SLC 2025 Report
Leaders Who Love Truth: Highlights from the 2025 ACSI Student Leadership Conferences
Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and blessings poured out during the ACSI Student Leadership Conferences (SLC) this year! With a combined 410 participants — 221 in Week 1 and 189 in Week 2 — these gatherings brought together students and chaperones from 47 schools across Europe for a time of worship, discipleship, and leadership growth centered on the theme “Leaders Who Love Truth.”
Discovering Truth Together
Both conferences featured keynote teaching by David Totman, lead pastor from Florida and former chaplain at the International Christian School of Budapest. His messages connected deeply with participants, especially as he once attended SLC as a chaperone himself.
The five main sessions guided participants through a biblical exploration of truth:
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Understanding Truth – Truth is knowable and absolute because God defines reality.
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Seeking Truth – God’s Word is trustworthy and sanctifies us for His purposes.
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Meeting the Truth – Jesus Himself is Truth, not just an idea but a person to encounter.
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Living Truth – Truth transforms our daily lives as we walk in obedience and love.
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Leaders Who Love Truth – Godly leaders embrace and share truth courageously and humbly.
These sessions were reinforced through small group discussions, interactive workshops, and meaningful times of worship that helped students not only understand truth but live it out.
Week 1 Highlights
Students spoke of personal spiritual growth and new courage to lead:
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“I began to understand people more deeply and saw how faith connects us.”
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“Worship and main sessions helped me see truth as something to live, not just know.”
Chaperones appreciated the solid biblical teaching and time for deeper discipleship:
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“Dave’s teaching of the Word was a wonderful blessing.”
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“Great fellowship and worship; refreshing to see youth hungry for truth.”
Week 2 Highlights
Participants in Week 2 described authentic encounters with God and a stronger sense of Christian unity:
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“This week helped me see how real truth applies in daily life.”
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“Meeting people from other countries made me feel part of a larger family in Christ.”
Adult leaders echoed these themes:
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“The ‘Living Truth’ message tied everything together beautifully.”
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“Workshops were rich, but even more valuable were the conversations with students.”
Common Strengths Across Both Weeks
Across both events, students consistently reported:
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A deepened faith and stronger grasp of biblical truth.
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Greater confidence to lead and serve in their schools.
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Joy in connecting with peers from other nations.
Chaperones praised the biblical depth of teaching, student engagement, and outstanding organization and hospitality.
Growing Momentum
Both SLC weeks demonstrated remarkable consistency and excellence. Worship, content, and community stood out as the strongest aspects, with a growing spiritual engagement through each week.
It was an extra blessing to welcome several new schools and representative countries to this year's events! We really appreciated the extra effort of school leaders and new chaperones from Albania, Ukraine, Finland, and Spain to navigate their first-time participation at SLC!
Now in our 27th year of SLC, these conferences continue to equip young leaders to live courageously for Christ — loving truth, walking in it, and leading others toward it.
To God be the glory for lives transformed and leaders strengthened to love and live the Truth!
The next SLC events will be in the last week of September and the first week of October of 2026. We also recognize the growing need for community, training, collaboration and support in developing student leaders here in Europe and globally. Additional SLC events are being considered for other regions as we prayerfully evaluate how God might use this event to impact even more students for His purposes. Please pray with us for the ongoing ministry of SLC and the lives of these young men and women who desire to live for Christ and impact their communities for His purposes.
Strengthening Critical Thinking
Christian schools are often intentional about teaching worldview and preparing students to engage with competing ideas. Yet the way we structure this engagement can either nurture deep critical thinking or unintentionally foster shallow habits of argument. Here are some practical tools to support critial thinking in the classroom.
Education as a Restoration of Hope
Today we turn to the good news: God’s plan of restoration through Christ. This is not only a personal hope but also a framework for how we think about education, leadership, and the shaping of society. How can we build meaningful outcomes into the process of teaching and learning which truly reflect the hope we have in Christ?
Recognizing the Problem of Sin
The foundational, yet often overlooked, reality is the way sin impacts both teaching and learning. As school leaders, we cannot view education merely as the transfer of knowledge or the development of skills. Education is always moral and spiritual, shaped either by truth that comes from God or by distortions introduced by sin.
ACSI Europe Online Prayer
Join Christian school leaders from across the Europe region for a time of prayer, fellowship and encouragement. This group meets on Zoom the 2nd Thursday each month at 13:00 CET to focus our attention on God's presence and provision for His work through global Christian education.
