Hello friends and family.
Many people think that summer is a slow time for the church. Attendance drops. People are more active outside of church so programs are decreased. It's too hot to get out and do stuff.
Well, summer is part of my busy season. My calender doesn't slow down until the last part of summer. In fact, this last week has been crazy. I have been at two different camps in the last week.
The first camp was from Sunday the 18th through Friday the 23rd. It was a week-long camp with 69 Junior High Schoolers. J.E.M. is a Junior High leadership camp. We spend the week working with selected youth from local churches. This year's theme was Discipleship: Living the Life. Youth for this camp must be recommended by a pastor or youth leader. This is not a "ya'll come" camp. It is designed to take prospective youth from a local church, provide them training in areas of ministry, and send them back to their church to take active leadership roles.
Youth are today's church. Many "old" folks in the church consider the youth the future. So that leads to spending money on entertaining the "young'uns" until they grow up. Well folks, there are a slew of "young'uns" who are poised and ready to be active in the church right now. They want to do things. They want to serve on committees (some of you old folks run when it's nominations time). They want to worship in Spirit and truth, not just entertained. They want depth to their spiritual walk and want to know why we do what we do. They are ready to be actively involved. If the "old" folks don't open up and let them get started in being the church, they will find somewhere else to go. And those Mommas and Daddies that will do anything for their kids will take them to that place.
The second camp was Cub Scout Day camp with my son. I was a Walking Leader with his Pack. This means that two other adults and I walked with the 14 scouts from one activity to another, helping them with the activities. The boys had a blast. The adults, well I, had fun also. It was really fun to watch the boys do things. I was also the driver of one of the vehicles to get the boys to camp. I had 4 with me on the way down and 5 on the way back. I discovered very quickly that I don't get 6,7, and 8 year old boys. I don't get the way they talk or the way they interact. I get almost every other age group. But I don't get those boys.
Many people think that summer is a slow time for the church. Attendance drops. People are more active outside of church so programs are decreased. It's too hot to get out and do stuff.
Well, summer is part of my busy season. My calender doesn't slow down until the last part of summer. In fact, this last week has been crazy. I have been at two different camps in the last week.
The first camp was from Sunday the 18th through Friday the 23rd. It was a week-long camp with 69 Junior High Schoolers. J.E.M. is a Junior High leadership camp. We spend the week working with selected youth from local churches. This year's theme was Discipleship: Living the Life. Youth for this camp must be recommended by a pastor or youth leader. This is not a "ya'll come" camp. It is designed to take prospective youth from a local church, provide them training in areas of ministry, and send them back to their church to take active leadership roles.
Youth are today's church. Many "old" folks in the church consider the youth the future. So that leads to spending money on entertaining the "young'uns" until they grow up. Well folks, there are a slew of "young'uns" who are poised and ready to be active in the church right now. They want to do things. They want to serve on committees (some of you old folks run when it's nominations time). They want to worship in Spirit and truth, not just entertained. They want depth to their spiritual walk and want to know why we do what we do. They are ready to be actively involved. If the "old" folks don't open up and let them get started in being the church, they will find somewhere else to go. And those Mommas and Daddies that will do anything for their kids will take them to that place.
The second camp was Cub Scout Day camp with my son. I was a Walking Leader with his Pack. This means that two other adults and I walked with the 14 scouts from one activity to another, helping them with the activities. The boys had a blast. The adults, well I, had fun also. It was really fun to watch the boys do things. I was also the driver of one of the vehicles to get the boys to camp. I had 4 with me on the way down and 5 on the way back. I discovered very quickly that I don't get 6,7, and 8 year old boys. I don't get the way they talk or the way they interact. I get almost every other age group. But I don't get those boys.
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