Nashville, Tennessee - A few local youth groups from the Stoddard County area traveled to Nashville for a nationwide youth conference called Acquire the Fire. The weekend was filled with praise and worship music, theatrical skits and plays, contemporary Christian bands, well-known speakers and preachers, and thousands of other kids and youth pastors from all over the country.
Acquire the Fire has been around for nearly twenty years and has developed into a total of twenty-seven hours of time with God over the span of one weekend. There are several locations across the United States but the one held in the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville is one of the larger sessions.
The main idea of Acquire the Fire is to get the younger generation on fire for God. This year’s theme was “The Relentless Pursuit: Captured by the Fierce Love of God”, so all of the sermons and lessons were easily related to God’s relentless chase after us and his amazing grace that so gently covers all of us.
The youth conference offers more than great music, amazing speakers, and life changing sermons. It also provides education on different options that the teens are able to choose after they graduate high school. Many representatives from Regent University, The Christian Honors Academy, and Teen Mania Ministries all set of booths and talk one on one with students or teens that are interested in pursuing God after high school.
“Acquire the Fire is a decision making, pattern breaking, future shaping, life transforming experience that effects over 200,000 kids in a 2-day event.” This is just one quote from Ron Luce, the opening speaker for the 2013 conference. He delivered several messages throughout the weekend but his most memorable was “The Gold Rush History Lesson”, where Luce rode through the stadium on a horse while speaking about our desire for worldly possessions just like the miners’ desires to strike gold.
Mike Guzzardo was another preacher that joined the Acquire the Fire team and he prepped the teens with his sermon called “Level Up”. Guzzardo was an energetic speaker that taught the crowd about growing spiritually and not just staying in one place.
The music was a key part of the fantastic weekend. Multiple bands either opened or closed the daily sessions, but the School of Worship Band (Acquire the Fire Live) played worship music throughout the session during alter calls. The contemporary bands include: Disciple, Lecrae, Rapture Ruckus, and the Desperation Band.
Keeping thousands of teenagers interested and awake after long night sessions is quite a challenge. So, the Acquire the Fire team put together a skit that was written in three different parts and was performed at three out of the four sessions. There were also many videos and slideshows involved with the sermons and lessons so that the crowd always had a visual picture.
Teen Mania’s Global Expeditions Team also attended the conference and spoke about the need of missionaries and support for the many unreached places in the world that contain people who have never heard the name of Jesus. Many youth groups and teens attended the seminar about fundraising and attending mission trips all over the globe.
For the youth pastors and/or parents that attended the conference, they too had their own session where they were able to break away and be taught different things while their youth groups enjoyed another concert or lesson.
The weekend was filled with renewed hearts and youth groups that were knit together tightly by God’s hands. As the teens grew closer to God throughout the weekend, the Acquire the Fire team took it upon themselves to create an app that is available for smart phones that include information, music, lessons, and bible verses to keep the teens’ spark alive. The team also sent out “The Relentless Pursuit” books, which contained highlights of the lessons and even more Bible verses.
Acquire the Fire will take place again on February 22-23rd in Nashville in 2014. Each youth group that attends is counting down the days until they get to return. Tickets are on sale now at acquirethefire.com. It’s one weekend that you won’t want to miss!
