It's been a couple weeks since I've had access to a computer. Since then, I've been to a camp that absolutely incredible. I've also been to a camp that was...very interesting. So I have many things that I want to write about, and will get to that shortly. Right now I'm at Kaylene's house near Portland, and we leave for CIY at Oregon State in just a couple hours. CIY was always my favorite week of the year, so I am stoked to get to go back this week. This is our last week of camp, so next Saturday we'll begin the three-day trek back to Joplin, and I'll get back to Topeka August 5th.
So about our camps. Two weeks ago we were at Camp Berachah in Auburn, WA. Which we soon discovered is a very pentecostal camp. I am not pentecostal. So that was quite the shift for all of us. There's a lot of things that I could say about why I disagree with a lot of pentecostal theology and interpretation, but I don't really want to do that now. Maybe I will someday. But I do have some thoughts just on the entire structure of the week, so I guess that's what I'm going to focus on now.
And here's my primary thought on the structure/method of Camp Berachah: I very much disliked it. Basically, each day of camp would begin with a morning praise service, then some group activities, lunch, more group activities (random things like go-karts or biking or archery or climbing wall. There were a lot), dinner, and then big worship session at night. So the day pretty much consisted of two worship sessions and a whole lot of random recreational activities. Problem with this? Very little opportunity for discussion, teaching, and discipleship. No classes. No small groups. Just canoeing and a dunk tank.
Also, the worship times were very emotionally charged. They very much had a concert-feel to them. When the worship band started, they invited all the students to form a mosh pit in front of the stage, and then those who didn't go up often just did there own thing throughout the room. And I'm all about getting in front of the stage and jumping around and dancing in worship. It just seemed somewhat forced here. Then the speaker would deliver an impassioned sermon, and there would be a big altar call, and all the kids would go back up to the front and cry some. Then some people would stay behind and pray, and everyone else went to bed.
And this creates a problem in my book. And it's not just something in pentecostal youth ministry, but in youth ministry in general. Far too often, youth ministries rely on pure emotionalism to impact students, and this was especially evident at Berachah. The camp was all about the big event, and it thrived on emotions. But it's not difficult to get a bunch of hormone-driven teenagers hopped up on energy drinks to come up to the stage and cry. It's another thing to help them turn that raw emotion into a decision for change.
God works on the heart. I won't deny that, and I'm glad for it. It usually takes the Holy Spirit breaking us so that we can see the hurt in our lives and the ways we've fallen short of what God wants us to be. But it can't just be left at that. Emotion needs to be turned into a conscious choice. Emotion is temporary. If our faith is based just times of emotion, it's not firm at all. I might as well base my faith on the weather in Missouri.
I've heard students say things like, "I raised my hands in worship today, and it was such a spiritual experience." Or "I cried after the sermon today; it was such a spiritual experience." And maybe they're right. But I really hope spirituality isn't reduced to that. When kids say that kind of stuff to me, what I want to reply is, "I think it would be a pretty good spiritual experience if you told your best friend about Jesus. If you showed love to that loner at school that everyone ignores. If you stopped looking at porn online all the time. If you started showing respect to your parents. Yeah, those sound like some good spiritual experiences."
So that's probably my problem with that camp, and with the way a lot of youth ministries and student events are run. Students needs a chance to discuss and download the things they hear in a sermon. I worry about those who were stirred by the Holy Spirit, but never had an opportunity to talk to others about what was going on and to figure out how to take that "spiritual moment" and make it last past the week.
I don't want it to sound like Camp Berachah was an all-bad experience. It made me think about a lot of things, and I learned a lot. There were a ton of people there who really loved Jesus, and a lot of students were confronted with God's Word. I just was not much in favor with the whole method of the camp. I have several other thoughts from the week, as well as from our last week, which at Wi-Ne-Ma in Oregon.
The Northwest is awesome. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time last week, which was incredible. Please be praying for my teammates and I as we're at CIY this week, and Joni, Sy, and I will be driving home. I'm getting really excited to see all of you who are in Topeka or will be in Joplin. And I'm even excited to see Jayne, who gets back from Africa the same day I get back from here. Check out her blog; she's having an incredible summer.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Oregon Trail
I'm in Camus, Washington right now. I just finished up my first week of camp in the Northwest, which I will talk about in a bit. But first, some thoughts about the trip up here.
Oregon is a long, long way from Joplin, Missouri. It took us three full days to drive in our sweet 15-passenger van with the Ozark logo emblazoned on the side. And the greatest lesson I learned on the trip is this: Wyoming is not a very exciting state. People complain a lot about the drive through Western Kansas. Granted, it's not very fun either. Yeah, it's flat, but at least there are signs of civilization. Like, some gas stations and stuff. But there is nothing in Wyoming. Just....space. If I hated people and loved tumbleweeds, I guess it would be the place to be. But I generally like people. And Wendy's. And indoor plumbing. And I have a hunch that none of these things exists in Wyoming.
Utah was cool. There were mountains. Idaho was iffy. Some of it was a lot like Wyoming, and some of it was a little better. But they have potatoes, so they're A-OK with me. Most of Oregon is pretty awesome. There's not much going on in the eastern part of the state, but we were going through these mountains for a long time and then drove in the gorge right along the Columbia River to Portland. It was a fun drive. And the western part of the state has more mountains and some volcanoes and really tall trees. And some cities, too. So I like it a lot.
Now about camp. Our team was split this week. Sy and Joni went to one camp, and Kaylene and I went to Little River Christian Camp. It was a lot different from the other camps we've been to. Most noticably, it was much smaller, about 45 kids from 7th-12th grades. All the rest of our camps have had at least 80. Also, it was just structured much more loosely.
So after the first day or two of camp, I was a little skeptical of it. It just seemed like these kids wouldn't get much out of the week. It felt like these kids weren't near as spiritually mature as at our other camps, and the programming didn't have the same kind of punch as at our midwestern camps. However, the staff was very genuine and loved God a whole lot, and by the end of the week, everything was awesome. The camp hit a lot of kids hard in a good way, and there were some decisions made and cogs turning in students' minds.
All of this made me think about how incredible it is how God steps in and takes control of a situation. I love the book of Jonah, and here's what I love about it most: After Jonah gets swallowed by the fish and heaved back on shore, he finally heads to Ninevah and gives this masterpiece of a sermon: "Forty more days and Ninevah will be overturned." I'm sure Jonah said more than this, but this is all that's recorded. I has no gripping introduction. No three well-crafted, alliterative main points. No tear-jerking conclusion. If I gave this sermon in a preaching class, I would probably fail. But the entire city of Ninevah repents as a result.
Here's the point. Ultimately, God is in control. Just because we might not write phenomonal lessons or preach award-winning sermons should not keep us from ministring to others. All God asks for is for us to obediently step out and tell people about Him. I might not preach like the guys you see at the NACC, but that's okay. God can take a simple message and use it to change people. Little River didn't have all the awesome video, worship, and other things that I've seen at other camp. But it was honest and God-driven, and it made a change. And I think we can all learn from Jonah and Little River.
Dang Keesha, this is lengthy. I feel like Jayne Long. And that's not a good thing at all.
Oregon is a long, long way from Joplin, Missouri. It took us three full days to drive in our sweet 15-passenger van with the Ozark logo emblazoned on the side. And the greatest lesson I learned on the trip is this: Wyoming is not a very exciting state. People complain a lot about the drive through Western Kansas. Granted, it's not very fun either. Yeah, it's flat, but at least there are signs of civilization. Like, some gas stations and stuff. But there is nothing in Wyoming. Just....space. If I hated people and loved tumbleweeds, I guess it would be the place to be. But I generally like people. And Wendy's. And indoor plumbing. And I have a hunch that none of these things exists in Wyoming.
Utah was cool. There were mountains. Idaho was iffy. Some of it was a lot like Wyoming, and some of it was a little better. But they have potatoes, so they're A-OK with me. Most of Oregon is pretty awesome. There's not much going on in the eastern part of the state, but we were going through these mountains for a long time and then drove in the gorge right along the Columbia River to Portland. It was a fun drive. And the western part of the state has more mountains and some volcanoes and really tall trees. And some cities, too. So I like it a lot.
Now about camp. Our team was split this week. Sy and Joni went to one camp, and Kaylene and I went to Little River Christian Camp. It was a lot different from the other camps we've been to. Most noticably, it was much smaller, about 45 kids from 7th-12th grades. All the rest of our camps have had at least 80. Also, it was just structured much more loosely.
So after the first day or two of camp, I was a little skeptical of it. It just seemed like these kids wouldn't get much out of the week. It felt like these kids weren't near as spiritually mature as at our other camps, and the programming didn't have the same kind of punch as at our midwestern camps. However, the staff was very genuine and loved God a whole lot, and by the end of the week, everything was awesome. The camp hit a lot of kids hard in a good way, and there were some decisions made and cogs turning in students' minds.
All of this made me think about how incredible it is how God steps in and takes control of a situation. I love the book of Jonah, and here's what I love about it most: After Jonah gets swallowed by the fish and heaved back on shore, he finally heads to Ninevah and gives this masterpiece of a sermon: "Forty more days and Ninevah will be overturned." I'm sure Jonah said more than this, but this is all that's recorded. I has no gripping introduction. No three well-crafted, alliterative main points. No tear-jerking conclusion. If I gave this sermon in a preaching class, I would probably fail. But the entire city of Ninevah repents as a result.
Here's the point. Ultimately, God is in control. Just because we might not write phenomonal lessons or preach award-winning sermons should not keep us from ministring to others. All God asks for is for us to obediently step out and tell people about Him. I might not preach like the guys you see at the NACC, but that's okay. God can take a simple message and use it to change people. Little River didn't have all the awesome video, worship, and other things that I've seen at other camp. But it was honest and God-driven, and it made a change. And I think we can all learn from Jonah and Little River.
Dang Keesha, this is lengthy. I feel like Jayne Long. And that's not a good thing at all.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Here I Am, and Here's Why
Hello faithful reader(s). It seems that I have a blog again. And here's why: 1) I'm sitting around at home all day with not much to do. 2) Several of my friends have gotten blogs going recently (though for much more noble purposes), and I feel that I should join in. 3) I was talking to a guy last week about my days on the high school newspaper, which reminded me that I like to write, which reminded me that writing might be a productive thing to do with my time.
Here's a little update on myself for those of you who don't know. I'll be a junior at Ozark Christian College this fall. This summer, I am on Ozark's camp teams, so I basically travel all over the place with three other people and work at church camps. We've done four camps so far, and they've been awesome. Tomorrow we head out for Oregon and Washington, where we'll be for the next month for three camps and a CIY.
In our training for camp teams last semester, we had to try to figure out our personality colors. I don't put a ton of stock in such things. However, I discovered that my personality color is green, which means that I'm apparently supposed to think a lot. Since then, I have developed into a hermit who locks himself up for hours, alone with his many thoughts. And now I have decided to share those thoughts with the world. Some of them may be serious. Most probably won't be. Writing will likely be sparse, until it eventually fizzles out in mid-October. We'll see.
But here's my thought for now. I've been thinking about the purpose behind blogs. Or behind writing thoughts down in general. I remember for a while in high school, a bunch of us started blogs, mostly just for laughs. But maybe it can be something a little more than that. Something that has hit me recently is the power that written words hold, and the opportunity that we all have to grow and mature because of the thoughts that others have put down on paper (or on a computer screen). I think all forms of communication can have great influence, but written words hold a special place.
From my days of working at Blockbuster, I know that New Releases are what sell. There could be an incredible movie that shakes society for a time, and it'll rent like hotcakes for about three weeks. Then, people stop wanting to watch it, and the store is stuck with 100 copies of a movie that no one wants anymore. A movie's influence is generally shortlived for the sake of the next big hit. Similarly, a song may be at the top of the charts for a couple months, but then people forget about it until it shows up on an episode of "I Love the 90's" on VH1. Television shows are lucky to make it past the third season. But for whatever reason, the influence of written words tends to last a little longer. Looking throughout history, books have had incredible impact on the shape society takes. Written words change the world.
Not that anything I write on here will change the world. It probably won't even change anything you do with your day. But I just think that there is great value in finding out what others have to say. Just think about how the world might be a little better if people spent a little less time playing Rockband and a little more reading and benefiting from the wisdom of others. Donald Miller sums up what I think pretty well in "To Own a Dragon" when he writes, "The truth I've learned about life is you can't do it on your own. People don't do well independently. One generation passes wisdom on to the next, wisdom about girls and faith and punctuation. And we won't be as good a person if we don't receive it." (Sidenote: the title of my blog is from the same book. Read it and anything else Miller has written.)
So that's about it for now. I'll try to do better next time. I like comments, by the way. So if you're thinking, "Hooray David! Keep it up, champ!" then let me know, so that I know I'm not wasting my time. Or if you're like "Man, this guy sucks. He needs to stop writing before I come steal his internet cable" then let me know, because I like my internet cable.
Here's a little update on myself for those of you who don't know. I'll be a junior at Ozark Christian College this fall. This summer, I am on Ozark's camp teams, so I basically travel all over the place with three other people and work at church camps. We've done four camps so far, and they've been awesome. Tomorrow we head out for Oregon and Washington, where we'll be for the next month for three camps and a CIY.
In our training for camp teams last semester, we had to try to figure out our personality colors. I don't put a ton of stock in such things. However, I discovered that my personality color is green, which means that I'm apparently supposed to think a lot. Since then, I have developed into a hermit who locks himself up for hours, alone with his many thoughts. And now I have decided to share those thoughts with the world. Some of them may be serious. Most probably won't be. Writing will likely be sparse, until it eventually fizzles out in mid-October. We'll see.
But here's my thought for now. I've been thinking about the purpose behind blogs. Or behind writing thoughts down in general. I remember for a while in high school, a bunch of us started blogs, mostly just for laughs. But maybe it can be something a little more than that. Something that has hit me recently is the power that written words hold, and the opportunity that we all have to grow and mature because of the thoughts that others have put down on paper (or on a computer screen). I think all forms of communication can have great influence, but written words hold a special place.
From my days of working at Blockbuster, I know that New Releases are what sell. There could be an incredible movie that shakes society for a time, and it'll rent like hotcakes for about three weeks. Then, people stop wanting to watch it, and the store is stuck with 100 copies of a movie that no one wants anymore. A movie's influence is generally shortlived for the sake of the next big hit. Similarly, a song may be at the top of the charts for a couple months, but then people forget about it until it shows up on an episode of "I Love the 90's" on VH1. Television shows are lucky to make it past the third season. But for whatever reason, the influence of written words tends to last a little longer. Looking throughout history, books have had incredible impact on the shape society takes. Written words change the world.
Not that anything I write on here will change the world. It probably won't even change anything you do with your day. But I just think that there is great value in finding out what others have to say. Just think about how the world might be a little better if people spent a little less time playing Rockband and a little more reading and benefiting from the wisdom of others. Donald Miller sums up what I think pretty well in "To Own a Dragon" when he writes, "The truth I've learned about life is you can't do it on your own. People don't do well independently. One generation passes wisdom on to the next, wisdom about girls and faith and punctuation. And we won't be as good a person if we don't receive it." (Sidenote: the title of my blog is from the same book. Read it and anything else Miller has written.)
So that's about it for now. I'll try to do better next time. I like comments, by the way. So if you're thinking, "Hooray David! Keep it up, champ!" then let me know, so that I know I'm not wasting my time. Or if you're like "Man, this guy sucks. He needs to stop writing before I come steal his internet cable" then let me know, because I like my internet cable.
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