Faith Quest 2009

This year we had people go to Faith Quest who haven't been before. This is not your normal youth rally, were youth groups come together and sing and worship. If you believe that is what Faith Quest is then I am going to assume you have never been. It is all in the title of the rally, "Faith Quest.” It pushes you to look inside yourself and see what really your walk with God is about. I asked a couple of people, one teen and one adult, who have gone to write a short thing about what this year’s Faith Quest meant to them and or did for them.

“God worked in amazing ways at Faith Quest this year. The classes were excellent and instructive, the speakers gave great thought provoking messages, and the praise was (as always) refreshing and eye opening. But my favorite part about Faith Quest this year was the “youth group strategic time.” That was the time that for me seemed to be the most productive. We all sat down together as individual youth group and talked about what we could do to improve our group dynamics and be a better youth group over all. We talked about how we wanted to be more closely connected with the church body and came up with a tentative plan for how we could do that. People were able to come forward and say if they weren’t feeling included in the group without the fear of others being upset by it. It was a great thing that I think helped us a lot and I believe it had an impact on us. I’m looking forward to seeing how it changes the way we work.”

“My trip to faith quest started last year. The Sunday after Faith Quest 2008 to be exact, Jarrod lead the Lord’s Supper that day and WOW. He started by sharing about Faith Quest, then he talked about the cross and about what Christ had done for him there and he was overcome with emotion at the magnitude of it. I know he’s my son and all, but it moved me and many others to tears. I decided right then and there I was going to faith quest. I wanted a piece of that. It didn’t matter that both of my kids would be off to college. So in January I put in for vacation. I went wanting, expecting God to move in me like I had seen him move in Jarrod. So off to faith quest I go. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were great. The singing, the workshops, and the keynotes were awesome (Ike was my favorite). Then came Sunday night, and “my faith quest moment”, the one that will stick with me forever. We took communion together, all 400 of us. We stood gathered around the cross, arms linked, singing. I was at the center with all 400 voices coming at me. It was incredible. I found myself not singing more than once and just listening, absorbing. Then we sang a song that I had just learned at faith quest. The chorus is a series of Hallelujah’s and as the 400 voices blended together as one I felt myself being lifted up. Everything faded away and it was like there was only spirit. It lasted a few seconds but I would choose those few seconds again over the entire rest of the weekend. Only, I’m not sure without the rest of the weekend I would have gotten to the place where God took me in that moment. Afterward, my first thought was: that’s what it’s going to be like when Jesus comes again and we are lifted into the sky with him. And for the first time in my life I was ready to go.”