Why I Love Summer Camp

I just finished my 25th year of summer camp. That’s right, 25 years of summer camp! Even at 35 years of age, I can honestly say summer camp is hands down my favorite week of the year.

My world changed when my dad took me to Camp Shiloh on Delta Lake in Rome, NY in 1993. I had been to 2 other Christian summer camps prior to Shiloh, with that year being my 3rd new summer camp in as many years. It was just me and my dad that summer; nobody else from my church came. He counseled at the Junior camp simultaneously being run while I was a camper in Senior camp. I didn’t know anyone; not a soul. In fact, we arrived early because my dad had to go thru counselor training. I remember walking the grounds and sitting in my cabin, before anyone had arrived, thinking to myself, this is gonna be a long week. I even remember the awkwardness as my cabin mates began to arrive, and we went to our first meal together. I didn’t think I was gonna like Shiloh very much. But I was dead wrong.

That particular week, and each week I’ve had the privilege of spending at Shiloh, has dramatically changed and impacted my life. I can honestly say the course of my life was altered because of summer camp.

Experiencing and Pursuing the Presence of Jesus

Experiencing the Presence of Jesus

Restoration, healing, love, confidence, identity, security and joy come through intimacy with the One who is intimately near to our teens. Yet without experiencing the God who likes them, it is difficult for young people to even want to draw near to Him. However, when they believe and feel that God enjoys them – even though they are immature and “in process” in their spiritual journeys – then they will grow in confidence to pursue Jesus and enjoy the richness of His presence. 

What does it mean to pursue and experience the “presence of Jesus?" At our new birth, God places the full measure of His Holy Spirit inside of us. He fills up the small capacity of our human spirits with His Spirit. As we come into the presence of Jesus, our human spirits grow, so that we have more and more capacity for His Spirit inside of us. When this happens to our teens, then they grow in the confidence of their relationship with Jesus and their new identity in Him. However, young believers rarely believe and experience the truth about who they are in Christ. Though they have the Spirit of Jesus in them, they often fail to enjoy the reality that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5). 

Enjoying the presence of God is about something so much more than being momentarily moved by God on an emotional level. It is the power of truth connecting deep within in our hearts in a way that completely transforms our emotions and desires. The Apostle Paul called this, “the spirit of revelation” in Ephesians 1:17. Young people want more than feeling that God loves them. They want to experience the truth of God’s affections in a manner that causes small but permanent changes in how they view God, themselves, others, their future, and more. 

Where Is God Working?

Have you ever wanted to know and do God’s will? Those are the first words of Henry Blackaby’s popular book Experiencing God. According to Blackaby, the key to discovering God’s will is not to focus on your own life, but on the work that God seems to be doing in the world around you. “God does not ask us to dream our dreams for Him and then ask Him to bless our plans,” he cautions, “He is already at work when He comes to us. His desire is to get us from where we are to where He is working. When God reveals to you where He is working, that becomes His invitation to join Him.” 

What an excellent principle - but it is also a very dangerous one. Before it can be applied, a very important question must be answered - How do you know where God is working?

There’s a joke about a man walking down a street late at night, when he comes across another man. The second is on his hands and knees under a search light, busily searching for something. “What are you looking for?” asks the first man. “My car keys”, the second man replies. “Where did you lose them?” the first man inquires. “Down that ally!”, comes the reply. “Then why are you looking for them here?” the first man says. “Because the light is better here”, the second man responds. The moral of the story: We often look for answers where we want to find them, not where they really are.

When It Comes To Vision & Youth Ministry…

When it comes to speaking Spanish, let’s just say…I can’t. I’ve been down to Central America a few times on missions trips & every time I’m down there I pick up a few words and phrases, thinking to myself “I’m doing pretty good.” 

But then I have my other moments. 

I had organized a faith walk for a large youth group one evening on a mission trip. I had the teenagers find one partner and stand side by side with them in a line. One person received a blindfold to put on and the other person was going to be their guide. They had to “have faith” by listening to the voice of their friend and so on and so forth. You get the picture.

Well, two young ladies at the front of the line didn’t seem to understand the directions.

Since they had no clue what to do, I thought I’d try to jump in and clearly articulate what must be done.

The Core Question

Each of us have a moment in our lives where God became real to us. When we realized that He just wasn’t out there somewhere running the universe, but that He was close and cared for us as individuals. Our relationship with God moved from corporate to personal, from our families’ faith to our faith.

In Gen 28-33 we see the journey of Jacob as he realizes that the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac is also the God of Jacob. He moves from relating to God as the God of his fathers to coming into a personal realization that God is his God, El Elohe Israel (the God of Israel).

As leaders our role is to point our youth to Jesus, to help them develop a relationship with Him. This is the time where they begin to discover that God is not just the God of their parents but He is also their God. We need to be cultivating that realization, understanding, and revelation that God wants to be intricately involved in their lives.

The Greatest Story Ever (sort of) Told

I’m about to say something potentially scandalous. So please don’t stone me.

I personally believe that most of the unsaved people you know are NOT actually opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are just confused by your gospel presentation. So what appears to you as a rejection of Jesus, is more of a misunderstanding of the representation and “religious” elements of Christianity. 

You are proclaiming the greatest news ever told in the history of the world! But the unsaved around you are only ‘sort of’ hearing it….

For example, take the words we use…

“Sacrifice. Propitiation. Redemption. The garden. The fall of man.”

Many lost people hear those words and might think, “What the heck are you talking about?!”

Service Project Trip Perks (For You & Your Teens)

A few weeks ago, we loaded up a van with 5 teenagers and headed out to New York City to do service projects for various ministries around the city. New York City is only about 4 ½ hours from us, which means that it’s a drive that won’t take us all day but it’s far enough away to get us out of our comfort zones. We weren’t exactly sure how we would be serving, but we encouraged the teens to be flexible and to be ready to do whatever was asked of us.

Even be a clown.

As circumstances turned out, we did end up dressing up like clowns. We were suited up with bright wigs to oversized shoes and given a crash course in how to make balloon animals. For a few hours one afternoon, our goal was to show some children and their parents, who happened to be living in a homeless shelter, the love of Jesus. That day the love of Jesus looked a lot like face painting, bracelet making, and balloon animal giving. 

As youth leaders it’s easy to get caught up in our weekly events-- our Sunday mornings and our midweek evenings that it’s easy to feel like we can’t add another thing to our calendar. I can hear the faint whispers now, “Please don’t ask us to do one more thing.” And I get it. I really do. So, I’m not going to ask you to do one more thing, but I am going to share with you some of the perks I’ve experienced when going on a service project trip with some of the kids in our youth group. 

So What Is The Big Deal With Transformational Leadership Anyway!?!

Transformational Leadership has become a cultural buzz word.

Michael Hyatt recently spent and entire podcast (which I highly recommend) on this topic.

What does it really mean? Let’s start with the alternative – Transactional Leadership.

This older model of leadership includes the following emphases:

  • Singular Leader, or board, make(s) majority of directional decisions with little or no input from the group at large.
  • Plan is laid out for execution by said leader(s).
  • Buy-in is expected by those under this wing.
  • Success is measured by actionables accomplished.
  • Missed marks are embarrassing.
  • Control comes from the leader(s). Tasks are assigned and managed.
  • Top level leadership positions are earned by a season of submission and then attained if/when there is a place vacated at “the table”.

Transformational Leadership has a different approach.

Unscripted

Everyone has something to say about being married or single. Not a day goes by that I don't see something on social media in regards to relationships. People give advice; share do's and don'ts; divulge way too much for my comfort; complain and lament. I lived the single life for a solid 32-years. There were plenty of moments when I thought I'd never find "the one." I had good dates, bad dates and blind dates. I had boyfriends (who never lasted more than 3-months), close guy friends, plus the typical 3rd wheel experiences. I've been left out for lack of a boyfriend and battled with feelings of loneliness. I certainly had my fair share of tears, plus my fair share of thrills and adventure.

Thru the years, I heard these 3 things over and over: I am too picky; too dominant for a guy to handle; and too busy for a serious relationship. But one thing I’ll never forget hearing was this from my dad: just be about my Heavenly Father’s business; the rest will fall into place.

And that's exactly what I did.

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Fun

Any event you host is going to be better if people like being there.

 You probably think that you’ve stumbled upon a blog post from Captain Obvious, but please hear me out. The ultimate goal of every youth pastor and youth leader is for their students to have an encounter with God which spurs a lifelong relationship with Him. We have seen statistically that when the rides from Mom and Dad stop and the student goes off to college, they often don’t come back to church, even sporadically, by the time they’re 30! However, I think that there’s an easy solution: make your events or weekly meetings something that your students actually want to come to. 

In my experience with youth services, it’s either ALL fun or ALL spiritual. I think if you want to achieve that ultimate goal that I mentioned earlier, you need both in every meeting. Making your meeting fun and inviting for students will not hinder the spiritual encounters that we want to see but will actually cause them to be more commonplace in our groups. 

I tend to be a pretty practical person so here are three practical and easily applicable ways to make your meeting and events something that your students will enjoy and will want to continue to attend.