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CHIC: A Time to ‘Get Real with Jesus’

KNOXVILLE, TN (July 17, 2006) - Although the more than 5,000 students who showed up at CHIC may think they know why they came – whether it be to have a spiritual experience, be away from home, or meet lots of other kids - “There is a reason God wants you here,” Efrem Smith told the crowd during Sunday’s opening night worship services at Thompson-Boling arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee. “You need to think about why you’re here.”

As part of their journey of discovery, students heard everything from hip hop music to quotes by Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

“I don’t know what you came to do, but I came to get real with Jesus,” Smith said to a cheering audience. Smith is pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also is the author of Raising Up Young Heroes and co-author of The Hip-Hop Church.

Don Everts, who has written several books, including Jesus With Dirty Feet, spoke from the verse that changed his life and expressed his hope that it will have the same effect on the lives of the students. He quoted Luke 5:26: Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’

Everts said he never noticed the verse until hearing it read a week after having seen a 2,000-pound moose staring at him and his friends through the floor-to-ceiling window of a condominium in which the group was staying. A sense of both fear and awe overcame the group, he recalled.

“We were very afraid,” Everts quipped. “That’s what it’s like when you’re in the presence of something larger than you.”

Being in the presence of something and someone greater than themselves was what seized the people with a feeling of amazement, Everts said. “Wherever Jesus went, there were gaping jaws in his wake. Scan the pages of your Bible - you won’t find anyone yawning.”

Rather than yawning, Everts said, Jesus always evoked one of two responses – “People wanted to embrace him or spit him out.

“It’s not easy to be seized by amazement - we like control,” Everts continued. He quoted Kierkegaard, who wrote, “We choose religion because it’s easier.”

Everts said he hopes the students will be seized by amazement this week as they experience Jesus in new and personal ways. As they see strange things.

That amazement doesn’t mean the students will have to understand all that God is doing, said Judy Howard Peterson, another speaker (see lower photo). In fact, they probably will not understand most of God’s actions.

“Belief has little to do with understanding,” said Peterson, also known as the “Walking Pastor” for her 1,400-mile hike across the United States a few years ago. “It has to do with trusting,” she added. “I don’t understand physics, but I trust them. I don’t understand it, but I trust the heck out of gravity.”

Peterson joked that if God had wanted her to understand him, “He would have made me out of something a lot better than dirt and a man’s rib.”

As with every CHIC, the students were introduced to new music. Worship leader Matt Lundgren told the crowd that he knew youth leaders frequently stress the importance of quiet time, but said, “I’m going to tell you about the importance of having a loud time.”

The teenagers proved the lyrics as they danced in the aisles and throughout the arena while singing:

And we will be a shouting generation,
Shouting because of your great glory,
Your great glory, Lord,
Your great glory, Lord.

Fifty years ago, more than 200 teenagers gathered in Colorado for the first CHIC event. Sunday evening, nearly 5,100 teenagers and another 1,000 adults assembled from across North America, South America and Europe on the campus of the University of Tennessee to experience that glory.

Students immediately made themselves at home, attending the afternoon-long welcome party sponsored by North Park University and Covenant Bible College. Students involved themselves in a host of activities that included football, swimming, jumping in bounce houses, singing karaoke, and making new friends.

Organizers hope that by the end of the week, the prayer that the students sang during the evening worship service would be answered:

May your presence fill my heart,
Make my life your work of art.

Covenant Communications is providing daily coverage of CHIC 2006 from the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville as part of this online Covenant news report. For additional articles, photo galleries, and daily blogs (with Spanish translations), please see CHIC 2006.

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