19th Annual Family Advance

Theme:  The Church Friendly Family

Thursday, 5 Nov 7:00 PM – What Is Marriage For?  (Rich Lusk)
8:30 PM – The Family and the Culture  (Randy Booth)

Friday 6 Nov 9:00 AM –  The Family and Worship  (Randy Booth)
10:30 AM – Missional Parenting   (Rich Lusk)
7:00 PM – The Family and Education  (Randy Booth)
8:30 – Talent Show

Saturday 7 Nov 9:00 AM – The Blessed Family (Psalm 128)  (Rich Lusk)
10:30 AM – The Family Table  (Randy Booth)
7:00 PM – Old South Ball

Sunday  8 Nov 9:00 AM –   The Family and the Future  (Uri Brito)
10:30 AM –  Except the Lord Build the House (Psalm 127)  (Mickey Schneider)

Each year around the Veterans’ Day holiday, Trinity Presbyterian Church holds its annual family advance. This year from November 5-8, we will enjoy our 19th annual advance. Once again we will be at the beautiful Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in South Walton County. More details later in this article.

When most people first hear of our advance they wonder,”What is an advance?” Good question! Many times church groups (including ours) hold short, focused weekend gatherings at a location away from the church building. These events are called retreats and are typically oriented for either men, women, or youth. Well, our elders decided that they wanted to provide an opportunity for our entire families to have a weekend away for fellowship and teaching once a year. They decided that instead of retreating, we should use this time to advance us in our faith and fellowship. Our Family Advance was born!

Over the years, we have met at hotels and condominiums on Okaloosa Island, a hotel in Ft. Walton Beach, and various resorts in the Destin area. At one notable early advance, Steve Wilkins was our speaker and we all were able to fit in a single condominium room for the sessions. He was sick that weekend with a virus and lectured on the run! At another early advance, our meeting room opened up onto the roof of the hotel and some young boys (who are now young men and will remain nameless, but their parents know who they are) ran precariously close to the edge of the roof to the dismay of all the mothers! Speakers have included our own Pastor Schneider, Dewey Roberts, Steve Wilkins, Gary DeMar, Jim Jordan, Kerry Ptacek, Jay Adams, Joey Pipa, Randy Booth, RC Sproul Jr., Mike Mosley, Archie Jones, Doug Wilson, George Grant, Ian Hamilton, and Rob Rayburn. As our congregation has grown and the popularity of our conference has expanded well beyond our church, we have progressively moved to larger facilities at Seascape and Topsail resorts, until we finally settled in our present location at Sandestin. In recent years we’ve had approximately 500 attendees from all over the southeastern United States and beyond.

If you have any questions, let me know. I’m looking forward to seeing you at Sandestin in November!