newsletter
Ridgley’s congregation had a history of summer mission trips, but no experience of conference ministry for younger youth. They worship in a secular community where youth from the congregation have difficulty getting a sense of the larger Church – that they are part of a substantial community of faith. “I wanted a way to engage my middlers earlier” – at a point in their personal development where faith and identity are shaped. Ridgley hoped to provide an experience that would deepen their connections with each other while deepening their faith through fellowship, play, worship, and time away from the busyness (and screens) of normal life.
Ridgely found exactly what she was hoping for at Massanetta Springs Middle School Conference. “At Massanetta, I sit back and watch the Holy Spirit work with my kids. I have a front row seat.” Around every corner of Massanetta Springs it seemed there was evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work: sitting with feet in the spring, having unscripted conversations and teachable moments that just don’t seem as natural elsewhere; the impact of the candlelight vespers service on the faces of her youth. The transformative energy of a Massanetta Springs experience was everywhere. “It was contagious.”
Ridgley knows that Massanetta Springs is having an impact on her congregation’s youth when they say things like, “I never realized there were so many other teenagers like me.” It’s a place where Middle School students can be, “wholeheartedly themselves and be loved for being wholeheartedly themselves” – a rare and special space for today’s young people. It’s a place where the lasting impact is tangible.
When SJPC youth return home from Massanetta Springs, parents seek Ridgley out to ask, “What happens there? When they come back, the youth want to be involved!’ Massanetta Springs is a place where kids grab onto faith for themselves and learn that “church is for them, too.”
In 2022, St. John’s took their first annual middle school conference at Massanetta Springs Camp and Conference Center in Harrisonburg, VA. Thanks to our church’s fundraising efforts selling parking for the Devon Horse Show, our middle school and high school youth have the opportunity to grow in faith. Massanetta featured St. John’s and our story during their most recent giving campaign.
