Enjoy!
October 18, 2006
Greetings from Youth Quake!
You may have noticed the absence of a Friday-night concert line-up on our YQ poster and website. I want to offer a word of explanation about that so you can catch a glimpse of how God has been working in our lives, preparing us for YQ ’07.
We went through a long process this year of trying to locate bands for the Friday night concert at YQ. We started making formal booking requests in August, before most agents wanted to talk with us. None of our requests were accepted, right up to our poster deadline. As time wore on and our deadlines loomed larger, a sense of urgency (desperation?) started to work itself into our decisions. We started making offers to bands that we either didn’t know or didn’t necessarily like. By the beginning of October, our desperation had “paid off”—we had two bands confirmed for our concert slot. Given the process we had gone through, it was actually a surprisingly strong lineup.
Here’s where things turn interesting.
As soon as I booked our “big band,” I was uneasy. In the days leading up to their confirmation, God had convicted me of a practical idolatry that we were exercising in terms of the bands. We look to bands to save YQ, to bring kids to our event. The “need” for a band had skewed our priorities and we were offering increasingly costly sacrifices to appease our gods and win their favour. God called me on this and called me back to him.
Isaiah 30:1-3, 15
"Woe to the obstinate children,"
declares the LORD,
"to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin;
who go down to Egypt
without consulting me;
who look for help to Pharaoh's protection,
to Egypt's shade for refuge.
But Pharaoh's protection will be to your shame,
Egypt's shade will bring you disgrace.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength . . .
After much prayer and discussion, I felt led to break the agreements we had with the two bands we had signed for the Friday concert. We booked them out of a sense of desperation, not direction. We’ve been convicted of this and so we’ve cleared the field as a costly sacrifice of praise to our one TRUE God. We’re listening to him now, asking what he wants to do at Youth Quake on Friday night. My sense is that it might not look like a standard concert at all, but whatever it will be, it will be the thing that God leads us into. We have thousands of dollars we had budgeted for bands—how does God want to spend that money? That’s an exciting question to be asking together! My sense is that his plans might not look like a standard concert at all, but whatever it will be, it will be the thing that God leads us into. We will keep you updated through our website as details develop.
When I was in the thick of the struggle, I sensed God asking me if I wanted everything that he has planned for YQ. I do. The implication, though, is that it means giving up what we had planned and waiting on him. This is our freefall! This is costly (we may still need to honor the financial contracts into which we entered with the bands), but there is a powerful promise that is motivating us and moving us forward. God has plans for YQ and I don’t want to stand in the way of those.
We thought it was important to let you know why we’re doing what we’re doing at YQ ‘07. We want to invite you to pray with us and join us on the journey toward all that God has for us. Our hope is that people will want to be a part of an event where the leadership is willing to prepare the ground for Jesus at any cost. There’s powerful opportunity in all of this and we want to make the most of it!
With anticipation,
Kevin Fawcett
Director of Youth Quake
kfawcett@briercrest.ca
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him...
Psalm 37:5-7
And there was this too:
Join the Freefall
What would you do for God with $8000?
The Back Story
Concerts have been an important and valuable aspect of the Youth Quake experience over the years. However, in the course of planning for this year’s YQ, we found ourselves approaching the concert in a manner that might be described as idolatrous. We were pinning our hopes for the weekend on our band line-up and this was taking our focus away from God. He called us on this and called us back to him.
After much prayer and discussion, we sensed God asking us to cancel our contracts with the two bands we had signed for our concert. We had booked them on our own initiative—not his—and we needed to clear the ground and ask this question: “Jesus, what do you want to do with this new open space at Youth Quake?”
We started listening to him again, trusting him to lead the way.
The Invitation: Join the Freefall
Here is what we believe he is asking us to do: We want to take money from our cancelled band contracts and give it away to youth groups who are willing to join us in the Freefall by taking a risk in Jesus’ name.
- We’re inviting youth groups to dream together about some new initiative or venture they could undertake together in the name of Jesus. It might be a project that impacts their community (in their church, in their high schools, on their streets . . .) or it might focus on the other side of the world (partnering with a mission or aid organization in another country).
- Interested youth groups will prepare a short, creative video (3-5 minutes) that introduces who they are, what they want to do, and why. It should also include a request for funds up to $8000 and a justification for the funds requested. These videos must be submitted to the Youth Quake office by January 26, 2007.
- We will pre-select up to ten projects that will become a part of the YQ weekend. On Friday night at YQ we will introduce the youth groups and their projects and show their videos. Over the course of the week-end, everyone at YQ will be involved in choosing three projects that will receive the funds they requested to make their dreams a reality. (Some of these details are still in the works—watch our website for up-to-date info).
- We will send those three groups home with funding for their projects and with the mandate to come to YQ ’08 with a follow-up video that shows what they did and what has happened as a result. We want to be able to celebrate together!
The Opportunity
We’re excited about this idea and we hope that it encourages youth groups throughout Canada and the United States to dream big dreams together in Jesus’ name. We see this as a way that the ministry of Youth Quake can extend far beyond one weekend in a small prairie town. Lots of significant things happen during the YQ weekend, but through this year’s YQ students will be involved in ongoing ministry throughout North America and around the world!
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