Ever since he was a child, senior Charlie Gretzinger has found himself immersed in church. He attends nearly every Sunday. His mom was the worship leader at Hope Church for ten years and his family was always around to help out.
Suffice it to say, the Lord lives permanently in Gretzinger. Recently, however, he feels discontent with his connection to Christ.
He’s had an idea for a youth group to revive this connection for some time now and it recently came to fruition. Revival 101 is a youth group designed to help those who think they are struggling with their faith and those looking to further it.
“Our goal is to make a group of self-dependent people all chasing after what they love, which is Jesus,” said Gretzinger.
Gretzinger brought friend and fellow churchgoer, Amelia Segroves along for the ride as they had the same idea. Segroves stated she has been praying for opportunities to be a leader in a church setting.
“I had this conversation with Amelia, probably two months ago,” Gretzinger said. “So that was when we were like, we could actually do this and then we just started planning.”
Revival 101 is a perfect opportunity for her.
“We just got coffee just to catch up and he came up with this idea along the lines of what we are doing at Revival 101,” said Segroves. “I was instantly all in.”
Gretzinger and Seagroves had the idea to make this youth group exclusive to seniors this year. They did this to hold a tight-knit community of Christians where everyone is a friend. Gretzinger hopes that this community will grow beyond Grand Haven High School.
Gretzinger wants to bring some members of Revival 101 to a conference in Grand Rapids set on by Met By Love and Circuit Riders, both are other student-led youth groups. This weekend-long retreat will be similar to what goes on in a typical Revival 101.
Meetings consist of worship songs, sermons and simply hanging out. The first meeting was held on Oct. 18 at Hope Church. Spirits were high throughout the entire meeting.
“Revival 101 was super powerful on that first night,” said senior Cole Lachmann. “Even though it was a small batch of people, I see the future of the program growing and how well it can build a great community for us seniors.”
No one was there to just be there. Everyone who attended was there to be a part of worship. Hands were raised to Heaven, voices were singing along, and the love for Jesus was fresh in the air.
Segroves feels she has been appointed this responsibility to share the name of the Lord and spread the word of the Bible. This opportunity presented to her and Gretzinger is one they have sought for a long time. The group is a dream come true for both of them.
“I have an opportunity to be who God wants me to be and do what God’s calling me to do,” said Segroves with a huge smile on her face. “God wants me to discipline people and he wants me to be that light to others and he wants me to be bold in my faith and use my talents that he blessed me with to praise his name.”