Snapshots of Jubilee

There is more going in my life this week than Jubilee anticipation, contrary to what the blog might indicate. However, it's premature to write about the other "stuff" that's happening, and I really do want to be focused on the coming weekend.

I'm excited to see old friends, and the seminars this year are amazing — it's going to be difficult to choose. I'm particularly eager to greet my new friends from Howard University — I was in Washington, DC this past Friday, along with a photographer, to start gathering information for the fall issue of the CCO's On Campus magazine. It was my first visit to an HBCU (Historically Black College or University), and it was truly inspiring to meet these amazing students and to get glimpses of what God is doing in their midst. As we parted ways on Friday evening, the typical farewell was, "See you next week at Jubilee!" None of these students (or their staff person, Carlous Price) have attended Jubilee before, and I'm praying that theirs is a wonderful experience.

On that note, I'll share some of my Jubilee memories here. I wrote this article in February 2004. Enjoy!
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Snapshots of Jubilee

February 22, 1985
"Wait until you see the view!"

We had been crammed into a 15-passenger van for close to two hours and had just merged from I-79 South onto 279 North, toward downtown Pittsburgh. (These were the Dark Ages of the 1980s, in the days before 279 extended north from downtown to Wexford.) As we approached the Fort Pitt Tunnel, our anticipation hit its peak. Throughout the relatively brief journey from Meadville to Pittsburgh, those upperclass students — who had been talking nonstop about something called "Jubilee" since I'd started my freshman year at Allegheny College back in September — continued to prime the pump.

They were right. The nighttime vista of downtown Pittsburgh is breathtaking when it bursts forth as you emerge from that long tunnel. But that was nothing compared to the controlled chaos that greeted this overwhelmed freshman when she stepped through the lobby doors of the Pittsburgh Hilton.

I paid $65 to attend the conference and stay at the Hilton for the weekend. Having grown up in the surrounding suburbs, downtown Pittsburgh was an exotic land to me — completely unfamiliar and a little bit frightening. (Close to 20 years later, I live six miles from downtown Pittsburgh, and my point of reference — downtown's "true north" — continues to be the Hilton.)

Os Guinness was the keynote speaker. I'd never heard of him, but I remember being impressed by his British accent. The microscopic print in the Jubilee 1985 brochure reminds me that he spoke on the theme of "Mission Impossible? — Christian Calling and the Challenge of Modernity." Huh? (That's the freshman me talking there.)

(I imagine we could invite Dr. Guinness back at any moment to talk on almost the same topic…how about "Christian Calling and the Challenge of Postmodernity"?)

For lack of a more relevant Saturday afternoon seminar, I attended Ken Heffner's journalism workshop. I wasn't convinced that I wanted to be a journalist, but as an undeclared English major, this seemed to me a better fit than applied sciences, business, or politics. (This was also back in the days before "Track One" and "Track Two"; it was all Track Two material then — The Christian in the University.)

I remember squeezing through the crush of people on the mezzanine level of the hotel, waiting what felt like hours for an elevator to my room, dining at McDonald's, and recognizing Becky and Patty — both girls I'd gone to high school with, who were now students at Grove City and Thiel College, respectively. We waved to each other as the current of the crowd carried us off in different directions. I searched frantically for another familiar face.

I can sum up my first-ever Jubilee experience in one word: overwhelming. Several years later, when I was working for the CCO at Gannon University, I unearthed my Jubilee '85 notes and was surprised how thorough and coherent they were, considering how clueless I remember feeling at the time.

February 21, 1986
Back to the Pittsburgh Hilton. This time, I was the one prepping clueless freshmen about the amazing nighttime view of downtown Pittsburgh from the mouth of the Fort Pitt Tunnel. Dr. Anthony Campolo was making his second Jubilee appearance (not that I knew this at the time), and like Os Guinness, I'd never heard of him. He spoke on the theme, "The Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ." He didn't have a British accent, but he was really, really funny. Mark Heard provided the entertainment. I'd never heard of him either.

And that's all I remember about that.

February 26, 1988
This was my senior year and my fourth consecutive Jubilee conference. An Ocean City Beach Project '87 reunion. Conversations with Ellie Pruner (soon-to-be Davis) about coming on CCO staff as an intern. Bill Romanowski's farewell "The Heart of Rock and Roll" concert. Bad '80s hair (and I have the pictures to prove it). The student cost to both attend the conference and stay at the Hilton had increased to $70.

This was my best Jubilee conference ever, up to that point — not because of any earth-shattering keynote address or seminar, but because of relationships and connections I'd nurtured over three and a half years. This was a major contrast to my feelings of "lostness" at Jubilee '85. Now I belonged. Serious adrenalin high. I didn't want to leave.

February 28, 1988
Serious adrenalin crash.

Back in my student-slum apartment in Meadville, alone, I watched the closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games and cried.

February 2004
I'll spare you the blow-by-blow of the 15 Jubilees I've attended as a CCO staff person. That's both for your sake and my own. I used to be able to recite the keynote speakers for each year by memory, but I lost that ability almost a decade ago. I'm now twice the age of the freshmen and sophomores who will attend Jubilee 2004, and I haven't missed a single conference since 1985. This will be my 20th.

As I help prepare for Jubilee 2004 (the program booklet is almost ready to go to the printer), I'm looking forward to the conference this year as much as ever. I never stop learning from the speakers or reveling in the singing and the worship and the contagious excitement that permeates the Hilton every year on the last weekend of February.

On Sunday morning, February 29th, yet another generation of college students will be cordially invited to become active participants in God's Kingdom work — right now, on their campuses, and throughout the rest of their lives.

And as I do every year, I will thank God (with Paul, in Philippians 1:6) that he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

This article was originally published in February 2004. Copyright Coalition for Christian Outreach, 2004.