Ethan realized he couldn’t be perfect on his own. He needed Jesus. While he was still in middle school, he started talking about the duality in his life with his Surge leaders, which alleviated much of the stress and shame. His Connect group embraced his vulnerability, which fostered an environment of trust and openness. Being able to confess and discuss his thoughts and feelings lifted a burden off of Ethan, and it freed him up to start praying and really listening to God.

…he began searching for answers. He started praying again. He prayed asking God if he’s really there and if he’s really listening. “It developed into, like, I’m talking to someone that I know,” Austin explains. God used Austin’s prayers to pick him up piece by piece.

On April 29th, 2018, Nikki Blanton walked into the water at Bethune Beach and—moments before she was baptized—her eyes filled up with tears. Nikki, who grew up in South Africa and attended an Anglican church every Sunday, explains that while she had a foundation of faith growing up it “always kind of felt like it was out there, not in here.”

I’m more of a behind-the-scenes person or a sideline cheerleader, and I love planning events. I’ve had the opportunity to oversee Summit’s Beach Baptism event for the past six years, which—if we are giving numbers—that is 13 baptisms and exactly 1,033 people taking their next step to be baptized.

When 2017 rolled around, Farrah Torres wanted more than a resolution. She was heartbroken from a seven-year struggle with infertility and done with a faith that felt empty. Even as she went to service every Sunday she felt alone, longing for greater connection with her Savior and a church community. Farrah says, “It was all just a routine. I was in church, but I honestly didn’t know how to allow God in; how to worship him or live his way. I was ready for more.”

A week of change can be a bittersweet thing.

At home, my plans for the end of last week included soccer practice, Connect groups, and getting the kids to school. Under the threat of a major hurricane, they were replaced with clearing the yard, shopping for storm-supplies, playing board games, and lots of jumping on inflatable mattresses while our family of seven slept in one room together. This was a beautiful, unexpected time with my family… 

When Kathryn and her husband decided to make Summit their church home, they knew it would be all or nothing. This was going to be their community, their family, or they weren’t going to be here at all. The path to finding that was clear to Kathryn from the beginning; she wanted to serve, and she wanted to serve with students.

I was following Jesus and I knew it and the people close to me knew it and anyone who asked me could know it, too. But that gnawing feeling, the voice in the back of my head that kept getting louder, the obvious pull toward baptism… Those things didn’t go away.