YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly is a conference center catering to the needs of non-profit organizations and serving adults, family groups and college and high school students. A variety of conferences utilize our facilities during the summer, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, YMCA National Affairs, YMCA Leaders’ School, Church of Christ Encampment and many more.
The purpose of the Assembly is to provide a safe, nurturing facility that allows conferees an opportunity to change and grow. Our purpose in employing collegiate staff is to serve the conference guests and to provide the opportunity for the personal development of each staff member through an integrated program of work, study, recreation and worship in a Christian atmosphere.
YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly was established in 1906 as a Christian conference center and training center by Dr. Willis D. Weatherford, Sr. Blue Ridge hosted its first conference in the summer of 1912 following the completion of Robert E. Lee Hall. Dr. Weatherford, a YMCA student secretary, related to more than 20 colleges and universities throughout the South and was responsible for providing opportunities for Christian leadership training. From its inception, the Assembly has sought to provide an experience for its staff which would have a lasting impact upon the development of their own styles of living and sense of values. Dr. Weatherford enunciated the basic principles by which the Assembly still conducts its programs and relates to its staff members:
- There is dignity in all human labor. Anything ministering to human need is a God-given responsibility.
- The study of religion must be intellectually respectable.
- Religion is indispensable to building life values.
- All people are created in the image of God and worthy of love and respect.
- In the beauty of Blue Ridge’s natural setting, guests and staff should spend time in reflection/introspection through quiet time, prayer, Bible study of meditation.
