Camp Memories

We wrapped up another week of middle school camp this past Friday with 132 campers and 27 staff members. While this was one of my most stressful years leading into camp, it ended up delivering many things I am grateful for:

• Quality time setting up for camp with a guy I've been able to invest in over several years
• Running pre-dawn miles that gave me time to meditate and focus
• Watching a team of volunteers come together around a common purpose
• Seeing the positive transformation in a group of middle schoolers over four days from being disengaged in worship to active participation
• Being goofy enough to make a fool of yourself to get campers & staff to laugh
• Witnessing two college teams (8 people) make an incredible impact on campers with their willingness to engage in activities, dance & sing, and have serious conversations when needed
• Having tough talks with a few campers and watching them make better decisions as a result
• A heartfelt, tearful hug and a "thank you" from a 7th grade boy after a message on grace
• Getting to see eight baptisms take place in the camp pool--one girl being baptized by her father who was also baptized at camp
• A goodbye hug and thanks from a sweet hearing-impaired camper who was a complete joy all week long
• A week that already has me looking forward to next year

Time to Get Clean

The past 12 years I've had the challenging pleasure of leading a week of camp for middle schoolers. I've served at two different camps with distinctively different styles, but there has been one constant regardless of location and demographic: middle school boys don't always shower during the week. They use Axe body spray as a covering mechanism for sweaty bodies and odors, but not all of them will automatically head for the showers without some coercion. Instead they will use some pseudo-manly scent of body spray to cover themselves in an effort to appear "clean." I can tell you there is no smell on the face of planet earth like a middle school dorm at the end of the week. The blended smell of damp towels (from swimming-not from showering), socks, sweaty t-shirts, and an unholy musty odor create a nasal palette no one should have to endure. This combination of smells serves as a poignant reminder that under the superficial layer of body spray things are still dirty.

How do we do this in other areas of our life? What else do we attempt to cover up hoping no one will notice? What distractions do we use to hide the fact that we are something completely different underneath the surface?

We can spray on a number of superficial behaviors (church attendance, learning to say the right things instead of being honest, avoiding tough conversations, ignoring our feelings), but without addressing any of the underlying issues we are only covering up bigger problems. We might appear to be clean, but the longer we go without dealing with the root cause only adds to our layers of complicated mess. Even if the process is difficult,
we are better off scrubbing off the layers of hurt and frustration so we can be more confident in who we are underneath.

Pouring Out

A week of camp is as exhausting as it is rewarding. There are many satisfactory moments from this expenditure of energy yet it does deplete your personal reserves. The week obviously demands a great deal of physical activity, but also pulls from your emotional, mental, and spiritual stores as well. It is an investment worth making as we have seen the results of our efforts and trust in the ongoing development which will take place after our week is but a memory. Pouring yourself out for the benefit of others (especially this younger generation) is worth the exhaustion at the end of the experience. Our willingness to do this will hopefully set an example for future generations to follow.

They Came to Serve

Our week of camp has finally come to an end and we have all returned safely to our own homes. It was a powerful week of adventure, spiritual experiences, and tremendous laughter. This just wrapped up my 12th year of leading camp and I believe I have a few more in me. I am always learning new things as we lead, but one thing remains the same. Our week of camp is only as strong as our volunteer leaders. I have been tremendously blessed each year by the volunteers who sacrifice their time, money, energy, sleep, and sometimes sanity to make a difference in the lives of middle schoolers. This isn't an easy task they have been called to and yet they continue to rise up and pour themselves out for the sake of this generation. This year was no exception.

This diverse group of people (many who had never met each other before--some I had never met before either) took on the daunting challenge of leading 132 middle school youth for an entire week. They played basketball, fit people into harnesses for high ropes, led discussion groups, sang loudly, danced, rode bikes, stood in the sun, walked people to the nurse (and back again and sometimes again and again), laughed at stupid videos and hilarious campers, prayed with and for people, answered questions, and functioned as pseudo mothers, father, big brothers, and sisters. There was no pay except camp food, a t-shirt, limited sleep, and the trust that God was working through them in incredible ways they may not even realize. These adults ranging wide in age and camp experience stood in the gap for a group of campers this week and pointed them in the direction of Christ. It is their selfless sacrifice that makes a week successful. I am grateful for them and their commitment to a difficult and yet rewarding quest of influence.

Thank you, my faithful friends (both old & new) for what you allowed God to do through you this week. Your Kingdom influence is greater than you know.

Camp Memories

The actual experience of camp only lasts for a week, but we hope the long term impact lasts a lifetime. It isn't easy to maintain our commitment to life change or to remember everything that deeply affected us. Hopefully our campers (and staff) will be able to tuck away some small token which helps to cement those important events. It may be a shared word of encouragement, a picture of a unique event, or a small object lesson to enhance a learned truth. My prayer is that some portion will stick with us all and become a small piece of the foundation of who we become in the future.

It's part of the appeal of camp--this idea of a week spent with 160 other people leaving a permanent imprint on your life.

Surrendered Identity

When we surrender to God we discover who we are supposed to be. This willingness to release our tight grip on our lives and grab onto God isn't necessarily a natural reaction, but it's essential. Any other way of living is a stubborn refusal to acknowledge God's sovereignty. It might appear this surrender is a sign of defeat when in reality it's aligning ourselves on a path guaranteed to bring us victory.

Fulfilled

Fulfillment is an interesting concept. We often look for it in places we are unlikely to find it and then act surprised when we are left feeling empty. It can actually create a self-perpetuating cycle wherein we seek affirmation in areas that don't deliver and then we increase our efforts in the same area hoping more energy will bring what we want. It's a trap that has us searching for validation in other people, our reputation, career, family achievements, and even financial stability. While none of these things are necessarily awful on their own merit they won't provide the contentment we desire. It only becomes a series of mile markers along a journey where we never reach the destination we hope for.

The task in front of us isn't necessarily easy. We need to take the desires of our heart--the things we chase after--and surrender them to God. Our willingness to seek Him through all of these other areas will fulfill us in the ways we've been hoping for through our other pursuits.

True Value

So often we pretend to be something we aren't while hoping it will cause others to like us. I wish I could say this is only a middle school or teenage problem, but it certainly affects adults as well. We make alterations to our speech, attitudes, and behavioral patterns in an attempt to appear to be something different than who we are. At the root of it all is a fear that we won't be accepted for who we are. Our life history (what we have done and what has been done to us) has shaped this negative mentality. Unless we recognize this paralyzing cycle and the lie that fuels it we won't understand our true worth. In all of our imperfection, we have value because God loves us for who we are.

Who Are You?

We kicked off our week of middle school camp tonight with a full crew of camper and staff. Our theme is #DeathToSelfie--an emphasis on refusing to seek the approval of other people, but discovering who we are in Christ. I'm praying for a revealing of truth and a refusal to settle for anything less than a full understanding of who we are in Christ. It's not as much a desire to stop people from taking selfies as it is a desire to let go of the selfie mentality. We don't need to take pictures and then crop, edit, and filter them just so people will give us their approval. We need to be confident in how God sees us and move forward in that knowledge. It's a lesson adults struggle to grasp and I pray our middle schoolers can see the truth in it now. Recognizing this truth at their age will only help them be more confident as they continue to grow.

Just a Hint

I left with a small, but faithful crew to head to our summer camp and set up for the arrival of the crew tomorrow. The picture above is a hint from our stage set which we don't want to reveal until all of our campers and staff are here together. There are certain things we want to keep a secret as we head into an exciting week.

The truth is we don't know everything that is going to happen either. We have been preparing and planning for months and we still only have a hint of how the week will actually unfold. It's part of the excitement of camp to have a sense of anticipation and a touch of the unknown. This leaves plenty of room for God to work through our good (and even not so good) preparation. I only have a hint of what's going to happen and I am at peace with it.

Built to Last

We have the potential to experience special spiritual moments that challenge and touch us more deeply than others. It could be a mission trip that changes our perspective, a week at camp that shows us new things about ourselves, or a week at CIY Move that exposes us to new direction for our lives. These become markers of maturity that we look back on with great fondness and that hopefully spur us on to something new and fresh in our faith. The great challenge is always in maintaining the intensity that we find in these moments.

It's obviously not possible to stay at the exact same level that we experience in these big events and in fact, we wouldn't want to. Being exposed to varying degrees of intensity makes each moment special and reminds us of the journey that we are on towards maturity. Each experience then becomes a catalyst that propels us forward toward God and teaches us something new as it becomes part of our faith history. Our hope is to take these occasions and add to them so that we maintain a steady commitment to a life that honors God. It's not a matter of relying entirely on these special times for impact, but combining them with our daily faith and watching God work in us all year long.

That is something that will last.

Known: Making God Known

We wrapped up our week of camp tonight by focusing our campers on how they can make God known in their own world. It might seem like a daunting task to a middle schooler (and an adult) but God promises that we won't have to do this on our own. He asks us to bring what we have to Him: our imperfect talents, personal flaws, overwhelming history, and insecurities and let Him use them.

We might think that these won't be enough to do anything, but God doesn't ask us to be any more than we are. He has a deep, passionate desire to take what we have-what He's given us-and do more with it than we could on our own. We are the ones that have to decide if we will trust His power more than our own. There's no other way for us to have maximum impact without the power that He brings and the perfection that He matches with our imperfection.

Known: Knowing God

I could write tonight about decisions that have been made and the power of this week of middle school camp, but instead I simply want to ask two questions:

• Who do you say Jesus is?
• What are you going to do about it?

There are many things that are important, but nothing matters more than our answer to these two questions.

Known: Power of a Name

There is a story from my time in youth ministry in Florida that I will never forget. There was a young man named Thomas that started to come to our high school ministry on Tuesday nights. I introduced myself when he first showed up, sent him a postcard the next day, and then talked with him again when he came back the next week. He become a regular part of the group and would attend most of our events and services.

He dropped by my office one weekday afternoon to talk about some issues he was having at home. I walked him out of the office when we were done and told him that I would see him later that week. He walked out the door and then stopped to come back in. He looked at me and said, "Do you know why I came back here after the first time I visited? It's because you remembered my name."

There is great power in our name being known. I'm not talking about social media followers or other forms of popularity, but the great power shared in speaking a name in a personal connection. It's an intimate familiarity formed with compassion, pride, and a desire to connect. It's an affirmation of the name that we've been given and the respect we are showing to each other. It reflects the ingrained principle that we want to be known.

While some may dismiss my statements, I have seen enough evidence to know how encouraging this can be. It inspires me to continue to work to know and speak the names of people that I encounter.

Known: I Am Enough

We carry far too many labels. We identify ourselves by our physical characteristics and our abilities. We carry the label of our past and present mistakes, hurtful words spoken over us, and failed expectations. Our life history can burden us with hurts from a painful family background and bullying. Those that we trust and respect can obliterate our confidence in minutes with words and actions that never seem to leave us. It can leave us feeling like we can't measure up to the right standard-that we will never be good enough. This is the ultimate label of discouragement and hopelessness.

It takes a certain point of confident maturity to cast aside these ill-fitting labels and grasp who we really are. It's a crisis of identity that prevents us from forging ahead and fulfilling the purpose that God has given us. This is an important step in our own faith development when we can confidently say, "I am enough." It is a statement that affirms who God intends us to be while casting aside the lies and mislabeling that derail us from the right path.

Won't Quit

I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised when things become difficult before big opportunities. Each year that I have been involved in camp, conferences, and mission trips there are multiple obstacles that need to be overcome. Many of these are directly related to the setup and implementation of the events, but many of them have nothing to do with what's going on. It's in these times of year that the family of our staff has car problems, their children get pinkeye, people get the flu in summer, sinks explode, bones are broken, and roofs develop monstrous leaks. If it wasn't so predictable it would almost be comical. If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't understand that these are distractions intended to take us off course.

I am grateful to be surrounded by a team of adults who will not be thrown off track by events like these. I am even more grateful for a wife and family that understand the bigger picture of what we're dealing with. We are facing an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy the people we are working to guide to Christ. The good news is that we are working against an enemy that is already defeated and is scrambling to disrupt something that he can't stop. We know who the higher power is and that He has already brought victory over death, disease, and discouragement. We know that it is God's power that fuels us to press on towards our goal of bringing people closer to Christ. We won't stop moving in that direction. We won't quit or be deterred because we know that what we are doing is the difference between life and death.

Just In Case

It's just about time for our week of middle school camp again. I have had the pleasure of leading a week for the past 11 years and it has definitely changed tremendously in that time. I have had to adapt my style of leadership and our approach to things over the years, but each year is an incredible blessing through the changes.

We spent today packing our trailer for the early crew to set up on Saturday in anticipation of the arrival of 130 campers and 27 staff on Sunday. We had a specific list of items for our stage set, the sound equipment, camper games, and object lessons. Our staff knew exactly what we were getting into and had our lists prepared. Even as we packed we collected several other items that were not on our original list. Many times this is done because we want to be prepared for what might happen.

Camp veterans understand that there will be unexpected events and surprises along the way. We can plan and strategize each moment, but there will always be moments that we need to take advantage of when they come up. While we can't always predict them we can prepare as much as possible so that we don't miss the chance for impact.

Ministry in Motion

I blogged yesterday about leaving my job teaching high school and moving into ministry full time. I ended up working in youth ministry for the next 8 years before transitioning into my current role. Similarly to my
departure from academia, I didn't leave youth ministry because I was tired of teenagers. I transitioned to another phase of my development at God's leading. Even as I love what I am doing now there are still some things that I miss about youth ministry. Fortunately, I am blessed to be at a church that highly values summer camp and allows me to continue to lead a week for middle schoolers each summer.

There was one night in particular that encapsulated all that is good about camp & ministry. It was after our Monday night Celebration experience. We had a night swim activity with some of our campers playing games & sports in the field. One of our campers (who had a broken arm) was sitting off to the side and asked if I would play Frisbee with him. We hit the field together and soon ended up with another ten campers joining us with only a few of them actually any good at Frisbee. The best part is that it didn't matter how good they were at it. We were all in community encouraging each other and making sure that everyone had an opportunity to take part in it.

Soon we were all in line for our nighttime canteen and I ended up at the back of the line with a group of guys. These were the same guys who were falling asleep and acting very disinterested in our nighttime worship. We talked about basketball, the golf cart, and the cool trick with flash paper that I had done that night. All of a sudden I had a captive audience of 5-6 young men as I shared how essential it was to be cautious with who you chose to follow. It was the most engaged they had been all night & was the best part of my night in my opinion.

These small things reinforced why I am in ministry. It's the unique times of teaching, the bond forged in simple community, and the opportunity to influence people in small ways. Those are motivating principles regardless of the age group you are called to serve.

Camp Reflections: Good Leaders

I love the opportunity to invest in middle schoolers at camp, but one of the best parts is the time that I get to spend with my adult staff. This past week I was blessed to work with an incredibly fantastic team that gave all they had physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. They have been brought together over several months all with an eye on creating the best opportunities to impact & influence campers. They range in age from 18 to 66 with varying degrees of experience and are all united in leading youth to Christ.

Camp provided them with physical opportunities which built bridges with our campers. They danced, played sports, went down 30 foot slip & slides, climbed rock walls, walked catwalks 30 feet in the air, and dropped 45 feet on a giant swing. They used those bridges to talk about the important things, to pray with campers, and to lead them to make decisions to follow Christ. Some of our counselors even got to baptize someone for the very first time.

We were family for an entire week as we pushed after an identical goal and we will share a bond that only a week spent with 120 middle schoolers can provide. I would take this camp staff anywhere and trust them to lead with integrity and maximum effort in helping to change the lives of young people. They make me look good as leader and certainly make it easy to run camp when you know things will be handled.

Greater Than: Reflections

This past week at middle school camp provided so many poignant reminders of why I work in

ministry and how much I have enjoyed working with youth in particular. I'm still sorting through many of my thoughts (even though with an exhaustion addled brain.) I'm sure there will be other highlights to share, but here are few that stand out in brief retrospect:

• A conversation with guys in the canteen line about being careful who you follow--the same guys who were completely disengaged in chapel, but now listening intently as we just talked
• Praying for my camp staff each day & sharing with them God's challenge to not grow weary of doing good work for the harvest is coming and then experiencing that harvest over the next 24 hours
• Talking with one our young men who was overcome with emotion as he gave his life to Christ 
• Calling parents to let them know their child has decided to follow Jesus-can't call with any better news than that
• Simple, positive touches for campers each day--high fives, hugs, pats on the back, and verbal affirmation--just to let them know we care
• Watching our incredible staff dance, play, sing, laugh, and cry with campers
• Seeing 10 young people commit their lives to Christ and follow through in baptism
• The gratefulness of parents for a week of Kingdom investment..