Ypsilanti resident creates a global social media revival

Posted: Sep 26, 2012 at 12:22 AM [Sep 26, 2012]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (FC) September, 27, 2012 – The buzz started happening Wednesday, August 1 as @FaithChangers started trending on Twitter. People started to jump on board and shout out where they were tweeting from, and where they were not ashamed of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Today the movement has nearly 6,500 Twitter followers and supporters from around the world.

The person who launched the movement, Ypsilanti resident Damarqio K. Williams, 19, discusses with how it all began.

How did it start?
Damarqio: It simply started with prayer and hearing from God. I’ve always felt called to live a life bigger than myself. One morning, I prayed for God to give me a great mission that would change lives- something beyond an ordinary lifestyle. From that moment on I felt a calling to uplift and unite our believers worldwide.

Where did it begin?
Damarqio: The originated in Michigan, where I began spreading the movement through traveling to various churches to preach the Gospel of Jesus and social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc). It has simply grown into a "global revival" with the support of social media. I later preached a sermon at Abundant Life Ministries' Youth Revival 2012 titled, "Unashamed Faith." The sermon turned into its own trend on Twitter and the YouTube has received over 100,000 views. I continue to receive feedback from a lot of youth and adults who were inspired to know they were not alone in pursuing the faith.

What’s the purpose of FaithChangers?
Damarqio: The main purpose of FaithChangers is to unite a new generation of believers in a worldwide movement standing for our faith in Jesus Christ. I feel like we get so separated between churches, cities, denominations, and this is one movement calling our youth to come together. In this world it can seem like everything is distracting and moving us away from our God-given calling. There are many of us out there still trying to pursue God’s original purpose for our lives and we’re proud of it. FaithChangers is to bring us together and let the world know that we are a generation after God’s heart. Regardless of the direction our world is going in, we are pursuing Him first. Most of all, we are changing the world through our faith in Jesus, and we’re too unashamed of our faith to be moved by anyone’s opinion. We see the influence media and music is pushing on giving the young life an expectation of living wild, carelessly, fulfilling selfish pleasures, and the pressure for a causal sexual lifestyle among other things. In contrast we see that God has called us to live higher and we encourage each other in this very counter-cultural walk toward an abundant life.

What’s your reaction to the rapid rise of this movement?
Damarqio: While I must say that I’m surprise at the rate of growth, I know what God has shown me while on a faith journey of my own. I’m not very surprised with the quick interest because the passion for this God calling has been in the hearts of many believers of Christ, but has not been united as a whole. FaithChangers and Unashamed Impact has opened the doorway for a generation of believers to finally tie its faith together worldwide and come alongside each other with strength.

Where does it go from here?
Damarqio: Of course this is all just the beginning of what God is doing through FaithChangers and we’ve got a bigger vision for the entire movement. This is just a glimpse of the movement thus far, and we’re looking to join forces with the Unashamed Impact teams in various states and countries to distribute promotional materials to get the word out. Stay tuned because the best is yet to come!