Youth Quake 2020 recap

Posted: April 29, 2020
A group of retreaters at a main session. The theme of Youth Quake 2020 was "Build My Life."

While Youth Quake (YQ) looks like a festival, it feels like a retreat. Since 1962, YQ’s concerts, activities, seminars, main sessions, and times of worship have all focused on helping youth grow spiritually.

Amidst all the energy and activity, ongoing discipleship is our priority: after each main session, we shut everything down so youth and youth workers can meet, discuss the message, and apply it to their lives.

The theme of YQ 2020 was “Build My Life.” This centered around Matthew 7:24–27, but particularly on verse 24: "Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it…” In main sessions, speaker Michael Chinchilla (of Village Church in Vancouver), zeroed in on how our lives are built on the choices, experiences, and uncontrollable circumstances that we encounter. We don’t get to choose when the storms in our life hit us. And when they hit, the foundation that we have built will dictate how we weather that storm. Listen in on our main session recordings here.

We had 1,300 retreaters descend on campus this past February, despite the highway conditions and frigid temperatures. Leading up to the Friday of Youth Quake, we hosted more than 60 guests for Experience Briercrest (double from last year!) and many of them stayed for the retreat as well. We had over 100 group leaders join alumnus Jeremy Macdonald in the youth leader sessions in The Landing over the weekend and our recruitment team saw an increased number of high schoolers show interest in attending Briercrest in the future. Our own student team of musicians led worship on the main stage. Alumnus Joshua Leventhal played a Saturday night worship concert. We scheduled 23 seminars for retreaters to attend and threw some VERY fun dance parties. We’re almost certain that no one got any sleep, but we are confident that they had a good time. 

Youth Quake continues to be an important marker in the Briercrest yearly cycle. With a dedicated team of staff, interns and volunteers, our little prairie town opens its doors to over 1,000 visitors, and we couldn’t be more thankful that the Lord continues to allow us to host this event.

Youth Quake Director AJ Crocker recently reflected on Youth Quake in a blog on the importance of retreat and the “mountain top” experience. We invite you to read that here.

Learn more about Youth Quake, watch a highlight video from the weekend on our YouTube, and be sure to mark your calendar for the YQ 2021 in February!