GYC 2007: Be

This past month has been very busy and the blog entries and photo posts are piling up. For now, I'll tantalize you with some of the highlights from GYC 2007. Also, for those who are unfamiliar with GYC, I'll provide a brief description.

GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ) is a five-day convention for SDA young people who are part of a revival movement to proclaim the Three Angels' Messages (Rev 14) to the world in their generation. The convention was held this year from Dec. 19 - 23 in Minneapolis, MN, a cold city this time of year (fortunately the downtown buildings are connected by nine miles of interconnected enclosed walkways)! The theme was taken from Romans 12:2, admonishing us to "Be" transformed. Over 2,000 people registered online and probably around 3,000 attended the meetings on Sabbath.

1. Audioverse, along with Hope Media, recorded all the seminars and plenary sessions at GYC this year. What a job it was! But, with the Lord's help, we did not lose a single sermon. Adrian was our personnel director, and Matt, Ken, and David were our floor managers. Curtis and Matt did much of the audio editing, and I did most of the booth exhibit design. Of course, Curtis had done a major overhaul of the Audioverse website a week before GYC including the addition of testimony and statistics pages. Since GYC, we've had a major spike in downloads!


2. The Audioverse booth held a drawing for a free iPod Touch (preloaded with Audioverse's entire archive) this year. I know this is still related to the previous highlight but this was so hyped up that it deserves its own section. In fact, I'll wait until a different post to give the details, but, suffice it to say, hundreds of people gathered around our booth on Saturday night for the drawing! If you didn't win, don't be sad. Just apply next year and, in the meantime, tell a friend about Audioverse.


3. Workshops were once again the highlight of GYC. Unfortunately, I was too busy to attend any seminars except for one. I listened to Dr. Bruce Ashton break down common myths about music that people use to rationalize their own musical tastes. Did you know that Martin Luther did not use saloon songs for his hymns? He used "bar form" which is a structural form based on music theory and completely unrelated to the tavern. Of course, you can access this seminar and many others at where else but Audioverse!


4. As for plenary sessions, the best one this year was the last one in which Jeffrey Rosario challenged the young people with what is only possible with God's grace, that we become "a little lower than the angels." Heb. 2:9


5. One of our GYC leaders provided inspiration as he battled a crippling spinal cord injury during the conference. Alistair was our vice president of logistics and a best friend to me. While intubated in the ICU and paralyzed from the neck down, he maintained a strong faith in God and drew strength from the promises of Scripture. After an anointing service, he has begun to recover his strength and is headed to Loma Linda for rehabilitation. I'll post more in a separate entry.

Much more could be said about this year's GYC but you should really just listen to the sermons for yourself. Check back with this blog for more updates over the next few weeks. I'll be posting more to make up for the past few months!

*edit: Joelle's comment makes me want to ask for your feedback. What was your favorite GYC seminar this year?