Rebranded youth event returns to valley Flathead Valley
The Unaltered ministry, a one-night traveling Christian youth event formerly known as the Silver Ring Thing, returns to the Flathead Friday, May 10.
Touring across the nation, the nondenominational event invites middle and high school students to spend an evening learning what it means to live a full life according to God’s purpose, according to Promotions Director Christen Colangelo.
The event began as a pastor-led youth talk on abstinence in Yuma, Arizona in the 1990s in response to an increase in teen pregnancy rates. Since then, the program has grown into a nationally touring production, complete with skits, music and fun activities.
As the ministry’s leaders recognized the wide range of issues outside of sex now facing today’s youth, they began updating the program to fit the times.
“We wanted to expand our vision and our mission of not just that one topic but really anything that students might be dealing with,” said Colangelo.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Unaltered program bases its teaching on the scripture verse 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”
A traveling team of 10 college-age Unaltered staff will demonstrate how those five areas can be used to achieve a life of freedom and purpose through various skits, games, personal testimonies and other points of engagement throughout the 2-hour event.
“It’s super high energy and lots of loud music,” Colangelo said. “It’s not lecture-based.”
According to Colangelo, unlike the abstinence-based Silver Ring Thing program, the updated Unaltered program does not address any specific topics.
Rather, she said, the event aims to help kids identify the ways their culture influences them and teach them about God’s overall intended purpose for their lives.
“The idea behind it is that when you’re pursuing God’s unaltered design for you life, you’ll experience freedom and fullness in every area of your life,” Colangelo said.
During the first hour of the program, parents and guardians of the kids in attendance meet with ministry leaders for a separate session aimed at helping parents talk to their kids about difficult issues.
“I think that often the children have a hard time going to their parents and the parents have a hard time talking to their kids about things of this nature,” said Chuck Weyerhaeuser, the event’s host and coordinator for the Flathead Valley event.
The parents’ session will provide attendees with talking points and perspective from a student whose negative life choices stemmed largely from a lack of parental involvement. Parents will also get the opportunity to access guides and literature on how to approach topics such as sex, drugs, identity issues and more.
Following the session, parents will rejoin the kids in the main service.
Weyerhaeuser hosted the Silver Ring Thing event in the Flathead twice before, in 2008 and 2014.
He said there were over 1,000 kids in attendance at the 2014 event.
“There’s a big difference between an adult getting up and giving a speech versus kids who have experienced what they’re doing and show the emotion of doing it,” Weyerhaeuser said. “I feel that they relate to this.”
The Unaltered event will take place May 10 at Flathead High School from 7 to 9 p.m.
Tickets are $6 online, $8 at the door or $5 for groups of 25 or more.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.unalteredtour.com/.
Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.