The Inception of the Qu-Ratz!

Holy Crap, I am tired! What a weekend. Yes, I did just return from Youth Conference in Calgary and I am now having trouble keeping my eyes open. I don’t even know where to begin, perhaps I should just say that I find it so beautiful and amazing the way God continues to use Youth Conference, year after year after year as a huge ministry point. It continues to be a huge event in the lives of teens every year, because God is honoring our prayers and the preparation that goes into that weekend. I just thank God for showing up and speaking to teens and specifically teens from Vermilion through the worship, through the speaker, through his word and through fun and community. It was an amazing weekend.

What to say, well, how about I make my comments on the conference itself? This was the first and to date only time that I have come to Youth Conference as a pastor bringing teens to the conference. It was bizarre, I was so disorientated at first, I didn’t know where everything was, I didn’t know what the deal was with anything, I didn’t have a great grasp on the schedule and so on, and so upon my arrival I felt confused, frantic and discombobulated. I was seeing so many people that I know and love and they were coming to talk to me and so on, but I was trying to get my kids through the registration line and then get them together and explain some more of what would be going on that night. But at the same time, I wanted to go and schmooze, and see my friends, and I did a bit. As I sat in the rally and prayed and listened I felt God telling me to make sure I didn’t put myself and my wants before that of the kids, and I felt like I did that night. I felt the rally was more important then dinner and I was being mobbed by people I knew, so I just felt like God was reminding me that it was no longer my job to run this conference, but it was to now, hang out with these teens, pray for them, worship with them, and make sure they have an opportunity to meet with God. It was a little humbling to be honest, but it was good, and I am glad God spoke to me so early on in the conference about what my role was and how I was supposed to function this weekend. Anyway, I’m getting off track. The weekend started with a little preview of entertainment and it was funny, I laughed, my kids laughed, it was good. From there we moved into the rally, and to be honest, these rallies were some of the best ever. Better then last years even. The committee this year decided to go ahead and take the goofy stuff out of the rallies and make them more focused on worship and hearing from God, which was tough in the early mornings, but it was still really a great thing. Jon Morrison and his team “Crafted” were used so amazingly by God, and I was really proud to see Jon and how this responsibility has molded him and brought him closer to God and people and how it shaped his understanding and practical application of what worship is. It was a beautiful thing, and it was also good to see Tim Houghton laying down some fat worshipful bass lines. I could hardly recognize him on stage because he was so into the worship, and moving around and rocking for God, it was a sight to see! The speaker Josh Lindstom was also very good and his theme for the weekend was Grace Personified. He spoke about what Grace is, he spoke about Jesus as the ultimate personification of grace, and he spoke about how we need to take that grace which we have been given, and give it to others, especially those people we feel shouldn’t get it….especially those people! In that he also talked about how difficult it was going to be, and how changing our lives is not easy and so on, but he really made some wonderful calls and challenges to the teens here at this conference. He even made a few challenges to Youth Workers, which was good too. One of the other thrusts of his message was about truly living out our faith, taking the opportunities we always have to live our life in such a way that people see Christ. That idea was what really struck me. I thought about it as I was trying to get some sleep, just how I feel like God had been preparing my heart more and more to hear that message and then even to have the opportunity to share and talk with a teen in my group. This whole idea of living life to the fullest and taking all our opportunities to be Christ to people has been a huge thing on my mind since it’s what I preached on about three weeks ago, and since then, it has been on my mind a lot, and I felt God was saying to me, “shut up and listen.” For those of you who don’t know me (though I don’t know why you are reading this if you don’t know me, but hey whatever floats your boat) you should know that I am a passionate person. I respond to situations and conversations passionately, and often with the thing that first pops into my mind as the right thing to say. Sometimes this works out well, and people see my passion, and sometimes I even say the right thing, but other times it works against me and I hurt people or I say things incorrectly, but by the time you explain yourself the damage is done. So I felt like God was saying to me “Shut up and listen before you say something you will regret.” Believe it or not this is a lesson I have been trying to learn since a very young age, but until recently didn’t see the reason in thinking before I spoke, other then it sometimes kept me out trouble. Whoa, I am falling asleep at the computer here, it’s ridiculous. Anyway, through this preparation and this word that God gave to me, I was able to speak into the life of a teen in my group who felt very similar, it was a great experience for me, I love these kids, it’s going to be hard to leave.

So it was very good that way. God really was at work in my heart and in the heart of so many teen as he always is at this time of the year. There were other highlights which I will probably share as they come to me over the next week, but I want to share one more thing and then move along for the day. There was this skit performed in one of the rallies. It was very powerful, it was about being chained to our sin, and how Satan tries to confuse and lie to us be telling us we aren’t actually forgiven. It was really powerful and I was breaking down, just cause it spoke to me, and I could see the impact it was having on a larger scale. So I was there, crying and I remembered last year at the same time, I was sitting at the front of the Hall, and kids were coming forward, committing their lives and their hearts to Christ and it was so powerful that I wept tears of joy, and I just had this sense that God was going to work just as powerfully this weekend in hurting and broken people that he loves so deeply, and that those same tears of joy would be wept again. It was just strange because I had forgotten about that hugely significant moment from last year, and God was reminding me of it, maybe partially to confirm the ministry we did last year, and when I say “the ministry we did” I mean the ministry that God did through his humble servants, and also I think he just wanted to show me that he was in this again and he was going to do some amazing things, and he did! Whoa, it’s so cold downstairs and I am passing out, I feel so disoriented, like I closed my eyes and I shot back up, and I didn’t know where I was. I’m a mess!

Ok, song of the day. One night as I tried to sleep and couldn’t, I used a remedy I like to call Love is Hell Part 2 by Ryan Adams. It worked like a charm, well, that is, if in fact Charms worked. But, along with all the worship music that was integral to this weekend, Ryan Adams was also key as he helped my find rest through his soothing music. So the official song of the day will be “I See Monsters”. I think that’s the official name of the song, but it’s so good, the guitar picking is just a perfect interlude to sleeping. So cheers to Ryan Adams, cheers to Youth Conference, cheers to God, and cheers to all my friends that I seen there at the Youth Conference.
See you later…..Mike