Fan the Flame: Fall Retreat for College-Aged Young Adults
Lora Parsons
The Ashland Beacon
This fall, college-aged students will have an opportunity to attend a conference-style retreat hosted by Meade Station Church of God, in Ashland, KY. Those planning the event have two primary goals in mind: to encourage participants as they live out their faith in whatever world they currently find themselves in and to give an often-overlooked group of young adults a place to call their own.
Ask almost any church leader, and they will tell you that this is a group that often slips through the cracks. By nature of their age, many young adults in this category find themselves going off to college or starting new jobs that make committed church attendance a challenge. That isn’t to say that this age group has a DESIRE to be non-committal; they often simply find themselves figuring out life “with their feet in two places at once,” as described by Olivia Parsons, a junior at Asbury University. Many students go away to experience dorm life and all that comes with living on campus. And, this often simply means that the regularly-scheduled church services offered by traditional congregations just won’t fit within their current pattern of life. Another dynamic that makes ministering to this group a bit difficult for those who choose local post-secondary education or who begin work as soon as they graduate high school is a schedule that differs significantly from what they were used to dealing with during the secondary school years. For the first time, many young adults have a freedom to work hours that weren’t an option when they were still enrolled in high school. That often means taking on the more undesirable schedules of their workplace since they’re the newbies which likely necessitates weekend work.
Regardless of the specifics, all the changes of young adulthood seem to be characterized by one thing: transition. Young adults find themselves moving from the sheltering wings of home to whatever degree of independence comes with the new life they’ve forged after high school. And, that inevitably trickles down to impact church involvement. Look around, across denominations and among churches of varying sizes, and you’ll find children’s programs, youth programs, adult programs, senior programs, places for the grieving, the newly-divorced, those needing help with addiction/recovery, but what is often missing is a group FOCUSED on the needs of college-aged students. Don’t mistake this; they’re welcome into these other groups as churches don’t turn them away or intentionally overlook them. It’s simply that they’re often only present in a part-time manner, so they bring to the table a come-and-go kind of need. That makes it really difficult for a church to staff a class, purchase materials, and have things in place when over and over the group is changing, only partially present, or often loosely-connected due to time and space constraints. But the need for committing whole-heartedly to a body of believers that can help them navigate these transitional years is critical. Young adults are in a unique phase of life where they’re beginning to establish habits that will serve as a foundation for the families that they’ll likely craft on their own. Nothing is more important than building those families on the foundation that is Jesus. Having a stable body of believers just helps shore up that foundation and gives those participating in the church community a second family to walk through life with.
It is precisely this difficult dynamic and clear need that has had church leaders at Meade Station Church of God on US 60 in Boyd County focused on providing an alternative place for young adults to gather. They call themselves “AA” which stands for “Almost Adults,” and they gather locally at the home of Chuck and Jana Osborne. Jana Osborne described the meetings, “Wednesday nights will often find this local group around a bonfire munching on a carry-out dinner from someplace in the area or sharing in a breakfast-for-dinner meal on our couch. It all began when Jack, my oldest son, graduated from BCHS in 2021, and officially was no longer youth group age. Without a place to call his own to connect with others of his age group, the church council and I developed a plan. Weekly meetings on our farm would provide a laid-back environment. Dinner from the church would fit the young adult budget. And, some sort of devotional time would help fill their spiritual tank. The other 2021 graduates from Meade Station jumped on board, began inviting friends, and led the charge so that the AA group presently consists of about 15 regulars who graduated somewhere between 2020 and 2023.”
This well-established local arrangement from two years ago sparked the idea for the upcoming weekend retreat when the Osbornes’ niece, Olivia, became an RA at Asbury University earlier this fall. Wanting to plan meaningful hall events was a desire she expressed to her family, and the merging of the AA group which she attends when she isn’t away at school, seemed like a logical place to start. AA group members were already connected to communities from Morehead State University, Kentucky Christian University, Ashland Community Technical College, Shawnee State, and several local employers, so there was no shortage of locations to reach into for participants. Including Asbury residents on that list was a natural fit for what was already happening with the AA group at Meade Station. Combining forces and planning an event that would give college-aged students both in this area and beyond a place to connect just seemed like a natural next step. The “Fan the Flame Fall Retreat” was born.
Pulling off such an event might seem an overwhelming task, but “many hands make light the work.” Osborne praised the efforts of others, “Nothing could be more true of the various groups from the church that have jumped aboard to help make planning this smooth. When asked for volunteers to help with various tasks like picking up dinner for Friday night, purchasing snacks and drinks, helping sponsor the hotel costs, teaching a breakout session, printing fliers, ordering t-shirts--whatever the task at hand--various church members leaped into action.” Saturday's lunch is being entirely sponsored and catered by the Women of the Church of God (the church’s women’s mission-focused group), and the Men’s Fellowship group happily agreed to fix breakfast-for-dinner, an AA-group favorite, on Saturday evening. Finding folks who would lead the breakout sessions was no different. Osborne continued, “Trey Parsons, Math teacher at Paul Blazer High School, will be focusing on the importance of resting in the Biblical sense, so that we each have a flame bright enough that we can share it with others. Devonna Hall, the church’s WCG Vice President, will be conducting a breakout session entitled “No Mess…No Miracles,” where she’ll share the fact that our biggest mistakes can provide the greatest opportunities to see God at work in our lives. And, Brittany Brown, who is the Coordinator of Paul Blazer High School’s Youth Services Center, and who attends Grandview Church of God (a local sister church to Meade Station) will be focusing her session on Bible journaling and how keeping our spiritual flame bright requires us spending time in His Word.” The weekend will also include a couple of whole-group sessions headed up by Jana Osborne (Principal at Catlettsburg Elementary School) and Lora Parsons (Communication Arts teacher at Boyd County Middle School).
While the weekend will give participants from both our local and not-so-local areas a spiritual boost, the church hopes that participants somewhere in the 20-year-old age range, who are more permanently linked to this area will also find a new place to regularly fan their flame. Osborne shared, “If you’re in that transitional phase in life where you’re living in two places at different parts of the year, or if you’re juggling the beginnings of a work career with all the other necessities of life, then you have a place to call ‘home’ where you can learn and grow with others experiencing the same things! Wednesdays give you that weekly place through AA, and you can use the Fall Retreat weekend as a time and place to make that initial connection a little easier.”
The Retreat weekend will be held at Meade Station Church of God this October 20-22. The focus of the weekend’s events will be Hebrews 1:7: “He makes His servants…flames of fire.” The goal is to encourage participants to strengthen their own relationship with the Lord while also challenging them to share His goodness with others. Participants will be provided meals, local accommodations (if needed), conference materials, a swag bag, a t-shirt, and most importantly time with others who want to grow and share their faith. It is Meade Station’s hope that the challenge of finding a church to really plug into despite the difficulty of what your schedule might be makes a retreat-type scenario one that is just perfect for you. And, with the overwhelmingly generous support of church leaders, the cost--FREE--is one they hope fits exactly within your budget. The retreat will begin with a Friday evening team-building and devotional time, will continue on Saturday with four breakout sessions, activity time, and a bonfire, and then will conclude on Sunday with a small group debriefing session and the church’s morning worship service.
If all of this sounds great, but you’re a college student worried about study time, no worries! Some free time has been built into Saturday afternoon’s schedule where you could opt to visit the local public library or study at the church in a quiet room. Those not needing the study time will have some free time that evening to explore some of the fun things here in the local area. Registration for the weekend is open now through October 10th and is absolutely free. If you have questions or more information is needed, please email those to