Author: Lissa Phillips

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A T-Shirt’s Testimony

Summit is only a couple weeks away, so I wanted to step away from the different events for a moment to cover an essential, but often overlooked, aspect of Summit I personally always looked forward to.

The T-Shirt

I looked forward to the new design each year not only because it was a new shirt, but also because these shirts tell a story. They are a reminder of what happened at Summit, and they are also excellent conversation starters, especially at the school I am attending-Lancaster Bible College.

(This may only be because they host a conference called Summit here, but that is neither here nor there.)

The point is, these shirts get people asking questions, and those questions open the door for fantastic conversations about Summit, AWANA, Church, and, ultimately, Jesus. Now, stay with me, because I know when I was in high school the thought of witnessing filled me with terror. Even though I am now in Bible College, it still does sometimes.

God will work through us to reach people anyway. He will work in spite of us, despite us, and do remarkable things. Sure, it is easier if we are willing, but our stubbornness cannot hold the Creator of the Universe back. God did this very thing my freshman year, at my very first Summit, and it was extraordinary how He had prepared us for that moment.

As I have mentioned, my Journey group was from Western New York, and that year (way back in 2014-I know I’m ancient) was the final year Summit was going to be held in Chicago. Some of the leaders and students flew out, but a large group of us took the train. That was a magical experience-honestly Hogwarts Express level of fun. Cows were blocking the tracks, leading to a 2 hour delay; we played cards in the dining car until 1 a.m. with six of us squished into a booth meant for four and “gambling” with goldfish and animal crackers.

When our train finally arrived, we had to run to make it to choir rehearsal-yes, at that time Summit still had a choir who performed during the opening ceremony-in Hebrew, nonetheless. Overall, Summit was a blast. My group did not win anything as a whole, but two of the seniors won their divisions in Fine Arts. We had so much fun, and this continued as we sat in the train station waiting for our return home. It was scheduled to leave around ten or eleven p.m. so we had a ton of time to kill. We wandered the train station for a while, got some disappointing food, and made our way back to the terminal.

Eventually, we found ourselves sitting on a circle on the floor next to some vendor booths. Two of the boys brought their guitars, and we just started having a little worship session, singing some of the songs we learned in choir as well as our favorite worship tunes. We were also all wearing our Summit 2014 shirts, as you do, which clearly displayed a biblical theme.

This was when the vendor of the booth behind us came over and started asking us questions. They were all over the place; Christianity, Jesus, the Bible, what happens to babies who die before being able to accept Jesus (Age of Innocence is what I believe this is called), is there grace for people who die without ever knowing Jesus existed-they were never ending and unpredictable.

We were six high schoolers, fresh from Summit and on a spiritual high. Many of us were shaking the entire time from both fear and excitement (and probably a lack of sleep, if I am being honest). Eventually, her questions got far too complex for our theological knowledge and understanding, so I ran to get my dad-a pastor for over twenty years who just happened to be there for the return journey (see what I did there) because we needed another adult. He came over and talked with her for a long time. She eventually had to leave-for dinner, a meeting, I can’t remember-but we made sure to pray with her as a group before she left.

I remember rolling on the floor, high on adrenaline and in sheer awe of what God can do. My friends were laughing, hugging, grinning. None of us could believe this. It was not just the sheer fact that the woman had approached us, or that we were able to be a witness in her life. No, what astounded us was how perfectly God had arranged everything.

The Journey book for Summit that year—It was on worldviews.

All of this woman’s questions centered on various aspects of worldviews. We were able to fill this need in her life because God had prepared us for it through Summit. We had Bible verses, definitions, and theologies memorized word perfect for Quizzing. We were introduced to a host of worldviews in that book-some of which actually came up.

It has been almost five years since then-yet I remain in shock over how God orchestrated that encounter. What were the odds the woman would still be there so late in the evening? That her stall would be in the waiting area of the train station? That we would plop ourselves down, in our Summit shirts, to sing worship songs? That she would notice and have the courage to approach us? There are so many little details most would say were up to chance, a rolling of the metaphorical dice.

I know better. God was active and using us that night.

I don’t know what happened to that woman, or what impact our witness made. We never saw her again after she left that night. Desperate to leave one final message for her, we pulled out Doctor Who post-it notes I had in my bag and scribbled some encouraging thoughts on it, and stuck it to a marble pillar next to her booth. I don’t know if she ever got it, but if someone else picked it up I am praying it had a positive impact on them that drew them closer to God.

Do not underestimate how God can use something as simple as a t-shirt to accomplish His plans.

So when I say these shirts are powerful, I truly mean it. Do not underestimate how God can use something as simple as a t-shirt to accomplish His plans.

Do any of you have similar stories? Share them to my email, summitjourneyalumni@gmail.com, or in the comments below! I love reading your stories, and they are a great form of encouragement for us all as a body of believers.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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By the Pressing of a Button

Photo Credit: Neal Dillard

We’re going to talk about Quizzing again, but this time it’s all fun and no Games.

(see what I did there?)

I’m going to share two of my favorite Quizzing memories, both from Platinum Round in Washington, D.C. during Summit 2016.

Up first, a story of catastrophe. There were ten teams there, scattered around the stage. The Journey book that year was Romans-let me tell you, we totally had to revamp our Speed question strategies, because nearly every—single—verse was from Romans, so we could not buzz in simply from hearing the book and use process of elimination.

Or, so we all thought.

Here’s the scene: It’s the middle of Platinum Round. Honestly, the win could go any direction at this point. We’re all huddled in our half-circles, knees touching, sweating thanks to both the lights and the stress. My team had four people on it: two girls in their senior year, receiving their Citations almost immediately afterwards, me in my junior year, brand new to this group, and our final member was a freshman boy (no pressure there!).

“Question!”

Our heads shot downwards, all our hands, clammy as they were, squished onto this buzzer the size of a Crayola crayon, trying not to shake so we didn’t accidentally buzz in.

“Please recite Romans-”

“BEEP!”

An audible gasp rose from the room, and a buzz of chatter swept the teams onstage. There was some giggling going around, because this was closer to the beginning of the round than the end and there had barely been any Romans verse questions yet, leaving most of the book itself-along with the Gospel Wheel, Faith Foundations, and Book Summaries-as fair game. There was absolutely no way they could guess the right verse-because it would have to be a guess, they had no clue which passage it could possibly be.

A girl from the team stood up and walked to the microphone, and recited a verse word perfect. I can’t remember which verse it was, but I know she had it word for word.

There was a pause.

Then. . .

“That is correct.”

The head judge sounded dumbfounded, and if there was ever a disturbance at a Quizzing event that could be equaled to a riot, this was it. The room exploded with cheers, shouts, and claps-all teams were ecstatic for them. The girl looked like she could collapse, her team was losing their minds.

Honestly, I don’t think there was any team more happy than the one who had buzzed in second reflexively and now didn’t have to answer.

This moment was completely insane, and if you were on that team or from that church, just know you have my eternal respect for correctly answering a seemingly unanswerable question.

Finally, and by far my favorite story for absolutely no reason in particular, the moment my team won Bible Quizzing. This continues immediately after my first story as the round dragged on. By this point my team had settled into our rhythm, and had established ourselves as one of three teams in the race for first place. We desperately tried to keep scores in our head, to figure out where we placed and which questions to go for, but that gets a little tricky when you’re still, you know, Quizzing.

After we lost track, we were just desperately vying for every question we could get. The back and forth between us and the other two teams intensified as the round began to end.

Then it was the last question.

The unofficial captain of my team leaned in close and whispered,

“We have to get this question.”

Little did we know how true that statement was.

We all gritted our teeth and adjusted our hands on the buzzer, resolute.

“Question.”

I had never been more tense.

“Please recite Ephe-”

We pressed that buzzer with everything we had.

“BEEP!” From the expressions of the other teams, it honestly could have been any of us.

The Quizmaster called out my team, and after three seconds of discussion we shoved the boy, the youngest of us, up to the microphone to recite Ephesians 2.8-9.

He did it word-perfect.

We cheered, elated. The Quizmaster announced tenth through fourth places-our team wasn’t one of them, so we knew we at least had third place-before dismissing us all from the stage, and the two other girls ran off to get ready for the Citation ceremony. Our coaches congratulated us, but dodged our questions about our score, claiming they weren’t sure. The boy and I went to find our group and grab seats.

There we sat.

Waiting.

For over two hours while the ceremony dragged on.

Finally, it was nearly over. All that was left to award was Quizzing. We sat straight up in our seats, but our coach urged us to stand and get ready to go up onstage-no matter what, we were about to get an award. I was so nervous I began to have an asthma attack. Thankfully one of my friends tossed my inhaler over as they were announcing third place.

Not us.

The team went up, shook hands, got their medals, and took some pictures.

Then they began the process of announcing who got second place and, by default, who won.

“You all should know this was an incredibly close competition that came down to a difference of 40 points won on the final question.”

I knew. I went pale, my shaking got worse, and tears were in my eyes.

We won.

By that last question, asking one of the easiest verses in our repertoire, we were the Summit 2016 Champions.

They officially announced it, we went onstage, and I have never smiled more. This was literally a dream come true, one I’d been pursuing since third grade, and it was reality.

To this day, this is one of my proudest achievements. Never underestimate what God can and will do through you, because just a year prior this would have been unattainable. God orchestrated everything perfectly for this to happen and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Share more of your favorite Quizzing stories with me, either here in the comments or to my email, summitjourneyalumni@gmail.com. I pray that your Quizzing practices are going well, and feel free to write me with any questions about Quizzing – I’ll try to give my best advice.


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The Art of the Quiz

Photo Credit: Neal Dillard

Over the next four blog posts, I’m going to go over the four main parts of Summit-Bible Quizzing, Fine Arts, Awana Games, and Volleyball-to give you some tips I learned over the years, as well as some of my favorite memories. I’ll also cover touring around with my group, the Citation ceremony, and Hotel Hi-jinks (look forward to that one. My favorite story involves a VIP lounge at midnight). This post, as you may have guessed from the title, is going to cover Bible Quizzing.

I Bible-Quizzed for nine years straight, from third to eleventh grades. I would have quizzed in twelfth grade as well, but my family moved to Pennsylvania the summer before and there weren’t any local teams, unfortunately. Over the course of those years, I found myself with a first-place medal five times. The first two times were in fifth and sixth grades, in T&T Regionals; the third and fourth times were both in seventh and eighth grades in Trek at Regionals; and the final time was at Summit in Washington, D.C. my junior year. The other two years in T&T I won Quizzing Champion-a distinction given to those achieving perfect scores in both the written and multiple choice sections of the Quiz.

I don’t say this to brag, or to make anyone feel bad-please don’t misunderstand. I say all this to show you how obsessed I was with Bible Quizzing. I loved it with all my heart, and gave my all every single year, refusing to accept anything less than perfection-one wrong question equaled total defeat in my mind.

While I loved Quizzing, nothing gave me more anxiety than stepping onto the stage or into the quizzing room.

There was adrenaline involved, certainly-normal childhood nerves.

There was also heart stopping, gut-wrenching, sweating terror.

I couldn’t identify it as such then, but now as I look back,  I can easily identify it for what it was.

I’ll explain.

From the moment we received our books at the beginning of the year, in September, I was already strategizing and studying. I would finish my book as quickly as I was allowed-usually in under a month-in order to begin buckling down for Quizzing. We didn’t start group practice until January, which was my cue to make my flashcards and mark up my book with copious notes. I carried these cards with me all at times in my pockets, so no matter where I was, I could make use of any down time to study. Needless to say, I was obsessed.

I was also terrified. Of failure, of imperfection, of even remotely disappointing or letting down those I saw as counting on me. I was the Pastor’s Kid, so there was a pressure to be perfect at anything Bible-related. Most of all was Quizzing; it was the epitome of everything a pastor’s kid should be good at.

I also had the advantage of a sharp memory, even from my earliest days memorizing Dr. Seuss and Thomas the Tank Engine almost before I could walk. This gave my Nana quite the scare when the two year old tells her she missed a page. Because of this ability, and the praise that always came with it, I assumed I had no choice but to quiz and to be the best at it. I was the Pastor’s Kid, I had to be good at quizzing, right? Isn’t that how genetics work? If I had this gift, this memory, how could I not use it in Quizzing? How could I not do well?

This is where my fear of making mistakes came from.

If you hear nothing else in this post, please hear this:

It’s okay to make mistakes. In Quizzing, you can buzz in slightly too early, say the wrong verse from Romans (3:23 or 6:23), or grab the wrong paddle. You can trip in Games. You can accidently serve too hard and overshoot the court during the deciding Volleyball match. You can sing a flat note, have your voice crack, or use the wrong form of “there” in Fine Arts.

It’s okay to make mistakes.

Mistakes are where you really learn. Yes, they hurt, and no one wants to make mistakes, especially at a national competition they spent a lot of hard earned money on and put hundreds of hours of practice into. But that verse you add one wrong word into, or change the reference? That’s the one that sticks with you for years to come, not the ones you know and answer correctly.

I earned a different medal every year I quizzed at Summit. Freshman year was a silver, Sophomore year was a gold, and Junior year was platinum. There’s clearly an element of growth attached with such immense progress, but there was also another factor at play: I never quizzed with the same people twice. The group I quizzed with Freshman year was completely different from my Sophomore year team, even though we were from the same church. Junior year my team was from a completely different state halfway across the country.

Every one of these years, in every different group, I made different mistakes, and every year I grew because of them. Without mistakes, there was no way freshman me could have ever made it to junior me with a first place medal around her neck. Without these mistakes, I wouldn’t be the student I am today. I still use my Quizzing memorization techniques for tests and quizzes, and I still use what I learned in the Creative Writing competition in my papers.

(I honestly tried to think of something for Games and Volleyball, but I was never an athlete)

So, all that being said, here’s my final takeaway for this post:

It’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to make mistakes.

You don’t need a medal around your neck for Summit to be “successful” or have meaning

Don’t let them define you or your experience at Summit. Don’t let them control your life, reshaping everything into a pass or fail situation. Only one team can win, and that’s okay. You don’t need a medal around your neck for Summit to be successful or have meaning.

So relax, have fun, use that rush of adrenaline. Just don’t let Summit, or any competition, define you.

Later this week I’m going to post about Quizzing again, but this time it’ll be much more relaxed and way less heavy. I’m going to share my favorite Quizzing memories from Journey and Summit. If you send me yours, it may make a little cameo in the post. Use the comments, or email summitjourneyalumni@gmail.com. I’ll talk to you soon!