CHIC 2009: UNDONE!

This was the theme of this year’s CHIC, the Covenant Church’s triennial youth conference that was held again at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. 5500 Covenant youth and leaders participated from July 12-17, and of the four CHIC events I have been to, this was by far the most meaningful and moving one for me. This was due in part to the theme itself: how each and every one of us needs to be “undone” from all of the influences, expectations, pressures, and assumptions from the world around us, from our culture, the media, friends, family, our warped views of God, and even our self-image. When this happens--when we get real and honest before God and others--we embark on a continuing process of becoming more like Jesus Christ.

It was also due to the fact that the six guys in my small group came alive as never before in their relationship with Jesus! From the first Mainstage worship event on Sunday night, these guys were impacted in a powerful way, and the rest of the week was all about their transformation and increasing desire to worship and serve our great God. It was phenomenal! Very emotional, humbling to witness, and a privilege to be part of. I can say that in the ten years I’ve been volunteering with Sr. Hi students, this was the most significant, meaningful, and FUN time that I’ve had with our youth.


The week began, as I said, with our first Mainstage event, where the CHIC band led us in an awesome, sense-filled, energetic time of worship. This was our first introduction to the new songs that we would be singing all week, which tied in well to the theme of “Undone.” We were also introduced--via live satellite--to the three students who had gone to Thailand to see first-hand how much the Covenant World Relief offering taking place later in the week would help the people of Thailand.

Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, CA, delivered the first message on being courageous enough to let God “undo our lives” so we can be free to live the lives He has dreamed for us. He challenged the crowd, saying how too many students have given up on their dreams, or were living dreams that were far too small. He said: “If your dream became your life, would the world become a better place? Don’t sleep through your dream!”

The following nights, our mainstage speakers were: Shane Claiborne, co-founder of “The Simple Way,” an intentional community in Philadelphia, and prominent activist for non-violence and the homeless. He called students to shape their lives around the love of Christ, using his experiences living with Mother Theresa as examples of how to live this life of selfless love. “There are Calcuttas everywhere, if we’ll only have eyes to see. Where is your Calcutta?” He challenged all of us to get beyond the encultured Christianity we’ve become accustomed to. Holding up the Bible, Shane said, “This book has gotten a lot of people in trouble. I have no idea how we Christians have become so normal in such a messed up world.” When we meet Jesus, He messes us up! “Christians were never meant to be normal. The Kingdom of God is different from the patterns of this world.” All of us need to be “undone” in how we too often think about Christianity and how we view the world around us.

Steven Furtick, 29 year old pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He told how one sentence from the book, “Fresh Wind Fresh Fire,” changed his life and later the lives of thousands: “I despaired at the thought of my life passing before me without seeing God move greatly on my behalf.” Furtick said, “God really undid me! He started to unravel my motivations.” Steve said he suddenly knew he wanted to start a church that would reach thousands of people, especially those not acquainted with Christianity. The result: Elevation Church has grown from seven families “sold out to this audacious vision” to more than 5000 people in less than four years! Furtick declared, “I want you to know that God’s promise is bigger than your ‘perhaps.’”

Judy Peterson, campus pastor at North Park University. She shared a powerful, life-altering message that encouraged students to stop hiding behind a facade. She quickly highlighted a core problem confronting both teens today and adults today: living lives of pretense out of a fear of rejection. “We all have one big basic fear: if we are found out, we will be rejected. Christians are often the best pretenders in this game.” Even in our churches, our mess is often hidden. But when sin is not hidden, something amazing happens. In an incredible demonstration of what this means, Peterson did something that exposed one of her biggest fears. She first shared her insecurity about being seen without makeup, especially by her husband, for fear that he might not love her as much. She compared this to lives that try to mask what is underneath. She then took a wet washcloth and, in front of the packed arena, projected on three huge jumbotrons, she scrubbed off all the makeup she had worn to the service! Holding up the dirty cloth for all to see, she said, “This is what we hide behind. It isn’t beautiful. The only hope we have is to stop pretending--to strip away the stuff.” She closed by reminding everyone how God is our loving “Abba” (our “daddy”); one who calls us “beloved.” He will never let us go because “nothing can ever separate us from the One who calls us ‘beloved.’”

At this point, a huge cross was brought onto the center of the arena and hundreds of students streamed to it to make commitments before the Lord. I joined three of the guys in my small group as they knelt in heartfelt surrender to God, full of tears and emotion and joy at the amazing love that they deeply grasped is available to them in Jesus. I laid my hands on each one and prayed for them; for what they have been and for what they will now become through this transforming experience at CHIC.

Efrem Smith, pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis. In the final Mainstage worship service, Smith commissioned all of us to return to our “undone” communities and make a world of difference in them. “Go back pouring out God’s amazing love. Go back and be an example of God’s forgiveness. You aren’t going back alone. We don’t have to carry the weight of the world on our own. We just have to have the courage to do it. Do you have the courage?” Smith concluded with a story about the African impala. Even though this animal can jump and leap incredible distances, in a zoo it can be kept caged by a simple three foot wall. Why? Because, not being able to see where it is landing, the impala won’t jump. It doesn’t have faith. This is what our lives are like, and now we need to figure out what is the three foot wall that is keeping us from going where God wants us to go. Is it pride? Selfishness? Low self-esteem? Hurt? Something somebody did to you? Whatever it is, we must jump over the wall! “Don’t let a three foot wall keep you from what God has for you!” Smith yelled, daring everyone in the arena to jump repeatedly. “Jump! Jump up! You need to jump! If you want to say yes to God’s call on your life tonight, I DARE you to jump!”

The night also focused on giving to an “undone” world: students gave $109,327 in the special offering to be used for sustainable mission projects in Thailand!

It was also announced that during the week, students packed nearly 428,000 meals through “Feed My Starving Children” to be distributed to people around the world who suffer from extreme hunger. Our students participated in this unique activity on Wednesday, and together with several other youth groups, our team alone packed enough meals to feed 126 children every day for an entire year!

But all this was just the evening part of CHIC! The mornings were equally rich, powerful, and challenging. Keeping with the “Undone” theme, we were confronted each day with various relationships in our lives, and how each one must be undone in order for us to get real and grow better in relationship to Christ. We looked at our relationships with ourselves, with God, with the world, and with others. Each one of these was very intense, very interactive, very challenging.

During the relationship with ourselves focus, every CHIC student went through a seminar on “Lust-Free Living.” This was the most up front, raw, and real presentation for guys on sex that I have ever heard. It also had a gutsy, hope-filled message, based on a solid biblical view of human sexuality, that had a major impact on my small group. A focus group on our identity was offered on the day we looked at our relationship with God. Klyne Snodgrass, from North Park Seminary, stressed how important it is not to let anyone or anything else form our identity, but to consciously take charge of our identity and, ultimately, let it be shaped by Christ. The day we focused on our relationship with the world, the issue of human trafficking was highlighted as an example of the necessity of working for justice on a global level if we are serious about following Jesus. Soong-Chan Rah, also from North Park Seminary, helped us understand how social systems are created, and how we must work to dismantle--undo--evil ones, like human trafficking. Then the students were given some practical ways to do this. One was to write letters to U.S. Senators, asking them to support efforts to undo this terrible inhuman reality around the world. By week’s end, nearly 2500 letters had been written by CHIC participants! Various forums offered students opportunities to learn about other issues and ways to respond to global systemic evil. As we explored our relationship with others, we viewed four individuals in “boxes” and were asked to write down our impressions of them.

Of course, stereotypes, first impressions, and personal prejudices formed most of our answers--and we quickly learned how totally wrong we were in every case! As the morning continued, we were again challenged to reach out to people who are different, in spite of appearances, fears, and prejudices. We went into this more deeply through more forums that students could choose from. By the end of the week, we certainly were UNDONE through these thought-provoking, emotional, transformational sessions.

A unique afternoon offering also impacted everyone at CHIC who saw it. We were privileged to preview a new movie that will be released next January, “To Save A Life.” It deals honestly and vividly with the issues facing high school teens today, and at every showing of the film, there wasn’t an empty seat in the theater. The movie tells how a popular star basketball player--the envy of everyone on campus, with the pretty cheerleader girlfriend, a full scholarship to college, and everything going for him--has his life turned upside down when a former childhood friend commits suicide. Issues of peer pressure, popularity, cliques, bullying, cutting, suicide, sex, divorce, and abortion are addressed vividly and realistically in the film, in all of their complexity. Many students were once again “undone” and will return home wanting to provide a different presence on their school campuses this fall as a result of viewing this movie. Check out the website: www.tosavealifemovie.com

Of course there was more--much more! But I really can’t include anymore in this blog! It was against the backdrop of all this stimulating, dense, provocative content that Kyle, Clinton, Ty, Austin, Colin and Luke grew richer in their spiritual lives and closer, more in love, and more intensely with Jesus. We also grew closer as a small group, and I’m so glad that we still have two more years of high school to be together! The questions, the confessions, the grace and love that was offered and received, the insights, the hopes and desires they now have for their lives, for their school, for our church, and for our world--all of this poured out of these guys during the week. They threw themselves into unrestrained worship, feeling totally free to express outwardly all that the Holy Spirit was doing inwardly to them, fully engaged in whatever was offered to give themselves to God. You can imagine how hard it will be for all these students who experienced such evocative worship at CHIC to return to their home churches and to what, in most cases, are much more restrained, controlled, and “orderly” worship experiences!

My question is: what would happen all across the Covenant if we allowed these young people to set the tone and the pace for our churches--in every way--based on how they came to understand and experience “church” through CHIC? What if we seriously embraced the insights, the energy, the new passions, and the fresh awarenesses that now fill the hearts and minds and lives of our Sr. Hi students? How would our worship services, our ministries, our priorities, and our budgets be “undone” if we followed the lead of these young people? Think how differently our churches and we Christians would be perceived by the culture around us, especially since we learned at CHIC that church is the LAST place many people in our culture want to be, and how we Christians are perceived as anti-gay, judgmental, and hypocritical (not loving, Christ-like, and grace-filled). Think of the transformation every Covenanter would experience if all of us were willing to be “undone” with the same clarity, honesty, and raw reality that our students experienced at CHIC? What if all of us left our worship services every week with this message ringing in our ears:

And now as we go on our way, may Jesus undo our watered-down, sanitized and sugar-coated faith, so that we may follow Him into a heroic life where our comfort zones are undone, so that we are not afraid to become countercultural and counter-comfortable. Holy Spirit, reveal a God who is bigger than all we can figure out and who loves us beyond what we can imagine. Give us the courage and the commitment to work together so that none of God’s work remains undone.
(nightly benediction following Mainstage at CHIC 2009: Undone!)