Undignified Tour, a worship band from the campus ministry Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC) led the youth into worship at Unleashed 2014.
Passersby near the South Bay Community Church in Torrance, California, would have heard loud noises on Thursday from hundreds of young people worshipping at Unleashed 2014, a multi-ethnic youth outreach event which invited various church youth groups and high school Christian clubs in the South Bay area. The event, from the start of planning six months ago, until the day of the event, was entirely led by high school students.
The former president of Living Stone Christian Club, a Christian student organization in West Torrance High School, initially had the vision to create an outreach event in which high school students can simply and clearly hear the gospel being preached. Sabrina Han, a 17-year-old junior at West Torrance High School, said that she, Derrick Marzano (18), who also attended West Torrance High, and Lauren Oda (18), who went to South High School, decided to work together to put his vision into action.
Sabrina Han (left) and Derrick Marzano (right) sang a song together for the offering presentation. The two, together with Lauren Oda, have been planning for this event for almost six months.
The three did most of the planning of the event, such as searching for venues, fundraising, seeking out worship leaders and speakers, and promoting the event to churches and schools. To fundraise, they wrote letters to share the vision for the event and sent them out, by which many partnered with them in prayer and finances. For a month during the planning process, Han, Oda, and Marzano also met with board members of Christian clubs in various high schools in the South Bay area to pray together for the event.
The event featured worship led by Undignified Tour, a worship band from a ministry called Korea Campus Crusade for Christ; a message delivered by Jesse Pickott, a pastor and church planter who attended Fuller Theological Seminary; and two testimonies from Daeil Chung, a youth pastor, and Amanda Hockett, a senior in high school.
Mentors prayed over the high school students who came up to them with questions about God and about their faith.
Towards the end of the event, attendees also had the opportunity to share their thoughts about God and their faith in small groups. Some thoughts they shared with each other included whether they believe in God, and reasons that might be holding them back from wanting to know Him. Those who had specific questions about God or the Bible were encouraged to ask mentors, who volunteered to come to the event to minister to the attendees.
When asked whether they were planning on following up to know the results of the event, Han expressed that they were not too concerned with numbers or statistics.
“We just wanted to plant the seeds, and I’m thankful that we were able to do that today,” she said.
“We’re just really thankful God allowed us to hold this event,” she added. “It’s not every day you see God letting a group of teenagers have the opportunity to hold events like these.”
