How Do We Show Up?
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
written by Rev. Leah Quarles
Not too long ago I was in the beautiful mountain town of Montreat, North Carolina with a group of high schoolers for the Montreat Youth Conference. We sang songs, played cards, worshipped, jumped in creeks and stayed up way too late every night. We wrestled with God’s word together and prayed for one another. We made new friends and tried new things from chore charts to recreation events on campus and even new foods. We broke bread together around the kitchen table and shared in communion with over 840 youth from Presbyterian churches all over the country.
It was an exciting week for our youth returning to Montreat and for those experiencing all this conference has to offer for the first time. I’ve been home for about a week now and keep reflecting on the experience, in particular on one theme that kept coming up in our evening discussions – how do we show up?
When you bring over 800 high schoolers together, mix them all up into small groups of 30 where no one knows each other, where no church youth overlaps with another, what can one expect? To my delight, somehow at Montreat, this recipe works. I witnessed youth letting down their walls with each other from the first day. Having courageous and vulnerable conversations with each other and discovering they were not alone. Discovering that while one youth might come from the dry desert of Arizona and the other from the thick humidity of South Carolina, they have a common denominator in Christ.
They share similar interests in music or sports and similar struggles with school, family and friends. Youth are reminded that the outward appearances and first impressions are paper thin and don’t actually carry much weight. Instead they are reminded of each other’s dignity and worth – in other words they are seeing each other as the children of God each student is. With open ears they respectfully listened and with soft hearts they revealed their own vulnerabilities. Walls were broken down.
This openness overflowed into silly morning energizes filled with dancing, singing, cheering and clapping. It extended into free time as new friends rock hopped in the creek and met for ice cream. It was witnessed in the willingness to try new things at recreation time and mingle with other youth.
All this to say, our youth showed up in this new space, filled with unfamiliar faces in a remarkable way – open to the possibilities that God’s Spirit brings when it sweeps through. Each night our youth reflected on how great it was to be with so many kind youth and with others who wanted to have deep talks on life and faith. They appreciated the way youth participated in discussions and gave feedback to one another. They longed for high school back home in Arizona to feel this way and hoped that their new beginnings at college could be this positive as well.
So we would ask at night, “what would it look like to show up at school like you showed up here at Montreat?” What would it look like to show up in your community with a welcoming and inviting personality and with a respect for each person as a child of God? What does it look like to show up with a willingness to listen for understanding rather than formulating your next talking point to win your argument? What does it look like to show up open to meeting new people and making them feel welcome? To show up open to try new things and be the first to speak so that others feel safe to speak too? To show up in our communities willing to stand out from the crowd in order that we be the ones shining God’s light, sharing Christ’s love, and extending his hope to those around us?
Sometimes in order to answer these questions we need to experience something like the Montreat Youth Conference. Other times it requires us to take some quiet time and use our imagination to envision what it looks like for us to show up in such a way. I would encourage everyone to do this - to have a holy imagination and then to have the courage to show up in your homes, with your families, at church and work, in such a way that shows you are one who desires to live like the One we follow.