Quest
Quest is a leadership development opportunity for Christian high school students from youth groups across New England during their junior year.
Quest is a unique discipleship experience that helps teens deepen their spiritual walks through working as a ministry team, learning about spiritual gifts, sharing their personal faith stories and growing as servant leaders. Quest is divided into three phases and culminates with a 10-day overseas mission trip.
Application process
Youth ministers, leaders, or senior pastors locate students who fit the profile and age requirement and fill out an online recommendation by June 1. Request more time if needed.
Recommended students will be emailed the Quest application along with a deadline in May/June. During CrossWalk 2025, students will meet with Quest Faculty about next steps.
Following CrossWalk, the faculty will make selections for Quest and assign students to teams. Students will locate mentors, apply for passports and complete their first assignments in late August.
Cost is about $2900, including registration for YEC. Each student will be expected to earn a minimum of $500 due at the Questie/Parent Meeting in September. The rest is due by December 1 and can be obtained through a combination of local church support and personal fundraising.
Recommend a student
Who should I recommend?
Students who:
Will complete their sophomore year of high school in June.
Are growing Christians.
Are involved in the local church and youth group.
Demonstrate leadership potential.
Have a grade point average of 2.75 or higher.
Are able to attend all phases of Quest (see the schedule).
How to recommend a student:
Contact the student and their family about Quest.
Confirm that the student meets the criteria and is able to attend all phases (see below).
Complete the recommendation linked below by June 1.
Congregations who recommend students to Quest must also commit to help support them financially.
Schedule
Crosswalk
During Crosswalk, prospective Quest students are assigned to a Quest Bible Study group and spend a portion of their afternoon each day learning about the foundations of Quest. Students participate in team building, spiritual gifts inventory, and servanthood leadership.
Dates: Monday, July 14-Saturday, July 19, 2025
Questie & parent meeting
The Quest faculty will host a gathering for Questies and their parents in early September, including a parent informational meeting and a meeting for the newly-named Quest teams.
Date: Saturday, September 6, 2025
Fall retreat
Quest students will spend the weekend of Columbus Day working on group building, learning servant leadership and cultural studies, as well as worship. The weekend retreat cost is covered by the Quest mission offering given at CrossWalk summer youth camp.
Date: Saturday, October 11-Monday, October 13, 2025
Midway check-in
Quest students meet on a Saturday in early December to begin travel preparation. The day also includes check-in on fundraising progress and spiritual accountability.
Date: Saturday, December 6, 2025
YEC Winter Conference
During YEC, Quest students will meet for a portion of the conference to have their final meeting time in teams and go over final preparations for the team trips. Students will also be prayed over during a Commissioning on Saturday evening that parents, mentors, and youth pastors are invited to attend.
Tentative Dates: Friday, January 30-Sunday, February 1, 2026
Team trips
The teams will travel to their selected countries in February, when many New England schools have winter break. Recent teams have traveled to the Dominican Republic, Scotland, and Puerto Rico. A post-trip celebration will be held following the teams' returns.
Tentative Dates: February 12-21, 2026
Post-trip debrief
A post-trip debrief will be held in the spring. In addition to debriefing the team trip, Questies will be challenged to apply the Quest experience during their senior year.
Tentative Date: Saturday, March 21, 2026