Xtreme Winter Conference 2004

Phix

New Member
I ask this to be forwarded to the main page or something of the CGA, as I was told to do. So here goes an article about it:

Well wow guys! Just got back from by far the most outrageous Christian events I have ever been too. Never quite been involved with something so extraordinary and definitely life changing for so many people.

A quick little summary of what exactly Xtreme is:

Xtreme is a gathering of all-age Christians, mostly in the range of teenagers to young 20s, that allows for many to gather and praise God and lift up your voices and sing your hearts out. Xtreme is about saving lives, giving Christians an experience with God and other Christians like none would imagine. The concept of Xtreme I see as an outreach to the younger community to improve us, to prepare us, to allow us to enjoy God (Shouldn't we?) and to change us. Xtreme Winter and Summer is responsible for saving the lives of thousands of young people, with hard hitting messages over the years coming from phenomenal speakers such as: Josh McDowell, Tony Nolan, David Nasser, Dave Edwards, Wade Morris, Jay Strack, Johnny Hunt (My favorite of course), and many others. As well as some of the top Christian bands in the country ranging from Third Day to Newsong(the events driving force.)

Xtreme describes themselves as: "Xtreme Conferences is dedicated to reaching young people with the life changing good news of Jesus Christ, who through the most "xtreme" sacrifice of all eternity died that we might live. It is our goal to create environments and experiences that provide youth leaders with open doors of ministry to the hearts of their youth."

So why was this year so important? Because all gatherings in the name of Jesus Christ are important!
For the Bible says 'For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst' - Matthew 18:20

This year was my first Xtreme experience ever, and from my viewing they truly set out to praise God, to lift voices, and to change lives most importantly. One of the struggling locations in the Christian society is the lack of mentoring; Xtreme focuses deeply on raising on new leaders and disciples. So here is an in-depth review on everything that went down (I'll spare you the details of the ride there and back and all not pertaining to the event itself.)

December 28th, 2004 - 7:30 PM
The doors did swing open to the large 4,000+ individuals at this event and were welcome indeed to us all. We were greeted by Mr. Steve and Mr. Zach two individuals hired or whatever to keep us entertained during show switches, dead time, etc. and they were actually quite humorous, very sarcastic as well with some people. They did quite a good job at having fun with the crowd. Mr. Will Goodwin rocked as the praise and worship leader even at one time doing a song with everyone jumping and doing a karate kick! It rocked! Killing time from 6:30 until 7:30 until the Seattle centered group Kutless boarded the stage and rocked out hard, with the crowd warming up to them, they performed a beautiful version of "Sea of Faces" as well as sharing a little bit about themselves.
After Kutless had fun on stage, Zach came out and introduced one of the most profound and prolific speakers of our time, Mr. Jay Strack who spoke well with the crowd and walked us through a lot of very good information involving Judges 3:31. A very interesting man by the name of Shamgar, who was young and did his best with his life as God used him.
Jay laid out the 3 Success Secrets for Christians
1. Start where you are.
2. Use what you have.
3. Do what you can.
'After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and he also delivered Israel. - Judges 3:31
Now Shamgar was a man who was a farmer, you know this by he using an ox goad, which is a piece of wood with a nail through it which was driven into the back of an ox to keep them moving during the plowing process. How then at such a young age and being a farmer did he kill 600 Philistines. Well the time of Judges is a time where rioting and yelling occurred. No one cared, it’s as if we were to have no rules today. The Philistines raped the land and they kidnapped individuals and there was nowhere safe for any of Shamgar's people. Being a farmer how would he kill 600 hundred people, and deliver Israel.
Shamgar started where he was. He was on a farm. He was in the land that was under attack. He figured he cannot go anywhere else, God put him there and why should he fear the name of a Philistine. God promised Israel deliverance.
Shamgar used what he had. He wasn't rich, he didn't having a Browning 410 like we have today, or nuclear weapons, or powerful assault weapons, he had a piece of wood...with a nail in it. He was a farmer. He used his love for God to help Israel by using what he had. An ox goad.
Shamgar did what he could. He decided that he would kill the Philistines...not 600 at one time...but 600 over a period of time. Maybe 1 or 2 one week, 2 that next day, and so on. But over time he did damage to numbers, and delivered Israel by his love and commitment to God and protecting the people of God.

Jay Strack was phenomenal, God used and moved through the message He delivered to Jay. We are capable of success as a Christian, we need to follow the steps and not get too big headed to start where we are, use what we have, and do what we can. Jay prayed with us all, and in the silence of it all something had changed, he challenged us, he introduced many to God. An invitation was called, and more than 200 came forth as a new Christian that day! To assist the calling of those to the front, Jay asked for Youth Pastors to join him and go and introduce those who had came forth with Christ. My youth pastor darted for the back area for the tender hearts, grabbing me along the way even though im not a Youth pastor. It was amazing God's love was in the air as he shared with 2 and I shared God's word with 5 individuals from Alabama, North Carolina, and 3 from Indiana. It was amazing. Afterwards, I spoke personally with Jay about some things and encouraged him to keep being used, and me and him exchanged some words and contact information.

Following that we came back out, and Rebecca St. James goes on stage, performs her heart out, shared a little bit of her testimony and a plea for girls to stay pure and to be bold for Christ. She was amazing. She stopped all the music and sang acapella with the crowd for a good 15 minutes. It was beautiful. She wrapped it up and we departed for the night.

December 29th, 2004 - 9:00AM-1:15PM
We came back out there at 8:00AM to get good seats, its like 30 degrees with wind, but I'm canadian in blood, so I'm not cold. My group sure was. At 9 AM was a special Student Leadership Workshop for Youth Pastors, and my Youth Pastor brought me in with Him as I had shown interest in going and hearing Jay Strack once more. God blessed his message with the abundance of Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee
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and Jay spoke strongly about how to build leaders, he based the message off of Moses and Joshua. Moses put time into Joshua. Joshua didn't build a disciple however, and things were left chaotic. We all need to make disciples, that is how to make a Youth Group or any Christian better, you must teach what has been taught. As a leader who disciples someone you should do these 4 things:
1. Model
2. Meet the needs of someone
3. Motivate
4. Monitor
You must check with the person, keep them stable, it is our job.

Following that all of the Youth Pastors exited the backstage area, and were met with the screaming of the crowd who was cheering and clapping for all of the Youth pastors coming out, giving them a standing ovation. We should treat all of our leaders like this.

Will Goodwin opened us up, and played a special song, as well as the Karate song thingy. It rocked once more, and he had this boss t-shirt that said No Siesta on it, I so bought it. Then, I rushed from my row, we were about in the 7th row of about 150 atleast(each having 48 seats.) and got to the stage as Building 429 kicked off. AMAZING! They rocked live, and had this tremendous stage energy for the whole show, and had the crowd moving and really conveyed a good message. Tony Nolan came out and gave a good lesson on evangelism. The do's and don'ts of Evangelism, and it was based off of many verses in the word, too many to describe off the top of my head, along with help from the quirky movie Elf! It was good, and he presented many good facts and he grasped the audience with his humor through the movie, and BAM, he had you in his hands and made an amazing point when you thought he was just laughs. He closed with explaining to us one of the bracelets he wears and was selling in the back, where 100% of the money will be used to pay peoples home rents, or give aid to someone, they are medical bracelets that say: L.I.F.T. and above it they say: Diagnose code [rm.323]-Treatment code [rm.1013].
L - Life changing event that occurs in your life
I - A deadly terminal infection in our life. Sin!
F - A FAMOUS PERSON who has offered to give you a change in Heart.
T - A transplant of your heart into a changed person.
I bought 2 of em for 5$ and gave one to one of the newer student leaders in our Youth group.
Tree63 came on after Tony Nolan and was just amazing although they played a short set, 4 songs, but I went to Xtreme bandwise, to hear them! They rule!

December 29th, 2004 - 7:00PM-11:45PM
Wow this had to take the cake of all of the meetings. Will Goodwin rocked the crowd and everyone was just feeling the love of Christ in the air. It's the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, that set us free. He sang that so well. First band, Superchick, sorry people but I just can't review for them...didn't enjoy them at all. BUT David Nasser sure did save the day! What an amazing speaker he was! I have heard things about how God uses him, how he was a converter from Islam to Christianity, and how he is from Iran. He had some funny jokes at the beginning but that toned down quickly.
David Nasser said that he had been accused of jumping on the Glory-train now that he was selling books and was always preaching and speaking about God's glory. Well he made the point that we all should be on God's glory because it’s never about us. He asked us why Christ came to us, and why He was born, and died on the cross. Now a normal answer would be "because he loves us all." Very true, but not what he’s looking for. He did it because since the first family, sin has corrupted the world, He didn't do it just because he loved you, He did it because ever since Abel and Cain, there was no going back without the blood. It is really all about God. We come into the world with this chooser attitude. This me-me-me-me-me about us, it's not about us. We come to praise God at conferences, and what does God do while we praise Him? He satisfies in Himself! God can do that, HE'S GOD! He showers us with blessings, and our offering to Him is so small compared to what He has given us. You can't start off on the wrong foot in Christianity, you must give glory to God, and not glory to yourself, because its not about them, because then you don't set any good example for those around you, then you judge off of the worldly aspects. God is God, Holy, Holy, Holy. God is Almighty we all know.
I cannot nearly do justice to Brother David's wonderful message. It was so amazing, it touched hearts and changed lives. It connected the dots around the room, and the ones in my heart, it revealed some of the truths to me, and some struggling things I've been dealing with. It was simply awesome.
NEWSBOYS took the stage, and amazed everyone. They played for over 2 hours long and gave glory to God in a way that was just amazing. Peter from Newsboys gave a short testimony and spoke to us all about life and what we need to do with it. He spoke a good 30 minutes, it was clearly God-given because he was incredibly articulate and no one noticed the time. They had many sing alongs with the crowd that just amazed us all, had the arms swaying, and fully the crowd was trying to Praise God with all of our might. They played all of their favorites, even with this amazing intro to their 2nd song, where I was asking my neighbor next to me if it was a lead in to "Million Rain Drops" and she said she didn't know and then BAM! Strobe lights and Confetti shooters fill the building with a red/white/blue mix of confetti. It was so awesome, then after about 75 minutes they tried to get off of stage....however the crowd didn't budge. We Want More chants filled the arena, and the shorthaired guitarist slid back on stage after 2 minutes with his guitar and everyone else ran back on and they played 1 song, and then lead-in and played Breakfast in ####! It was awesome, they had a great sing a long, and the show ended at about 11:45PM it was so awesome, Newsboys totally rocked for Jesus.

December 30th, 2004 - 10:00AM-12:15PM
Will Goodwin lead the group in song and was amazing once again, check out his website www.willgoodwin.com and then soon the favorite of mine Dr. Johnny Hunt took the stage with a roar and gave an amazing message if I've ever heard one.

Johnny Hunt is simply amazing, I encourage you all to hear him live or purchase something of his, just because he is so devoted to God and is so down to earth while being loud and not afraid to be bold. Johnny Hunt's relay of the message God gave him was simply inspiring. He touched on the fact that us young people live in a world where we do not think. Paul had a prodigy by the name of Titus who he gave some of the best advice for us all, and heres the verses:
'Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. - Titus 2:6-8 NKJV
We need to be sober-minded. Clear-headed. Don't make stupid decisions! Because if we do not present ourselves as a Christian then what surely will people think of us, now a shirt or something means nothing, but truly sound doctrine knowledge and your character show so much. People will judge you and follow you based on how you walk. You may think that Christ was the ultimate example and the one who we walk after, but as a disciple and a teacher of the young, we need to walk upright and be strong in the Word of God. If we walk in a corrupted manner, in a sinful way, people will follow us that way, because they(the younger disciples) are learning by us, they follow our example as we set it for them. No one can be perfect except true God Almighty. We are trying to be "doing" when we need to be "Being!", God is amazing and if we are not being we are not giving God time. We are not setting the right example and we are easily going to be devoured. Now Johnny Hunt said so much more than this to us, and he is simply the most amazing speaker today I have ever heard.
Newsong simply rocked out. They are amazing vocally and with all kinds of instruments. I saw the use of Sax, Keyboard, Bass, Cello, Bongos, etc. They led us in worship until about 12:15PM. Never heard a more beautiful version of Arise my Love.

And here I am. Tired, probably a little bit smelly, sore from the 8-hour van ride, about $130 less in my pocket. And in a wonderful mood! God is great we all know. Or atleast I hope you can experience His glory that radiates from His gaze over the world. Tribes of Judah was evident at this event through me, spreading the word of the organization to over 100 people by word of mouth from me.

Praise God.
Sean Foster aka Phix
Tribes of Judah Public Relations Coordinator
 
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