FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is it?
2. When is it?
3. Who will be speaking? Playing?
5. Is this just going to be a CBC sales pitch, stretched out over a weekend?
6. What does "Revera" mean anyway?
7. How can I get more information?
REVERA is a weekend conference designed for high school students in grades 10 through 12. Hundreds of students will be converging on the campus of Columbia Bible College in late October, 2008 for great times of worship, challenge, study, and deepening of their faith. The ultimate objective of REVERA is to come alongside youth groups in the task of helping high school students discover what God has in store for their lives!
REVERA will be happening on the weekend of Friday October 24 - Sunday October 26, 2008. Registration will begin in the early afternoon on Friday and the conference will wrap up after lunch on Sunday. More details on our action-packed schedule will be coming soon!
3. Who will be speaking? Playing?
While we don't think the real value of a weekend conference like REVERA is to be found in the names of the speakers or bands who come, we are excited about the folks who are already on board to speak or play! Check out the rest of this website for full details on our various guests.
Columbia Bible College exists not only to train the future leaders of our churches, but also to support and work with churches and those already serving God in ministry! It has long been the vision of the Youth Work Department here at CBC to provide a weekend conference that will bring together the students studying at Columbia, and high school students for a weekend conference. We believe this will serve a number of purposes, including being a huge blessing to the youth pastors who are able to bring their students for the weekend and take part in the many exciting activities REVERA offers, as well as challenging high school students to stretch and grow in their faith. We are also excited to invite high school students to see what Columbia is all about, and invite them to think about what they could gain from spending time studying the Bible at a Bible College after high school.
5. Is this just going to be a CBC sales pitch, stretched out over a weekend?
No! It is not our intention to use the guise of a youth conference to trick anyone onto campus, then hit 'em with a 2-3 day sales pitch to bolster our enrollment. In fact, you won't see much in the way of "advertising" or "pushing" for your students to come to Columbia. We really believe the Columbia experience speaks for itself and doesn't need us to beat anyone over the head with sales pitches.
Of course, we believe strongly in the ministry and work of Bible Colleges, and Columbia in particular - if we didn't, we wouldn't be here! We think that spending a year or two (or more!) at a Bible College is the best thing that many students could do when they finish high school, whether for the sake of vocational training or simply to spend a year digging into the specifics of what they believe and why. REVERA is designed to be a stand alone weekend event that will encourage and challenge everyone in attendance, and at the same time will be representative of the ministry that Columbia is doing every day in the lives of students who attend here.
Many students will come here and have a great weekend with us and never think again about our college, and that's great! We look forward to the opportunity to minister to you. On the other hand, some may come and sense that Columbia is a place they'd like to find out more about, or even attend when they finish high school, and we welcome the opportunity to continue ministering to these students in the years they potentially attend.
In any case, Columbia exists to work with the local church to further the kingdom of God, and whether this is done through a one weekend youth conference, a one night youth event, a four year degree program, or any of the many other events we host, we are excited simply to have the opportunity to live out the mission God has called us to!
6. What does "Revera" mean anyway?
REVERA is a latin word, meaning "In Reality". We're pretty sure of this, because the internet told us so. Also, we checked some Latin-English dictionaries and they confirmed it. We don't know anyone who speaks Latin fluently so we haven't asked, but for now, we're fairly content that we're right.
The truth is, it's harder and harder these days to know what "reality" is. Lots of things lay claim to "reality": from TV shows like "The Apprentice", "Laguna Beach", and "The Surreal Life" to Wikipedia, from online social interactions through facebook or MSN, to the increasingly hard to decipher world of today's politics, it gets harder and harder to figure out what is real and what is not.
That's why we're so thankful that we believe in a God who has remained the same since the day He created the universe to today, and has given us a reliable guide to knowing Him in the Bible. In a world that has a consistently unclear grasp on reality, we're excited to have a reliable look at REAL reality in the Bible.
That's why we chose to name our conference "REVERA": because regardless of what happens in pop culture, politics, technology, or what the world chooses to present as reality, the mission of the kingdom of God remains the same, and REVERA aims to stand by that mission: to love God and our neighbor, and influence others to do the same.
7. How can I get more information?
We'll be putting lots more information on this website very soon, but if you can't wait, just get in touch with Jeremy Vis at Columbia. You can reach Jeremy by email at Jeremy.Vis@columbiabc.edu or by phone, toll-free at 1.800.283.0881 or locally at 604.853.3358.