Top Ten Reasons Students Should Go to Summer Camp

10. Outrageous Competitions
     The games we play at Summer Camp are just ridiculous. Epic on a scale that is impossible at home...therefore, you should go to camp!


9. Hone Your Paddling Skills...
     C'mon, who doesn't like canoeing! 


8. "Luxury" Dormitories
     We do summer camp in style in scenic Forsyth, GA. Seated in a former cow pasture, Camp Timberlake is resplendent with wildlife and nature and all the comforts of home. (If 40 people sleep in your bedroom that is.)


7. Sanctioned Stupidity
     Let's be honest, some of the things we do at camp are stupid. Mud Fights, Grits Wrestling, Bobbing For Apples in Baked Beans, Fishing Baby Ruth's out of Mountain Dew, etc. The great part about summer camp is that it's supervised by competent leaders at all times who know just when to call it off. (BONUS FOR PARENTS, your students don't have to do crazy messy things on your property!)


6. "Gourmet Food"
     The discerning palate will be treated to a culinary master class that features a light dough topped with a tomato based sauce and a sausage-like meat topping (pizza) as well as French classics such as chien de maïs. (Copy and Paste that into freetranslation.com to get the answer)


5. Disconnection from the Outside World
     The world of kids and students is packed with distractions: media and entertainment that are constantly begging for our attention. One of the greatest parts of Summer Camp is pulling the plug on those things for a week and resetting your brain.


4. (Non-Romantic) Relationships that Last a Lifetime
     I know that some of my most meaningful friendships were forged at Summer Camp. And the advent of social media like Twitter and Facebook only makes it easier to stay connected and keep up with your new buddies!


3. Awesome Worship!
     The worship is excellent at camp every year and this year will be no different. The great thing about worship at camp is that there is no schedule or agenda. If service gets over at 11, 12, or 1 doesn't matter as long as we've had as much time as we need to seek the face of God.


2. Intense Encounters With God
     I can't quantify it, but there is something special about that patch of red dirt we go to every year for camp. Maybe it's the disconnection from concerns and distractions at home, maybe it's the camaraderie, maybe it's the atmosphere of worship over the whole campus, but God shows up at summer camp. I can tell you the names of numerous ministers and missionaries (myself included) who were called into ministry at the altar in summer camp. The numbers of those who have received salvation and have been filled with the Holy Spirit are off the charts. It will change your life.


1. What Happens at Camp DOESN'T Stay at Camp
     The change that the Holy Spirit stirs in your life at summer camp doesn't (or at least shouldn't) evaporate when you catch the bus ride home. It lingers. It stays with you. It empowers you to continue to reach lost people in your local community and around the world.




Like I said, you should go to camp!


     If you're part of UpRising at Evangel Community Church we're going to camp the week of June 11th-15th. You can get an application at the information center or on Wednesday nights. The cost is $145 and is due on May 28th. If you're reading this and you aren't part of our ministry in Georgia, check here for info on GA Summer Camps! Can't wait to see you there!

The Energizer

     I am a youth pastor. One of the privileges and dubious honors of youth ministry is over-nighters and lock-ins. A “more seasoned” minister than myself once told me that each lock-in takes one year of a youth pastor’s life. I’m beginning to come around to his point of view. Last weekend my students, some of my leaders, and myself played laser tag from 11:30pm to 7:00am with maybe 2 minute breaks between rounds. It was exhausting, but it was tons of fun and probably one of the best lock-ins ever.

Who do you depend on to give you more life?

     Over the course of the night we played a variety of games like Elimination, Capture the Flag, and Royal Rumble. The variety kept it fun and made the night go by super fast. One game we played was particularly interesting. It was called “Energizer.”

Here are the rules: 

1. Each player starts with 25 lives and 100 shots.

2. One player is the “Energizer.” This player shoots his own team
mates. Each time he hits a team mate they get +25 lives and +100
shots.

3. OBJECT: Stay alive, defend your energizer, and destroy the enemy’s energizer.

     I was the energizer. Let me just go ahead and say…it was stressful. “Pastor Justin I need more lives!” PJ, help I’m out of shots!” “Pastor, I need help!” It was like that scene from Bruce Almighty where a divine Jim Carey is overwhelmed by prayers and pleas for help. (Maybe I didn’t have the weight of the world on me, but at 3:00am it was certainly stressful).

      Students, one of the real blessings of life as a youth pastor is being there for students who have hit a spiritual stall or roadblock. We YP’s work very hard to cultivate real relationships with our students so that you will come to us in your times of spiritual need. People, parents and students, often say thank you after they have navigated through a difficult time and my frequent response is, “It’s what I do.” I promise I don’t say that flippantly! That is not my Schwarzenegger one liner; it’s my view on what God created me to do. So to the students who are reading this, from my church or not: Talk to your Youth Pastor. He or She wants to help you, to pray with you, and love you through the tough times of life. That said we have a second job as well.

     Colossians is a book of the Bible that is really a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Colosse. He wrote them many things about how to live and he gave them many words of encouragement. Then he finishes his letter with this statement:

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. (Col. 4:12)
     You see Epaphras was the man who had founded the Colossian church. He planted it and watched it grow and his prayer wasn’t that his church would grow, but that the believers created by it would be mature and fully assured. Another important task of the Youth Pastor is to get you ready to spiritually take care of yourself. Students, there is going to come a day when your Youth Pastor can’t be your Energizer for your dwindling faith. You will reach a point of no return where you can’t fall back on that person anymore or it won’t be enough. Ask yourself if you treat your Wednesday night youth service like life support for your faith. You come in dead and expect the worship band and your pastor to rub the paddles together, yell “Clear!”, and shock you back into faith in Jesus. That only works for so long before you flatline.

     Students, I want you to know that today, I’m pledging to renew my efforts for you in prayer. I will “wrestle” for you in prayer. I will pray that you will not need to fall back on someone else to give you a spiritual booster shot so that you can keep on living, but will, “stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I hope you will renew your efforts to grow up big and strong…in Jesus.

On Genuine Worship-Guest Post

     My first guest post today from my friend, keyboard player, and token Jesus Hippie MacKenzie McKay. He's a huge part of my worship team and he's got a real heart to grow as a musician and closer to the Lord. When you're a member of the worship team week in and week out like he is you can get jaded and comfortable in your worship and your leading. He wrote this about staying genuinely connected with the Father and the effect it has on your worship leading.

     "So the other day someone made the comment to me that my piano playing has really improved in the last couple of weeks. My immediate response is that I had finally become a little more comfortable and relaxed while playing. I was sitting there thinking and that really wasn't the answer. I have been playing piano for years in front of large groups of people. My anxieties and worries about messing up died a long time ago, hundreds if not thousand of mistakes before. So I looked a little at myself in that moment. Why had my playing become noticably better within the last couple of weeks?

     I began thinking, and after I had put aside the idea that I had significantly grown as a piano player, I made a realization. I remember during times of worship that I wasn't playing the music or "for the set" anymore. I remember thinking during those times that I hoped God liked my playing. I wanted to make my playing an offering to Him. I still care about how it sounds and whether it fits, but I care about that less in the forefront and more in the background. My goal while playing is that, while worshiping, is that I might be able to get a smile from God, an eyes closed moment. Where maybe, just maybe, I can come up with something new and creative as a gift back to Him who has given me so much.

     I got this picture in my mind last year at camp that worship to God is like when a little girl goes up to her Dad and starts singing the "I Love You Song." The amelodious, out of key song, that to any other person for any other reason would seem mildly screeching and cacophonic, but to that Dad at that moment in time it becomes one of the sweetest sounds he has ever heard in his life and it draws him to pick up his child and wrap her in his arms just to show how much that moment meant and will mean to him. That's genuine worship. A sound that to any other may mean nothing, but to our Father it is the sweetest sound because he knows that we mean it from the bottom of our heart."

Word to Your Drummer...

     I've been leading worship since I was 14. I started with just me and my acoustic guitar. I knew three songs: Light the Fire, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Take My Life. (I might have known, Every Move I Make too...remember "waves of mercy, waves of grace" and you had to do the motions!) By the time I learned some new songs the entire youth group never wanted to hear those three again. Eventually we were able to step up to guitar and bass and then drums. The drums were an amazing blessing and a tremendous burden on me as a worship leader. They added so much to the sound. It really felt like live music. But, the drummers who volunteer to play drums at the local student ministry aren't always the greatest. Long story short: We sang fast songs too slow and slow songs too fast...it was rough.

     If you're a worship drummer or a worship leader for your youth ministry you need to understand that you are both vital parts of the worship team. Drummers could stand to learn that dynamics are important and that you shouldn't use the double-bass pedal on How Great Thou Art. Worship leaders need to learn that (I can say this as a worship leader) you are just not as great as you think you are and making pops and clicks with your mouth might not suffice to explain the beat to your drummer.

     SO, in love. I hope both worship leaders and worship band drummers will watch this video. It's a great resource that our National Fine Arts director Rod Whitlock and an awesome drummer named Josh Little put out to help drummers understand some of the skills it takes to play and flow in a worship service. If you're a drummer check it out so you can get better. If you're a worship leader check it out so that you will better understand how to form beats yourself and so that you can help your drummer not just stare at them or tell them to play quieter.

Check out the video here: http://finearts.ag.org/resources.cfm


Remember these Classics?:

     -Note the period correct powerpoint slides including Magical Flying Letters, Purple Gradient, and (my personal favorite) Random Nature Scene