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DEREK MOUNT (Chap Stique): I came to Christ at a fairly young age, I was nine years old. I had been going to church since I could really read, and had been trained up in the Bible by my parents and my pastor and some other people, they were the key of my life there at church. I came to know Christ at a Billy Graham crusade when I was nine. My mom had been teaching me a lot through the Bible, I had memorized a lot of stuff and everything, and I could feel inside what Christ was doing in me, and knew that I needed to make a change. There was a guy named Chip Derden [phonetic] at my church at the time that was kind of a mentor of mine, that was a guy that was a deacon at the church, he was about 45 years old at the time. He was just a guy that I could come to and ask a lot of questions about, and we used to go through different passages of the Bible and he’d explain to me what they meant, and I just kept firing questions on and on. He was a very patient man to put up with an 8-year old kid just firing at him the whole time, a very patient gentleman. He was the one that first got me my first Good News version of the Bible, which he felt like I could maybe understand a little bit better, and I did. It made a big impact on my life and made it a lot easier to understand what Jesus was saying.

Cali: Yeah, well actually growing up I wasn’t a Christian, and so I got into high school and I was searching after the popularity, and you know I became a cheerleader, and I was not a cheerleader at all, but I was still searching after that status. So I got into that and then I had the serious boyfriend and it became a really unhealthy relationship, and things just got really bad and we hurt each other pretty badly. This was over two years I was with him, and looking back I could see God’s hand over me.

You know once two years had gone by He said “Cali, you’re searching for something that not going to fulfill your needs and you just need to leave it all behind.” So my lifestyle started to get old and I just didn’t want anything to do with it anymore because it was just making me more unhappy. Over six months I tried to change my lifestyle and get new friends and tried to surround myself with different people. I made some Christian friends and they took me to church, and the first time I went with them I gave my life to Christ. I immediately got into Bible study and so it made huge difference. It helped me figure out who God was and His story and everything about Him. So it really led me towards Him. You know, once I got into the Bible study I had all these friends and just my life totally changed because I was being spoken truth into my life and so, you know, it completely changed my life.

JAD GILLIE: Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight,” that for me has just really helped me along the way because there’s so many things in life, even in my relationship with God and the journey, is that I just don’t understand, but there’s confidence and I’ll get such encouragement from reading a verse that’s saying, “Hey, even when you don’t understand stuff just trust in God, commit your ways to Him and he’ll make your path straight.” And I know just in so many areas that has just really kind of helped me, and it’s one of the most foundational things that kind of keeps me going.

PHIL DOOLEY (Youth Pastor): I love Ephesians 3:20 which says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly and above all that you ask or think according to the power that works within you.” To me, that just kind of personifies how, when we truly commit our lives to Christ, how what his plan for each of us is beyond even what our dreams could be. I just take great strength and comfort from that, and I think a lot of young people do also because sometimes they’re feeling lacking in hope or wondering, “Could my dreams be possible?” I think when you let the Word get inside of you and you understand the power of it, it really does give you that strength to know God’s with me, and maybe what I dreamed is more than possible with Christ.

DON MOEN: I’d have to say the guy I relate to the most is David, just because he was so ferocious about worship, he was ferocious about the enemies of God, he was so honest in the songs that he wrote, and being a songwriter I’m always–you know it’s like, you know, “I’ve heard that phrase, I don’t want to keep re-doing the same thing, and go through the form and the ceremony of writing songs”, but you read the psalms of David, and these are songs that he wrote. Read Psalm 109, it talks about why does a wicked man prosper? It goes on to say, “I pray that his wife would be widowed, his children would beg in the streets. I pray that a creditor would come and seize all that he has.” It’s like, I’m trying to imagine myself on a Sunday morning saying, “Let’s all sing that verse together”, and it’s like how is he able to be so honest in his songs and in his worship? But David was a man after God’s own heart. And I think part of that is, God loved his honesty, and that’s what I encourage people to do all the time in our worship, I just dare people to be honest. God is not afraid of our honesty.