More Jr. High Camp thoughts

Jr. Highers are great. They're fun. They're always exploring. They offer up a never-ending variety of olfactory concoctions that always staves off boredom... But being in charge of a camp full of them caused me great stress. I still have hair, but I'm sure more of it is gray now!


I like camp to be pretty laid back. It's church camp, not boot camp, so there's a good amount of freedom in the schedule. As you and I would both expect, some Jr. Highers at our camp took advantage of that freedom in some pretty negative ways. When they came and explained what they'd done, they actually painted a far worse picture than what actually happened.


The knee jerk of most of the camp staff was send them packing. Call the parents and get them out of camp immediately. Since I was the dean, though, the call was mine to make. I've never been one to do things the easy way, so I didn't kick them out. I'd given them the freedom to choose. They chose poorly. But the consequence (of which there were many) was not going to be that they go home. I didn't feel like they'd learn anything that way. So I offered grace enough to keep them there.


It struck me that we're all the same. God gives us way more freedom to choose than what I'd given the campers. And we all go around picking on the weaker kids and making messes for someone else to clean up (that's a sanitized statement of what they did AND what we do). We take the freedom that God gives us and misuse it for our own benefit and positioning. And God gives us grace that allows us to stay in camp.

Jr. High Camp thoughts

So a couple weeks ago, I left for Jr. High camp. Came back for a weekend and went back to camp for Sr. High week. Our network of churches in our area of Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota utilizes a great facility in the Black Hills of SD called Kamp Kinship for our summer camps. It's a nice retreat center that is a far cry from the spartan cabins of my youth at camp in the mountains near Lander, but I was able to recapture a bit of my camping tradition that the students really got a lot out of...

At Lander, we always took a hike up to a peak called Candy Mountain (at least that's what we all called it). I always loved that hike and looked forward to it every year. The Black Hills are nice, but there really wasn't a summit close enough to the camp to be suitable for this type of event. The camp does have a tradition of making some kind of excursion off campus though each year... usually into town for putt-putt, a water park, go karts... stuff like that.

I kind of figure kids can do those things anytime, so this year I wanted to do something a little bit different. I was the dean for Jr. High week, so I had the ability to make that happen. (Why they put someone in charge who's only been with the group for one camp season is beyond me, but they did!) The theme of the week was "Be still and know that I am God." so something out in a peaceful natural setting seemed appropriate. We ended up taking a hike along a path that followed a creek up to a swimming hole. (Probably not appropriate for church camp, but the hole was called Devil's Bathtub. I'm pretty sure some of the kids peed in it just for the symbolic spiritual significance!)

With 98 of us, that was no small deal. I had been assured, though, that it was a pretty easy trail... I passed that assurance on to our students. Note to self ~ don't trust Ryan's childhood memories! The trail crossed the creek (sans bridges) more times than our Jr. High boys' voices cracked during the week!

Sidenote: a student with cerebral palsey didn't really want to go on the hike, but I promised him he could do it. We'd help him as much as he needed. If the trail was too tough for him, we'd do whatever we needed to get him through... Nice, reassuring things. His response: "No it's not that... I'm just LAZY!" He made it to the destination and had a blast in the process - just like everyone else!

I wasn't sure how this choice of hiking over water slides or go karts was going to go over, but the kids loved it. (And it turned out there was a bit of a rock water slide anyway!)

A little musical diversion...

I was tagged by Knotter a friend in the blogging world.

If I were to list what I was listenning to intently right now, it would be Future of Forestry over and over. (A great band you may have never heard of.) But since that's not really what the tag is all about, I'm hitting 'random' right now and here's what's coming out in the next ten slots...

1. - Sarah Kelly, Still Breathing
2. - Sarah Kelly, In Your Eyes (so much for random)
3. - Jadon Lavik, His Name Shall Be Called
4. - Audio Adrenaline, Rejoice (Whoah! That's been a while!)
5. - Jars of Clay, Faith Enough
6. - Future of Forestry, Sunrising (I promise I didn't cheat!)
7. - Tree 63, I Stand for You
8. - Jars of Clay, Only Alive
9. - Tree 63, I Will Never Be the Same
10. - Audio Adrenaline, You Still Amaze Me

Realized part way through that this is only pulling from 'recently added' (although not new) stuff - explains the 'unrandomness' of repeating bands! Oh well. That's some of what I just heard. Maybe I'll edit this post and do a more diverse 10.

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Here's a better random sampling (and a much better playlist I might add - that wouldn't get me kicked off the radio show I'm on)

1. - The Fray, Fall Away
2. - Chris Tomlin, Uncreated One
3. - Disciple, Scars Remain
4. - Newsboys, I Am Free
5. - Falling Up, Escalates
6. - Sanctus Real, I'm Not Allright
7. - Fair, The Dumbfounded Game (another great band you may have never heard)
8. - Pillar, Awake
9. - Sarah Kelley, Still Breathing (The song that never goes away!)
10. - Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Jam (the epitome of randomness!)

I suppose I should tag someone, so how 'bout Gman, Kari, and Meghan

--Incidentally, the next 2 random songs that came up was Thinking of You from Future of Forestry (those guys are awesome) and Grace from U2 (another of my favorites).

Knowing God...

Getting the last few things put together this week for Jr. High camp next week. We're focusing on Psalm 46, leaning toward verse 10's "Be still and know that I am God." So I've been thinking of what it really means to know God.

I'm tired of church stuff that leaves people unaffected. Tired of churches and youth ministries that simply make their way around the carousel of activity without changing lives. I'd hate for this camp to be simply another full week in busy schedules that are filled with apathetic activity. My prayer for the week is that students would come face to face with their Creator.

Because that will change a person. I think, if you enter into a real conversation with God, you only have two options: outright rejection of Him or living a life of worship. I just don't think there's room for authentic encounter with God to result in.... more of the same.

You Can't Cancel Church.

Last year a bunch of people I know and interact with online were all upset about some churches "canceling church" in order for families to be home with their families on Christmas morning. Others have lamented how some congregations "cancel church" on the Sunday night of the Super Bowl. Well, the issue has come up again...

A church in KY has forgone its normal Sunday morning schedule in order for the whole congregation to go to a special screening of Evan Almighty. Now, I haven't seen the movie yet, so my comments have a limited perspective on why or why not seeing this movie together could be a good idea.

But here is one thing I do know. There is nothing we can do to 'cancel' church (or 'skip' it for that matter). The church isn't the place we meet on Sunday morning. It's not the sitting around and the singing of songs and the hearing of sermons. The church is the Body of Christ, alive and serving in the world today. And that cannot be canceled.

I'm not saying that our weekly gathering to worship together is not important to the life of the Body. But if that one gathering (or two...) is the full extent of our worship, then we are only weakly gathering (and I'd hesitate to call that worship). If we can't break from the routine for something a little out of the ordinary once in a while, then are we holding to tradition, or is tradition strangling us?

1-1-1

Finally made it through a whole night of racing without any 'incidents'. Didn't hit a wall. Didn't blow a tire. Didn't break anything. Didn't have any mechanical issues. Didn't even scratch the new paint job!

Didn't lose. Despite having the wonderfully fortunate opportunity to start in the very back row for the main, I was able to get through all the traffic and win all three of my races last night. And for the first time on a Saturday morning... my car's ready to go for next week's race. Too bad I'll be out of town this next Friday! Oh well, at least the car's ready to go when I get back. (Of course that doesn't mean there won't be any tinkering whatsoever.)

New Look...

Huge thanks to Greg - who painted my car while I was out of town! Now, it's fast AND it doesn't look like a pile going around in circles.

"Because I Can..."

My kids love to climb. It's a trait I think they've inherited, because I love to climb, too. So I wasn't really surprised the other day when I was sitting in my office, not climbing, and my wife called to say that Dakota (who is 5) had climbed up onto the roof!

Ok, it did surprise me a little; he's usually very cautious unless he's extremely confident he can do something right . He wouldn't even walk when he was little until he knew he could do it without falling.

Apparently our younger boy, Josiah, had come inside saying something that wasn't too intelligible. Right now, a lot of what he says is less than intelligible. But LuAnn could make out "climb" and "roof" so she called on Emily for a little translation. She is fluent in Siah and confirmed that he was indeed talking about climbing on the roof. "It wasn't me!" was her reply, coupled with a less than surreptitious nod in Dakota's direction. (The boy, not the state.)

Dakota acknowledged that he had climbed onto the roof a couple days ago and shrugged off the whole incident like it was no big deal. So last night, I asked him to show me exactly how he got up. He climbed up onto the top rail of a short section of fence between our carport and garage. "Look, my head is clear up here!" Again, with a very cavalier approach for a five year old, he pulled himself up. "See." "So how did you get down after you were up there." The look said, "Duh." The boy said, "The same way I got up!"

Talking with him about the seriousness of cracked cranium's and sidewalks, and power lines and fried insides, I asked him why he climbed up on the roof. I wasn't quite ready for his answer. I expected and "I don't know," some shrugging of the shoulders, a misplaced frisbee for an excuse... but I got none of the above. Instead, it was "To show Emily that I could."

The dead pan tone in his voice said more than his words ever could. I'm not quite sure if he was 'dared' by his big sister or had been called on a claim to greatness that he was forced to back up, but he revealed himself to truly be a boy seeking adventure... conquering challenges... proving He can.

I pray as he grows that he'll come to know and love the God who can make him able to accomplish whatever He sets before him... and that he'll survive the "as he grows" part!
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Oh, and yes I did get him to jump off to me! Sorry mom - I couldn't resist.

First Win!

My second time out, I hit the wall (see a few posts back). This was the result:

Actually, that is what the car looked like after about 4 hours of pounding, pulling, twisting, sledgehammering good times! It was a really frustrating afternoon last Friday. I wasn't sure that I would be able to race that night - actually I wasn't sure the car would ever be race ready again. It was pretty twisted and things not quite lining up right.

But, with despair hovering like the stench of a dead carcass, I pulled it out to the track anyway, knowing that I might not be able to race and hoping against all mechanical logic that it would be ok. I didn't get there during practice, so I was a little anxious for my chance to time in. Just wanted to see just how the car would run and handle. Got all my gear on, buckled up, etc. and turned the key... nothing.

A battery cable was loose enough that the juice couldn't flow, so nothing happened. Got that adjusted and started and turned off the car several times and ready for the trophy dash. Went to line up for the start... all geared up... buckled... nothing. This time, I worked out a better solution to the problem.

Despite missing the time in, and the trophy dash, I was ready for the heat. I'd won two heats in previous weeks, but that was before smashing the face of the car into the wall of Turn 4. Determined to take it easy (not sure that means a whole lot to anyone driving a car on a race track), I headed out for the heat. Things felt pretty good. I was right with the leaders and made one move to the outside for a pass, but when the back end started to slide out again I decided to not push it too much. So I finished third in the heat.

After waiting for the other classes, it was time for the main. I got held up a little bit behind a slower car at the beginning, but made it around him without too much problem after a bit. I settled into second spot, but was really pushing the leader (and by pushing, I mean following very closely - and by very closely, I mean inches). I worked my way to the outside of him and passed on the outside WITHOUT ending up in the wall. After that I pretty much checked out and finished about a half a lap ahead of the second car. A much better ending than the week before!

I got this trophy and I'll get a check this Friday for winning, but a really cool and unexpected thing was a little deaf boy who'd drawn a picture of me winning. He came up afterward to give me the drawing. It was pretty cool - and a good reminder of what's important. I'm here to be a light for people. Even in the midst of competition and grease and banged knuckles and bent sheet metal, it's about being an ambassador for Christ. I got a fan. Someone noticed me. May he see Him.



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This is the size of my engine, btw. Pretty sure it's the smallest one out there, but it likes to run!

Know 1 Student

This was my article for the newsletter this week:

I want to use this space today to ask for something of grave importance. Actually the results and consequences of what I’m asking for reach far beyond the grave. Here’s what I’m asking you to do… I’m asking you to make the effort to get to know one student well enough to pray for them. Not some generic “God bless Junior…” type of prayer. You need to really know the student. And that will take time. It will take investment of your self into their life. And it will send ripples through the waters of eternity.

Students across America are walking away from what they see as a church that has nothing to do with real life. Many churches have set themselves up as little bubbles that float around, visible to the world but never really making contact. We at WestWay are called to be more than just visible. The Body of Christ is in the world today to show God’s love to the world (just like Jesus did). We’re not going to do that by simply turning the lights on and saying “Here we are, look how well we do church.”

Students don’t care how well we ‘do church’ (I suspect that neither do most other people outside of the church for that matter) – they don’t want to ‘do church’. They want to be known. They want to know their Maker. They want a reason to live. And they can find all of that through you if you’re willing to care for them.

Get to know one student. Talk with them. Talk with their parents about what’s going on in their family. Love them. Pray for them. Prove to them that they are worth the attention of the Creator of the Universe.
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I still feel that there is much work to be done in building bridges between generations. I am completely on board with ministry that specializes in working with specific ages - but something is wrong when there are near zero opportunities in the church for generations to interact. I don't think it's primarily a programming issue, though. I don't think the solution is to just come up with artificial opportunities for young and old to rub elbows - though that could be a good step as well.

I think it's a matter of the heart. Is it just that we are so easily sucked into our own lives... have we become blind to anything outside our own gravitational pull? ...unwilling to sacrifice for the sake of someone 'different'? I'm still not sure if we're being distracted or just plain selfish.

Oops

Friday night started out really well. I got to the race track at a good time. My car passed the safety inspection. I timed in with the second fastest time in my class. That means I started the trophy dash in the back of the pack (they do inverted starts here with the fastest cars in the back). I finished that race second (out of 6 cars).

Again, for the heat race, I started in the back of the pack. This time, I made it past everyone and won the race. Things were going really well. We'd adjusted air pressures in the tire and I'm getting a better feel for what the car needs to get around the track quicker.

So we get started in the main. The last race of the night. I was in third place and really pushing the guy in second (not literally). I was a little faster and just waiting for the right moment, when he'd bobble a little and leave me enough space to get past. As we went into Turn 1, he slid up just a little and I darted into the open slot below him - just as he recovered and decided he wanted to drive in that same patch of asphalt. We banged side to side - no damage, no loss of control - and kept racing.

I'm now in second, and I just had my first contact with another car. I didn't really know the guy and wasn't sure how he was going to respond. As the laps wound down, I got to thinking a lot more about where he was behind me and less about keeping my car on the the right line around the track. Honestly, I was afraid he might retaliate and try to spin me, so I moved up on the track a little bit to make sure there was plenty of room if he thought he could pass.

The problem is... someone had spilled a bunch of oil up high and there was still a lot of track dry up there. Track dry is great for soaking up oil off of asphalt. It's lousy for creating traction on asphalt. I started to slide around turn 4 and slid right into the wall. My first crash!!! The front end's all bent out of shape and the car wouldn't start back up because the battery cable actually popped off the terminal on impact. My night was done, but the car should be ok. I should be able to get it bent back into shape (mostly) by this Friday night and be back out there. Fun, fun, fun...

Something to Think About...

In the second installment of the Out of Ur series on youth shaping the church, there's this quote:

In youth ministry, you get permission to break the rules,” explained Doug Pagitt, a former youth worker and now the founding pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. “Youth pastors get to do things that other people don’t get to do. Youth ministry requires that you break the conventions to connect with teenagers. If breaking the rules is permissible in youth ministry, then why is it not permissible in a broader scope of ministry?

This really made me think about what I've been doing in my ministry. I think I've been too concerned with figuring out what the rules are. Too much attention paid to questions of propriety and convention at the expense of awareness of and responsiveness to God's direction.

Need for Music...

A professor at seminary got me interested in a blog done by Dick Staub. He writes about different elements of culture and creativity and interaction between the church and the world we live in. This morning, I was reading this post about the Necessity of Music. He has some great quotes from Rich Mullins.

In a letter to his label, he once wrote,

I want to be involved as much as possible in church work. I want to work in settings that are specifically designed to challenge people, to encourage people to seek their life in Christ. I would like not only to sing but to teach…to "hang out" with people, to be accessible, to model faith [to] them, to be with people, not as a performer, but as a practitioner of the faith.

I saw Mullins 'perform' a few times, but after reading that I know why I never felt comfortable calling it a performance. He didn't perform with his music, he worshipped His Creator through it and drew the audience into participation in worship as well. Another time Mullins said,

You don't write because the world needs your music; you write because you need to make order, to organize things.

Just the other day, I was talking to a former student (who is a musician) about some music I'd written several years ago. We'd used the songs in worship there in Auburn and at camp, and I've used a few of the songs out here as well. But she asked me about what I'd written lately...

Not much. Somewhere in our move a year and a half ago, I misplaced the box where I kept my creativity. (I think I left it next to the one full of security and confidence.) I've missed it. Thanks Megan for challenging me to unpack that box again... I needed it.

First Race

Sometimes in life, there are things you think you’d like to do, but never get to do them for one reason or another. I’m thinking about things that you’d think are so exciting that they may be a little too scary to try – serious white water rafting, hang-gliding, skydiving… things like that. This last Friday night, I got to do something that I’ve always thought would be a blast but never really thought I’d do.
When I was a kid, we’d go out to the Casper Speedway and park grandpa’s camper at the entry to Turn 1 and watch the races. I remember hiding out with my cousins and brother inside the RV and watching through the little window in the loft whenever the sprint cars came out. They were loud and I said they “scared my ears.” But, like many little boys, I thought it would be fun to race.
Last summer, I was sitting out at Highway 92 Raceway East of Gering with Ted Grant and our boys and the announcer started talking about a new class they’d started. The idea was you get a cheap little 4 cylinder car, strip it, put in some safety equipment, and race it. Ted and I both got that little-boy-with-a-fast-car look and talked about how fun it would be.
Greg Elliott helped me find a little Plymouth Colt sitting in a pile that the guy was willing to part with for $150. We put in a new clutch to get it running and built a roll cage, and Friday night, Matt Snyder towed me out to the track and I got to race. It was as much fun as I ever thought it would be. Not that this is some high-powered precision work of automotive wonder… but it was a blast. I’m really looking forward to Friday nights at the track this summer (though I’ll miss a few for my brother’s graduation, CIY, etc.)
There were a number of times when I remember thinking how ridiculous it was for a grown man to be putting so much effort into boyhood fantasies of racing a little car around a track. Sometimes, I questioned if I just needed to grow up and put those dreams away. I’m glad I didn’t because what I experienced was great.
Living in Jesus is full of things much more spectacular than driving around in circles. The dreams God has for our lives far exceed the thrill of a short track win. Pray that God would give you the courage to follow His dreams. The message of the cross may be foolishness to the world, but when we live that message, what we experience will be a life that is unparalleled by anything else... the full life that Jesus came to give. Don’t let anything cause you to miss it.

Youth Shaping Church

Out of Ur is a kind of community blog run by the editors of Leadership Journal. They've just started a series of articles on how the rise of youth culture & teenagers (a sociological development over the past 50 years), and youth ministry (the church's response to those developments) have shaped the church. After reading the first of the series and the comments, I'm interested to see what the follow up articles are like.

Drive Fast, Turn Left!

Racing starts this Friday night! My car is oh so close to finished. I still need a paint job, final welding on the roll cage (about 80% finished now), new battery, and sponsor checks! After all this work, I'm really hoping I don't put it into the wall right away! It's pretty exciting to think about getting out on the track - kind of nerve racking too - what if the car's just got no speed?!

The downside has been the annoyed looks I get from LuAnn when I go out to work on the car and the fact that I'm selling my other car. Since I got the 4runner, I just don't really need another car sitting around, but I like the Avenger and really don't want to get rid of it. After driving the 4runner around for a month or so, I got the Avenger fixed and drove it a little today. It just feels so much quicker and more fun... maybe I'll make it into a race car!!!

If you're around on Friday night, come out to the Hwy 92 track and say hi. I'll be in the little Colt with a 94 on the side (haven't picked a color yet, but the old color's red, so that might be a safe bet)!