Welcome to our Awake and Alive Recap page!  You'll find the links to all of our sessions complete with the recap video, main session, and music videos as well as some of the pictures from the events.  We hope they can be an encouragement to you!


2017 Main Sessions

January 2017 - "The Deal with Shame" - Shame leaves all of us in a depressed and anxious state.  Whether the circumstances were self inflected or the sinful actions of other people, shame strikes a debilitating deal with all of us.  Unpacking the consequences of the Fall in Genesis 3 one of the first, inescapable things human beings experience is shame. You can try and cover it up, you can try and glory in it, but all that's just fig leaves. It takes God making a sacrifice for us to cover us.

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June 2017 - "Purpose and Mission" - If you have a name... you have a box.  Have you ever felt that way?  The moment we say THIS IS WHO I AM, people try to put us in a box and even we tend to put ourselves in a box.  The Kingdom Workers is an international ministry that shares the Gospel around the world and Executive Director Bill Meier spent time with us to share his story of how God moved him from a career in nuclear power to the work he is doing now.  As he is fond of saying, "Purpose can change, but the Mission never changes".

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July 2017 - "Leaving Shame Behind" - "Jeffrey Bonack helps to unpack one of the vices that has captured and tortured so many young adults with the hope that through time in this session and God's word, we will find the value in guilt and find true freedom from Shame.  We take the opportunity to learn about the practicality of guilt and shame in our lives, but more than that, how we overcome the captor and claim the freedom Christ has won for us.  Far more than wishful thinking, this session has been developed with young adults in mind to be a help to you to not only overcome the traps of guilt/shame in your life, but to help your friends and family find freedom as well.

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August 2017 - "Relationship and Intimacy" - James and Denise Becker, teachers at Wisconsin Lutheran High School who lead the popular "From Friendship to Marriage" course at Wisco joinedus for our last session of the summer to tackle topics related to relationships, intimacy, & singleness. We were able to break into smaller groups for discussion & hosted a Q&A section as part of this talk as well. Single, Dating, Married or Thinking about it, this is going to be a great topic from the foundation of a Christian worldview as we live out our identity as a child of God in our lives as young adults.


2016 Main Sessions

January 2016 - "What Gives You Joy?" - What are you going to do with your life?  What's your major?  When am I going to be able to move out of mom and dad's basement?  When am I going to find the right person?  Ever ask yourself these questions?  They aren't bad questions in and of themselves and for most of us in the 18-25 time of life we have asked these many times and may continue to ask them even after we get out of the college years.  But they come with a lot of pressure, a lot of weight and often times, a lot of frustration.  At the Winter Break event, we want to help you deal with this pressure by asking you a better question "What Gives You Joy?"  We will give you some ways to look at your future by examining our past experiences as a way to help us look forward with a new perspective.  Perhaps most powerful of all will be a look at what gives God joy and how you can be a part of that as well! 

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June 2016 - "Ultimate Authority" - We all have opinions and we all have basic rules that govern how we are going to live and treat each other, what we believe is right and wrong and how to live out life.  But what is the foundation for making those assessments and those judgements.  What forms the basis for the ultimate authority of how we live out our lives?  In this session, speaker and author of books and videos on the topics of creation, evolution and the authority of scripture, Jay Seegert, gives a brief look into the importance of the Bible as the ultimate authority in our lives as the living word of God.  A God who cares that we would experience "life to the full" and whose rules for living in this world, ensure a close relationship with Jesus and a hope that outlasts the few years of life on earth. 

This session also includes a Q and A from the audience as well. 

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July 2016 - "Relationships - Male, Female and God"  - The Bible and popular culture seem to be at significant odds when it comes to the roles of men and women when it comes to dating and the marriage relationship.  Is it possible that the "no fun" God had it right when it comes to how men and women best function in a close relationship?  Author Amber Swenson gives a simple, yet powerful talk on the importance of understanding these roles well so that you will see blessing instead of brokenness in your future relationships with a possible spouse and certainly with the God who loves you, created you and knows YOU so well! 

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August 2016 - "Loving Without an Agenda"  -  You can't be a person living in 2016 America and not feel as though most of your life you're being sold to.  Advertisements on TV, radio, iPhone, browser... it's constant and it's nonstop.  In our social media driven world we have a strong desire to make our beliefs known and to convince others that we are right and yet it seems as though we live in one of the least trusting cultures in our history.  Christians struggle with this too, wanting people to know Jesus, wanting people to have heaven and not hell, wanting people to "act right" and "stop sinning", often makes the Christian very frustrating to people who don't know the bible, seeing primarily a pious, annoying person.  Pastor Kelly takes some time to encourage Jesus followers to consider loving people without an agenda and what walls that can break down and what opportunities can arrive when we spend more time listening so we can help others see the Jesus of the bible.


2015 Main Sessions