Redefining Normal

Well week 1 of Camp is in the books. I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t still recovering from it. The first week of camp is especially brutal on me as I try to get content and presentation under my belt. Late nights and early mornings are pretty much the norm. This morning I woke up feeling like I had run into a Mack Truck. Thankfully, my wife was kind and generous enough to let me sleep in and recover just a little bit. We picked the kids up from VBS and went to lunch as a family. Again I was reminded that “It’s great to be home!”

So, for those of you wondering about the first week of camp and how it went, I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your interest and especially for your prayers. It really was a week that resulted in dramatic life change for lots of students and adults. One Student Life staffer remarked that the difference of the group between the first and last worship session was so enormous that, unless you were present for it all, you wouldn’t be able to be convinced it was the same group.

The kingdom came within reach and it was grasped through repentance and belief all over the campus. The result was a series of expressions that ranged from spontaneous baptisms in the pool to church-wide confession and restoration of faith in community. Broken things and people were made beautiful again. Healed people and wounded healers both found room beside
each other at the cross. Groups left dramatically different that when they came in.

I say these things not because I specialize in hyperbole as a traveling evangelist or because I in any way want to insinuate that this is always the case. Rather, I simply wanted to take a minute to celebrate with you some of the great things God has done. Working beside great friends and ministry partners like The David Walker Band and the Student Life staff, made it easy for me to play my role and contribute to the bigger work God was doing as we each served Him by serving and cheering for each other.

It is a special thing to communicate in a place where people are listening—because they desperately need to hear the voice of God and sense His presence. I do not take that lightly and to be honest it is one of the things that I like most about my job. So, today I return thanks to God for meeting us this past week and doing the kinds of things that are bigger than any talk, drama or worship set. It’s the kind of thing that happens when lots of people serving in the trenches, doing the difficult tasks of recreation, Bible Study and life processing give of themselves ruthlessly and that sacrifice is met by a God who is bending over backwards to break into life and change it. It was a pleasure to be along for the ride and my prayer remains that this is just week one of many more weeks to come this summer. Some things never get old.

Well today marks the first day of Student Life Camp. Just yesterday I returned from a terrific few days training teachers and leaders from the three different Winshape Camps. Now my attention is focused solely on Covenant College and a group of students and adults who I know are needing to hear God speak to them. I know this because I also need to hear God speak to me. So, in just a few minutes I will hop in the car and make the 4 hour drive expecting God to do great things. I have confidence that He will because of number of times I have seen His faithfulness in the past and because I know in the end anyone hearing from God is not just up to me. See, one of the best things about joining a group like Student Life is the joy of working along such great young leaders like Jarod Brown–the director of the team I’m headed to partner with. Whether it is leading recreation, working in the office staff, the directors, the tech crew or the bunches of other positions that make camp work, I know we are all working together for one thing. We want to students to hear God speak to them and launch out on a radical life of faith, hope and love. We are calling this kind of life a devoted life–explaining the SL theme for the summer DEVOTED.

This theme I think is crucial as we speak to the next generation of would be disciples and God-followers. The latest statistics show that just 4% of the millennial generation is coming back to church. Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t have lots of people in the millennial generation calling themselves Christian. We have lots of people who know some stuff about God. We have lots of people who want part of who God is. We have lots of people who want enough of God in their life to ensure He helps them get everything they ever wanted before they met God. And I also know that the skepticism and cynicism about church that this young generation feels is somewhat merited. But part of the deep, unrelenting, nagging  and somewhat obvious truth is that we have separated what it means to be Christian from what it means to be devoted.

It wasn’t always so. Just a few thousand years ago, a Jewish carpenter/rabbi was banding a group of motley people together to change the world. The things he called them to were enormous. There would be no way they could be part of it without leveraging everything. And they did.

So, this summer at Student Life Camp for me it is time to once again hear both the challenge and invitation of Jesus–for him not to help me make my life what I wanted it to be before I met him but  for Him to be my life–to show me what His life looks like–and for me to take hold of it as the most important thing in the world. I hope you will join me on this journey. If you can’t be there live, listen in online each evening. It’s going to be a great! Come on Lord!