RMCNews – Ward, Colorado … The 2025 Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) Greater Summit youth retreat was held at Glacier View Ranch (GVR) in Ward, Colorado, January 17-20. Tailored for middle and high school age youth, the weekend retreat was a joint venture between RMC and Kansas-Nebraska Conference Youth Ministries. The event was marked with record attendance of around 140 participants including youth, their adult sponsors/family members, and RMC and GVR staff and volunteers.
While temperatures hovered between -10 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit and there was significant snowfall witnessed in the region, participants were still able enjoy all of the scheduled programs, social events, and activities including snow tubing, snow shoeing, arts and crafts, and time in GVR’s indoor aquatic center.
RMCNews was able to connect in an interview with lead program coordinator Jade Teal, RMC Youth assistant director, and RMC Youth director Brandon Westgate to get a better understanding of the greater mission and purpose of the event.
What is the purpose of Greater Summit? It requires a lot of preparation and coordination, so why hold this event?
[Jade Teal] Greater Summit is a weekend for kids to come together and grow closer to God and grow in their personal relationship with Him. It also serves for the adults in their lives to be able to connect with them on a much deeper level and to give them an opportunity to really open up to those adults about what’s going on in their spiritual lives. The adults can help coach them through some of the things that they’re going through.
The theme for this year’s program was “Undefeated.” Can you tell me a little bit more about why you chose that theme?
[Brandon Westgate] As a youth department, we try to pick a theme every year that’s going to challenge not only us but challenge our volunteers and especially challenge our campers and our schools. When we do Week of Prayer in our schools, we use that same theme when we do worship services there.
Our theme this year is “Undefeated,” and the idea is that Jesus never lost a battle. When we claim Jesus’s righteousness as our own and we put our faith in Him, we claim His victories. So even though the enemy is always trying to make us feel like we’re defeated in some way, or we fall short, the reality of the Gospel is that each and every one of us are undefeated. Our goal, our mission this year as a youth department is to really pour that message into the hearts of the young people that we encounter.
Generally, how do you select your speakers?
[Brandon Westgate] Speaker selection is something we pray about because we do want them to match and align with the mission of our youth department. Our mission is that we want to make it easy for kids to know God, so we search out speakers that are going share the message of the Gospel in a plain way that young people can relate to. We looked around at this year and Nick [Snell] (Kansas-Nebraska Conference Youth and Young Adult director) was one of those guys that definitely has the ability to do that. And our other speaker, Jolina Console, who’s a theology major at Union Adventist University, has been a summer camp staff here for three summers and loves this place. She was super excited when we asked her to come and speak. So, for us it felt like a real natural selection.
What have you noticed the participants get most engaged with and excited to do while attending the event?
[Jade Teal] I think our winter activities are definitely near top of the list. We have a giant sledding hill, and that’s always a highlight. And then I think the ability to connect in small groups to other teams, other high schoolers, and to be able to connect with their teachers, parents, sponsors, and group leaders as well.
[Brandon Westgate] There’s three components that we do well here and we’re intentional about during Greater Summit. One of those is engage, one is encounter, and the other is enjoy. We engage with Scripture, and we encounter God as we study Scripture together in small groups, and the enjoyment piece is just connecting with friends and sponsors and enjoying some of those winter activities. Those three pieces of Greater Summit are really what makes it what it is.
Any final thoughts on the program that you would like to share?
[Brandon Westgate] Some of the things that happen at Greater Summit are things that happen in smaller groups. The worship services are always good; they’re always engaging. It’s the little conversations you see happen. When you see a couple of teens pulled off to the side of a room praying together, that’s a huge thing for us because we know they’re really connecting not only with each other but they’re connecting with their Creator. For us, that’s a big win.
[Jade Teal] Another thing that’s been really, really cool to see is how when the kids don’t have access to internet or technology, they make their own fun and connect with each other in ways that we don’t often see anymore. Today I was out on the lake with a bunch of the kids and a couple of them had brought their ice skates up because they knew there was a [frozen] lake. They recruited a bunch of people to help them clear a spot on the ice to be able to skate. It’s things like that, where they’re working together and meeting people and interacting in ways that they wouldn’t usually do.
Greater Summit happens in January of each year, so start planning now to bring your school, church, club, or family group in 2026. Be sure to look for the upcoming video of the full interview and highlights of the 2025 Greater Summit on the RMC website rmcsda.org or in another edition of NewsNuggets. If you have any questions on the program and how to participate next year, contact Jade Teal at [email protected] or at (303) 282-3664.
—RMCNews. Photos by Liz Kirkland.