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Normally it’s like “this is what we’ve done to help youth groups grow so let me give you a few tips, and you can buys these books with the full details …” very frustrating, but this year was different. I really felt like they want to push to the next level.

First session they had a time of prayer for the students to be touched by God. There is normally a quick prayer at the outset, but this was, well, more.I’m not sure how to describe it, but it wasn’t a “God bless the event and people, Amen … now lets get onto other business” kind of prayer. They seemed legitimately concerned.

Second session was something totally new, nothing I’ve done at ATF before. They asked for feedback and made notes and people talked things through, and then they put phone numbers, twitter accounts, and emails up for the ATF directors so we could give additional feedback. I thought that was pretty cool. I hope they do find some good tips to make things better, I know I’m sending a bunch of things I would find useful their way.

Third session, typically the sales speech, started with the same kind of push for feedback that the second session had. Not so much a “tell me what we can do better” but sharing contact info for feedback and sharing their heart to be a ministry to our ministries. I was bracing for the sales pitch, but it moved on to Mike sharing some ideas on how to follow up the event with our students, not a book or video to buy but practical steps to encouraging them in making the changes from the event a permanent part of their life, like

• Meet with each student after the event
• Ask what God did for them, what changes He challenged them in
• Ask if they are ready to repent of those things, not just ask forgiveness.
  • Forgive me is what you say when you get caught
  • Repentance is turning from one life to another
• Encourage them to endure on the long road, help them setup accountability and make plans to succeed, but also to get up until they succeed.

Then John spoke. I only remember vague parts of what he said because early on he started talking about having lost Joy, said “some of y’all need to get your smile back.” I got to say I was fighting back tears the whole time after that. Everything in the past couple years just kinda came back, but in the sense of how I know God will lift me up. Then he had a time of prayer, praise, and worship. Apparently he struggles with time constraints, but I’m ok with that. This time was the most powerful of the experiences I had at Acquire the Fire, including previous years. It was a refreshing I desperately needed.

Then they had a time of prayer for students again, followed by the shortest “here are a couple resources we have, and quite frankly if you can’t afford it then I want to give it to you” presentation I’ve heard. Honestly, I don’t think they are lying about it, I really felt like they would give me the resources if I wanted them but couldn’t buy it.

We went from that to dinner then to the powerful Worship session I wrote about yesterday. By the end of that I felt like I could evangelize the whole world by myself. God is good.

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Jimmy Needham was the concert on Friday Night at ATF. All the students liked this concert better than the other two. When he covered Stand By Me I have to say, well I immediately went and bought all his CDs.

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Enough generalizations, I want to talk about this event. We start each event with a Youth Pastor break out. It is to get us any special rules, and share a few details about the sessions and such, so we can be “in the know.” I’m a 3 time vetran now so I know exactly where to go for this, I was heading there before they finished the announcement and was the first person in the room. I like being up front for many reasons. In this room the first seat on the left side is right by an exit. I like being able to escape quickly if needed. Anyways, Mike (the main speaker) was up there with a couple people. A young woman who looked familiar to me and a young man with a faux hawk. I said to the young man, “you you must be the worship leader.” He was like “yeah, how’d you know?” to which I replied, “faux hawk.” Mike laughed and asked what a totally bald head meant (Mike shaves his head). Well he also has a goatee so I told him that the hair doesn’t tell me anything but the goatee means he is in youth ministry, it’s part of the YM dress code.

During the time I was trying to figure out who the young woman was then I realized just as she left the room to start the first worship set. She sang the “Worth it” video from last year. I made a point of remembering her name so I could tell her how much that video meant to me students last year. I didn’t get the opportunity till after everything was done and I was rounding up the last student to head out, but shockingly I remembered her name and I think she really appreciated hearing how much that video meant to my students.

Enough of that, tiem to talk about the actual worship experience. The worship was led by the School of Worship (part of Teen Mania Ministries) including the young man and woman I mentioned. They do a great job and have a great visual support team to handle the kinetic type lyrics and lighting. It’s more than that though. Like I said 4,000+ teens pushing to the stage, pouring their hearts out, lifting their hands and voices … it’s powerful. They had a worship set before each session (One Friday and three on Saturday). During dinner I was talking with my students about the event, I like to engage them during and after the event so they are thinking about it, and one of them said “I really love the whole thing, I just wish the worship sets were longer.”

Well right after dinner he got what he wanted. That session went on and on for a couple hours, almost 3. I think that, more than anything else, changed the lives of my students, I know I’m already seeing fruit from this in a couple of them.

It went well past the scheduled time, so Mike had to adjust the last session, but it was fully worth it.

Have you had the opportunity to be in this kind of worship? What did you get from it?

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Just some student messing around before the sessions as the arena was filled up. I had to cut and crop the video to keep one student off screen, not that we are embarrassed, but she needs to be more incognito for safety reasons. That is why some of the shots are kinda short of end quickly. The students had a great time waiting for things to get started and ended up on the big screen a LOT. More than the other groups that were much larger. Yeah the insanity wears off on them. I wish I could have got some footage during worship, they went all out for that too, but the lighting made it impossible.

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I can, however, add my personal notes on the event. Friday night Ron Luce spoke. This is the first time I’ve heard him speak. He related our relationship to God to an experience he had with his son rebuilding an old wreck. The car was in really bad shape, barely a frame to speak of, so they had to do a lot to it, it took time, and it was not a painless process, but in the end they had a gorgeous ’67 Mustang convertible.

The next day they had the main drama broken into 3 parts, it conveyed the story of a young man that pressured his best friend (a young lady who had lost her father) into a sexual relationship. Of course things spiral down hill. The young man ends up seeing parts of his near future with the help of a cinemaphile angel. The videos and dramatic scenes were pretty well done, but I think last year’s was better. If you are wondering, the young man rejects what he has been shown at first, refusing to take responsibility, but in the end he does the right thing and all is well.

The sessions were great though, the morning session was on the “Great Sex Guarantee.” The “sex talk” and I think they did a really good job dealing with some difficult topics including pornography and “friends with benefits.” I went to a short session for Youth Pastors and missed the same sex discussion. I asked some of my students about it later and they said it was really pretty short, basically affirming the Biblical perspective but also encouraging love and respect over hate, callousness, and judgement as the means to reaching out to friends dealing with same sex attraction.

The afternoon session was about dealing with failure, I loved that they included this session because it is really difficult for students who have these great “mountain top” experiences at conventions or camps, but then have to live their lives in between. Learning to keep getting gup after failing is huge. The big quote was:

The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.

New Living Translation

Basically, the idea is that a godly (or righteous) man isn’t credited on being perfect, it is about not giving up. That’s pretty powerful.

The last session was cut a bit short (more on that tomorrow). It was about living a “He” life, not focusing on me. Mike (the speaker) talked about how much impact some young men and women had when they decided to follow God and put their own concerns aside. Around teh turn of the previous century a movement of missionaries without modern transportation or communication began reaching out to the world at large, bringing all of their belongings with them in a casket knowing they likely would never return home. He then challenged teh students to realize they have so much more, and to know they could do exponentially more if they let God take complete control.

I felt the main lacking point was reaching to those around you now while you prepare for what God is moving your toward. “He who is faithful over the small things I will make ruler over the great.” I believe that this is why Jesus sent his followers to their local population first, to prepare them for the “uttermost parts of the Earth.”

A lot more happened, and I’ll be writing about the worship and my own Youth Pastor sessions along with my experiences and student reactions this week.

Have you ever been to ATF or another similar youth event? What experiences did you have?

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They are going to be playing at Acquire the fire this weekend. I’m hoping to write about the event on Monday.

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1 Stop joining their friends when they are complaining about parents. If you don’t complain you won’t feel as irritable.
2 Respectfully do what you are told when you are told to do it
3 Go the extra mile by doing things you don’t have to do.

If the students do this their parents will naturally be more likely to let them have more privileges. That is a great truth that the students need to learn. The session also focused on the issue of forgiveness because a lot of parents have really hurt their children. That was my favorite part because I knew one of my students really needed this. 2 others that I don’t know well responded to it as well. The altar call was incredibly moving and I was able to get down with my students during each altar call. This is something I would have done anyways but before the first session they had an informational meeting with the Youth Pastors were they encouraged them to be a part of the weekend. I know a lot didn’t get down there. I saw LOTS of students with no one there to pray with them. I also know that it is hard to get with everyone that responds from your group, but looking back I could see plenty of the Youth pastors sitting back with the rest of the group and that made me kind of sad, especially when those YPs had bigger groups than mine. I think they need to remember the parable of the servants given talents while the master was on a trip. What they have will be taken if they don’t invest in it. I’m just saying.

They had the Youth Leaders session during this and I sent 3 of my leaders to that. I haven’t been able to sit down and talk with them about what happened during that session but if it was anything like the Youth Pastor break out then it was great. There was some more worship and then they had DA Truth come out while the Youth Pastors got to leave. God is good. I was planning on being in the lobby or possibly outside if they didn’t have our session when this group was out. I heard them last year and that was more than enough.

The Youth Pastor session was amazing. It is funny how often I tell other’s to keep God the center but then end up letting ministry become my center.

After this we broke for lunch and that was a nightmare. We walked to the inner harbor. That wasn’t so bad. Actually it was a pretty nice walk but some students should be on leashes. Instead of eating a couple girls went shopping. One of the girls had already spent all her money, which was more than enough for all the meals. She bought several snacks in the arena and a couple shirts. Next thing you know she didn’t have money for lunch. Can you imagine that? The various eating places were very full from the normal crowds plus the ATF crowd, people in town for the Yankee/Orioles game, and another convention. Yeah it was busy down at the inner harbor. When it was time to finish up I sent out a text to the students and hunted down a few I didn’t have numbers for. I found the two girls shopping and told them it was time to go. “But we haven’t eaten yet.” Yeah girls not my problem lets go. “Ok we’ll go find the others” Um, no you are coming with us. Next thing I know they are gone. When they made it back to the convention center I had a talk with them. One had not been listening the whole weekend. The one that spend all her money. She isn’t stupid but she pretends. I would tell everyone I need to say something about lunch or something. They would all be looking and then 2 minutes later she is asking what is for lunch. I’m gonna end up going crazy because of this one. Well she hurt her toe when she wondered off so I told them that they need to start listening. I explained that we want them to listen because we love and care for them and don’t want them to get hurt. Because they didn’t listen and wondered off like that someone got hurt and it pains me to see any of my student hurt because I love them all. I didn’t have any more problems so maybe that talk helped for a while at least.

We got back from lunch and had more worship. I think it was the best worship they had. Then they had the last session “Here comes trouble” which was about going out changed and changing everything else. At the end they had a large cross (20’+) on the stage with a bunch of smaller (~6′) piled around it. Then they carried the crosses around the arena. They challenged the students to take pieces of paper and write on them things they need to sacrifice and nail them to the crosses. It was amazing to hear the hammering all around the center.

After that things wrapped up and we got loaded into our vehicles for the trip home. It wasn’t that easy but whatever we made it home about midnight and after getting all the kids loaded up and sent to their homes I made it to mine about 1 am. I woke up at 6:30 am on Friday and got to sleep again at 1:30 am on Sunday. If my math is right that is 43 hours of awake time followed by 6 hours sleep before going to church for Mother’s day. Trust me when I say I was crashing hard by then. During the 43 hours awake time I had one small cup of coffee and a Monster on the trip back to the church. Oh, and Wednesday night (Thursday morning) I didn’t sleep either because of a bear visit. From Wednesday night to Sunday I had roughly 12 hours sleep in total including 2 intervals of 40+ hours awake time. One of my friends told me he was more tired than I could be and suggested we compare notes. Well Greg, there is why I am tired, not counting the manic jumping and emotional/spiritual energy of the weekend which is hard to quantify. How was your weekend?

Actually I don’t’ mind doing this from time to time. Most of my exhaustion comes from not taking a day off in over two weeks now. Actually by the time I get a full day off it will be 3 weeks and that ain’t good. My Pastor’s wife is gonna kick my butt and my wife is gonna help. She tattled on me Sunday so now I’m in trouble. Oh well, I’ll take time off as soon as I can which is Thursday.

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