Let me just start by giving some statistics about SonQuest 2001. There were 89 different congregations at SonQuest. And from those 89 congrgations there were over 2,000 people there.
This is the basic schedule at SonQuest. We arrive Friday night. We get registered and pick our three classes. There's two hours of singing and listening to guest speakers preach. Then a devo, followed by a little entertainment with Standing Room Only, which is a collection of various skits performed by anyone who wants to join in. Then on Saturday we have half an hour of singing followed by the three classes that we signed up for. The classes which I attended were: Wiley Lowe's "War of the Worlds," Larry Cline's "To the Extreme," and "Terry Reaves' "How Hard Can It Possibly Be." All three were great lessons. Then we ate lunch and went back for another half hour of singing followed by a couple guest speakers. Then after supper break we spend from 7:30pm till 10:00pm listening to guest speakers and singing. At around 10:00pm, there is an invitational offered up and we sing while people respond and decide to be baptised... I will go into a lot more detail in a minute. Then we have a devo and baptisms. On Sunday we have a 2 hour worship service which is just awesome... I will talk more about that in a moment.
Friday night was a bit slow. It is mainly for just getting settled in. Saturday morning was filled with great lessons, and so is Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't until Saturday evening when everything really begins to pick up. By Saturday evening everybody who is going to be there is there. There are over 2,000 people singing on Saturday night and it is just awesome. Words cannot even describe how awesome it is and the total effect. We have some good leesons in between the singing as well. Then at 10:00pm, the invitation is made and we sing for about 45 minutes while people are responding. The singing during that time is just too awesome for words. Everybody is singing with all their hearts, emotions are at a peak. Everybody has their arms around each other singing with Joy to the Lord, while people are deciding they need a change in their lives, and ask for prayers, and many people decide to get baptised. The singing is just awesome as people are coming forward. I was near tears during the singing for the invitational on Saturday night. I cannot even begin to describe how emotional and spiritual that evening was... suffice it to say I hardly ever show any emotion to that degree. Many people came forward... I would say that there were a couple hundred people who responded Saturday night. A few people came forward from our group for prayers, and one girl, Ann, decided to be baptized. And Ann was baptized that night along with many other teenagers (I cannot remember how many people were baptised that night.) It was truly awesome. I thought about coming forward myself on Saturday night, but I didn't... I can't really explain why. Something was telling me "you don't need to respond."
Just when you didn't think that it could get any better (well I guess that Saturday night was more emotional because of all the responses and because everyone was just so emotionally bonding,) but the singing was even better on Sunday I would probably say. Everybody was into it, singing from their hearts. It was completely awesome. They offered another response Sunday morning, and another 50 or so people came forward (note this is purely an estimate.) Some more people from my church came forward, and as I was sitting up there with them, thinking about that week-end and thinking about how my life had been lately. I was thinking about how I was devoting so much time to school and work, and getting caught up in the everyday grind, and not enough time to God. While the responses were being read, I was continuing to think about all these things, I decided that I needed to respond and I reached out and asked for a response card. I filled it out. I wrote about how I hadn't been devoting enough time to God, and I needed to get closer to God. I was near tears as I wrote it out, and as I heard the person read my response and as some of the people in my Youth Group leaned over and gave me a word of encouragement. Word's cannot even describe how I felt at that moment. I grew closer to God over that week-end... it was truly awesome.
