Hope from the Mountaintop

Rev. Dr. Phil Huebner & a panel of high school students

Keynote description

You Are Not Alone!
Isaiah 40:28-31
“You don’t know what it’s like . . . people will judge me . . . no one cares . . . I’m completely alone.” Ever feel like that before? Ever have so many problems, so much hurt, so much pain that you don’t know what to do, don’t know where to go, and don’t know if anyone will help? Dear teens, take heart!

In this keynote address, Dr. Phil Huebner will bring you encouragement from the words of God to remind you that you are not alone on your journey.  Joining him will be a panel of fellow Lutheran teens who have extraordinary stories of incredible journeys filled with mountains and valleys. Yet through it all, our gracious God and wonderful Christian friends and family were there to support them. These presenters will share their stories in a keynote that will surely bring comfort, reassurance, and inspiration to all.

Speaker Bio

Pastor Phil Huebner was assigned from the seminary to start a new mission in Palm Coast, Fla., where he served for nine years. For the last six years, he has served as the campus pastor at Wisconsin Lutheran High School. He received a second master’s degree from our seminary in 2016 and his doctorate in ministry in 2019 from Concordia Theological Seminary. His whole ministry to date has been among families and youth. He is married to Becky and has two children, Noah (15) and Gwen (12).

Certainty from the Mountaintop

Pastor Alex Groth

Keynote description

So many of the songs I listened to in high school had a sense of wrestling with doubts. Singer after singer writing lyrics about not understanding who they were or what they were supposed to do. I remember my teenage years as a lonely time, even as I had people in my life that I knew loved me. I remember my teenage years as an unsteady time. A time of manufactured confidence that I hoped would be convincing to others. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was looking for something only God can give consistently and truthfully: certainty. When you’re a teenager, certainty can feel boring, but it’s something we desperately need. We open our Bibles, and the Holy Spirit says, “Here is your God, one who is wonderfully present with power and love.”

Speaker Bio

Pastor Alex Groth has been a pastor at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, since graduating from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2011. He’s been married to his wife Carrie, a staff minister at Beautiful Savior, since 2009, and they have been raising two amazing foster boys since November 2021. Alex went to his first youth rally back in 1999 as an awkward 8th grader. What he heard, saw, and experienced in Ottawa, Canada, that year has stuck with him, and the youth rally continues to be one of his favorite things he gets to do as a pastor.