mark.andrews@daily-tribune.com
The heat is no deterrent for local high school students who say they are looking to set the county on fire for God later this month through a student-led worship service at Oakland Heights Baptist Church.
Two students, one an upcoming sophomore from Cartersville High School and another, a 2012 graduate of Cass High School, said the idea for the student-led service came from attending mission trips with their individual church homes. Sophomore Tanner Paige and graduate Drew McKaig said what began as an idea for a student-led joint church service snowballed into something greater.
"I really felt God was calling me to do more so we figured, hey, let's just invite everyone we can think of," Paige said, who attends Tabernacle Baptist Church.
McKaig is the son of Oakland Heights' Pastor Joe McKaig.
"We thought we could get some hot dogs, we could get some drinks ... we've got a band and we've got a speaker and I feel God called us to do something really big in Bartow County so lives can be changed," Paige said.
The event, titled IGNITE, will be held Saturday, July 21, at 5 p.m. at Oakland Heights, 16 Highland Way NE, Cartersville.
"We're really just trying to seek the people who have the same passion as we do and to see lives be changed. 'Ignite' is a verb that means to light something on fire and that's what God wants to see in us -- a fiery passion for him," Paige said. "What we're hoping to do with this is just get people on fire for God and bring it back to their schools ... and just share Christ with people so we can see lives changed through the glory of God."
Both students said their bond of serving on mission trips brought the idea to fruition, along with the help of social networking.
"I had never met Tanner [previously], we had just been talking over Twitter ...," McKaig said. "The more we talked it got to the point where we're texting and its, 'let's do this, let's do this,' and turned into a full-grown worship service like Fields of Faith, but all put into one."
He added, "We're just building it up and building it up, we've got posters and fliers, events on Facebook, everybody is blowing it up. In two days we had [the event posted] on Facebook, over 80 people said they were coming."
The worship service will be held in the church's auditorium and refreshments will be served in the worship hall. For more information, visit the IGNITE Facebook page.