Caleb Summit introduction on Strength to Strength

All right, so let's turn now, um, to the last part here, and that's the part I've been assigned to, and that is talking about a gathering for men. And this vision has been brewing here at Strength of Strength, uh, the last year.

And so the idea of a conference isn't—it wasn't a new idea for us, it's something that we've talked about in the past, um, but the idea of more of just a place for men, for men to be challenged, okay, so not a—not a retreat necessarily, but a place to be engaged, especially in light of our times.

And I thought of this verse this evening here, um, here in, in chapter, uh, 2 Timothy 3, "But know this, difficult times will come in the last days." And I want to—I want to take the time to go on through those verses of what it will—of what it's—all the descriptors of what those people are going to be like, but it sounds like state college when I read that, uh, sometimes maybe even sounds like my heart. Um, and so we have a challenge and an opportunity on our hands, and so we feel that God is, uh, leading us here. Uh, we've been discussing this, like I said, with our, uh, admin team here, with our advisors, and with several other brothers who are real interested in this, and so I'm going to go ahead and share my, my, uh, screen here and talk about Caleb Summit.

Um, so Lord willing, we will be doing this here, uh, in the fall of, uh, in, in, in October—in October, uh, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And as you can see there, our logo is quite graphic. Uh, it is a—it is a dragon, uh, with a sword, and, uh, this logo has really caught the attention of my children. And we've got to talk about what that dragon means. Um, it's—this is—this is a type. Uh, this is parabolic. Um, who—who—who won't want to kill a dragon, right? But this is—this is a type—this is a picture of the church and what we're involved in, and that is—and our—our text verse, or kind of our theme verse, or our guiding verse for Caleb Summit is this verse out of Revelation 12:17, "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus Christ."

And so this is—this verse is, um, it signifies the final and intense persecution by Satan against God's faithful people, who remain obedient and steadfast to Jesus. And so there's a sense in our world that we—that we are in—we're in dark times. Uh, there's a lot of people who would acknowledge that, whether you're a Christian or not, we're in—we're in dark times. And so, um, with Caleb Summit, it is our desire to really engage and inspire and equip men for this battle that is on our hands.

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darknesses of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. And so, uh, moving on down through right here, um, the three words that kind of capture our vision for Caleb Summit is confidence, clarity, and courage, and of course, drawing on Caleb, who, like, 85 is like, "Give me the hardest part of the promised land, Joshua, give it to me. I was here 45 years ago, and I want it—I want it again," you know? Uh, this older man, um, who's, like, ready to step forward in faith, you know, when those guys his age are retiring and stepping back, he's stepping forward.

And that is what we want to do with Caleb Summit, is challenge ourselves and others, men, to step forward. So the purpose of Caleb Summit is a gathering built to activate and align young men, ages 18 to 35 approximately, with the historic Christian faith to ignite church planting, evangelism, and movement growth. This is not a retreat or recovery meeting. It is a forward-leaning rally for men who want to carry the historic faith with confidence, clarity, and courage.

Our core inspiration is our model is Caleb at 80. Um, still fierce, still faith—still faithful, refusing—refusing retirement, insisting, "Give me this mountain." Caleb Summit calls men into the same triumphant spirit, holy ambition, joyful strength, and bold masculine initiative.

Our core message is this: most men's conference are defensive, focusing on failure, guilt, and what men need to stop doing. Caleb Summit is the opposite. We take a joyful, offensive stance. Men were created to build. Men were created to lead. Men were created to advance a kingdom.

And so evangelistic momentum requires male initiative and courage, and we believe every man, intellectual or redneck, scholar or tradesman, is responsible for promoting, defending, and expanding the historic faith. Shoulder to shoulder, these men will pray, worship, debate, and evangelize as brothers, uh, referring to our time together, those two days in Pittsburgh, Lord willing.

So the next page here is, uh, the framework, um, that we're—we're orienting Caleb Summit around is the acronym RISC. So R is rooted, um, anchored in the historic faith and early Christian witness. I is irreproachable, lives without vice or theological compromise.

S is supernatural, dependent on the Holy Spirit's power and gifts. K is kingdom, advancing the rival nation of King Jesus. And then kind of breaking it down a little bit farther, so we'll have some core topics that we're going to be then kind of, uh, unpacking in those seven days and in coming years—I'm sorry, those two days and those coming years—um, extreme prayer, church planting, business as witness, theology, historic faith, masculine guardianship, and physical discipline.

Um, some of the unique features maybe, or features of Caleb Summit, is this: 15-minute lightning talks with live Q&A, so not long, droning topics that get stuffy and people—people, um, clock out, so we want to be very intentional, uh, men who have put a lot of time into it and boiled their message down, um, so it's very engaging. Again, we're thinking also young men, really engaging them. So 15-minute lightning talks with live Q&A, breakout discussions and prayer groups, um, walk-run lunches for energy and brotherhood, evangelism teams, um, getting out into the streets, singing, public witness—witness, uh, serving there maybe at a—at a, um, homeless shelter, that type of thing, um, push-up sessions to keep the room masculine and alert, all right?

Um, so get ready to be not only worked out physically, um, but—I'm sorry, spiritually, but also physically, and then finally a memory passage as well. And our outcome, um, is that we pray that men will—will leave with courage, clarity, confidence, brotherhood, and a living vision for building the rival kingdom of—of the, uh, rival kingdom of King Jesus.

Uh, and so that is something that we've been working on here, um, at S2S. Uh, some of us here on this planning team are pretty involved, uh, myself and Justin and Wendell, along with several other brothers, um, who are joining this event team, uh, Matthew Milani, um, Anthony Whitmer, Hector Troyer, uh, and possibly—oh yeah, Gabe—Gabe Byler, and another young—young brother possibly. So, um, that—that is, uh, Lord willing. Uh, we hope to have, um, several hundred men, uh, together for this in Pittsburgh, um, October of 2026. Two days. This will be the middle of the week. This will be probably Wednesday and Thursday, most likely like—like the last week of October. Uh, we need to kind of finalize some of those details yet.

So we do have a website, calebsummit.org. Uh, you can go there, get this information, tell others about it, um, get it on your calendars, um, and we'd love to—love to see you there. We'll also have, uh, different vendor booths there, of course, S2S books.

Um, we'll all be there, Lord willing, and, uh, it'll be a—it'll be, um, a rich time. I'm—I'm—I get to see some of the things that are being planned for the topics and speakers, and, um, it's—I can't wait. I just told someone today I want it to happen tomorrow, so. Any questions from—from you, or maybe some questions you thought of maybe our listeners would have?

Yeah, well, I'm glad you, uh, brought up the, uh, time you're projecting. Um, it's not finalized yet, but towards the end of October is what you're saying, right? Correct. Yeah. Sounds good. Last week of October or the first week of November, kind of right in that window, that two-week, three-week window, um, so yeah.

So your 15-minute lightning talk, so they—like a TED Talk fashion where it's just a—they come in prepared, have a succinct message, clear, deliver, short period of time. Is that the idea? That's correct. That is—that is correct, yeah. Yeah. Now, we might have a plenary session or two, um, but yeah, that's—that's right. We really want to, uh, I think 15 minutes seems a little bit short, but we'll see.

We're—this—some of this stuff is still in development yet, um, but Hector Troyer is—is somebody who—who really thinks that we need to use an economy of words, um, and—and really get to the point, um, cut out the fluff, and deliver our message, and then, yeah, and well—well done, um, you know, very focused, very intentional. We also want to see young men being equipped to give these kinds of talks, all right? So we want to see, uh, engaging young men to get up there and give these talks, and so that's definitely a component, is really—is teaching public speaking and the ability to articulate our faith and to share it, um, in—in—in a nutshell. And so, yeah, and then, of course, Q&As, uh, lots of roundtable times, uh, lots of opportunity to connect with speakers and those involved, um, so there'll be very intentional, like, fellowship times as well, or—and—and Q&A around—around these topics.

Yes, I'm excited to, uh, be a part of this and see this go forward. Um, I think it's going to be a great—a great thing, and kind of a new thing in a way for at least the Anabaptist community, but, um, it's a great way to just call men to lead and to, yeah, it's like spiritual boot camp, and I just really love this idea, so I'm really excited about it.

I'm looking forward to having my son there. Um, and this is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so really kind of in the central of the East Coast, so pretty reachable by anyone, you know, uh, by car in the surrounding East Coast area, Ontario, or even—and South, of course, and then they just got done building a new airport, so. Yes, they did. Yeah, Wendell knows all about that. Of course, we have Wendell's community there, follow—uh, Disciples of Jesus congregation there to, um, uh, help facilitate this as well.

Are you looking to keep it in Pittsburgh all the time, or is it something that you could see happening in other cities as well? Yeah, well, thanks for asking that question. I meant to actually share that. Um, so we see Caleb Summit, uh, this kind of being the—the—the central one or the main one in Pittsburgh, but we do—we do envision seeing smaller ones occurring maybe, uh, a second one every year, and that'd be in different cities, so yeah, maybe we'll have one in Calgary, you know, in spring of 2027. Hey, why not? One day, uh, maybe like a one day, like a mini—like a mini Caleb Summit, so like a more of a one-day deal or two-day deal or whatever.

We'll cross that bridge then, but, you know, we just rent a motel room or whatever, rent seekers, um, and—and we just—and we come there, uh, with just men, it's—it's less, uh, less logistics, right? So it's—it's very focused on—on—on—on relationship, fellowship, prayer, um, and connection and teaching, uh, and of course, church planting, advancing the kingdom, and so, um, yeah, yeah, absolutely, or what might be in Brisbane, Australia. We have—we have listeners there. It might be in Europe, might be in the Netherlands. I'd love to have one in the Netherlands with—uh, with the Haddads there. Um, so yeah, that's something we're—we're—we're dreaming of, kind of building out of this.

Would you host us there, Sam? Yeah, I was thinking Caleb Summit can more, uh, right in the heart of the—right in the Rocky Mountains. Climb a mountain together. Go down, um, to maybe Crowfoot Mountain, it's 10,000 feet, and, uh, see if we can summit. Wow. There you go. You're taking this a little too literal, bro.

If you want to—yeah, the thing—yeah, the thing about climbing a mountain is, um, it would definitely give you some perspective on what Caleb was asking for.

Amen. That's actually a great idea. Can more, Alberta. Let's—let's put that on the horizon. Beautiful part of Canada.

Okay.

All right, well, again, you can go to our website there, you know, off of the—off of the Strength of Strength, um, or, uh, right—app right to the actual website, um, calebsummit.org. For more information, you can sign up there for—to be alerted of—of as—as things—as this comes—as this comes information comes available.

So we look forward to that. If you're a young man, we'd love to have you join us there, um, in Pittsburgh for Caleb Summit 2026. And all right, well, well, man, thank you for—for joining here this evening for this, um, this talk. It's—it's, uh, this roundtable. Uh, it's amazing to see what God—how God has blessed Strength of Strength this year, uh, and this past year as well.

Um, it's been amazing to see how He—He's blessed us in so many ways. And we also want to give a special thank you to those who have donated, um, given financially to Strength of Strength. We are a—we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and—and that's been a blessing. And also, if you are, uh, we just, uh, considering giving, uh, to a ministry, we ask you to consider Strength of Strength.