Why can't church be like camp?
This Sunday thru Friday morning I am going with a group of teens and adult shepherds from LCC to youth camp at Mount Lebanon in Cedar Hill, Texas.
It will be hot. It may rain on us a couple of days. We will be blessed if the A/C unit is cranking enough to keep the room cool. We won’t get much sleep. There will be incredible emotional ups and downs. New friendships will be made and old ones will grow stronger. People will meet God for the first time. Others will get closer to God than they have ever been before. There will be around 1300 of us in a room with terrible acoustics and hard metal chairs having incredible times of worship a couple of times a day all week long. We will have some very personal and honest share times within our own group. Our adult shepherds will get as much or more out of their time with God and the teens as the students.
At the beginning of the week there will be cliques. Within a couple of days, we will become God’s family. As God starts to move we will come to the realization that it doesn’t matter how much money one makes, what sport one plays, or the color of one’s skin. It won’t matter if one is an artist, a jock, an introvert or an extrovert. It will not matter your denomination or what church you attend.
During this week of camp, selfish people will become servants, prideful people will become humble, mean people will be loving, hard people will soften, those who mourn will be comforted, tough people will become gentle, and spiritually hungry people will be fed.
At least for a week, hurt people will feel loved, shy people will come out of their shells, anxious people will find peace, angry people will love others and receive love, unforgiven people will be forgiven, bitter people will forgive, and the guilty will experience God’s grace.
We will have more fun than we can stand. People will wish it were always like this. A couple of years ago, I was riding with a student in a cart on the day before we left to come back “to the real world”. She said, “I wish we could stay. I wish when we got home it would be like this.” I responded, “Be like what?” She said, “Where everyone loves and cares for each other.”
If you have never had this kind of experience it may be hard to understand. Now you know why I love camp and it is important to take as many soon to be adult teens as possible each year. It can be life-changing and life-altering.
The apostle Paul wrote that if we want to have this kind of unity as Christ-followers in the real world, if we want the church to be like camp, we have to focus on Christ. We have to focus on having the same attitude of humility as our Lord and Savior.
Paul wrote: Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Phil 2:3-8 NLT
This Sunday I will continue teaching a series called “EPIC Joy “ from the book of Philippians, Ch. 2:1-11.
We will pray for our students and shepherds and they will leave for camp around 1:00-1:30pm and be back by noon on Friday.....
Join us Sunday and bring a friend.....Nine out of ten people who do not attend church say they would go if a friend asked them.
It will be hot. It may rain on us a couple of days. We will be blessed if the A/C unit is cranking enough to keep the room cool. We won’t get much sleep. There will be incredible emotional ups and downs. New friendships will be made and old ones will grow stronger. People will meet God for the first time. Others will get closer to God than they have ever been before. There will be around 1300 of us in a room with terrible acoustics and hard metal chairs having incredible times of worship a couple of times a day all week long. We will have some very personal and honest share times within our own group. Our adult shepherds will get as much or more out of their time with God and the teens as the students.
At the beginning of the week there will be cliques. Within a couple of days, we will become God’s family. As God starts to move we will come to the realization that it doesn’t matter how much money one makes, what sport one plays, or the color of one’s skin. It won’t matter if one is an artist, a jock, an introvert or an extrovert. It will not matter your denomination or what church you attend.
During this week of camp, selfish people will become servants, prideful people will become humble, mean people will be loving, hard people will soften, those who mourn will be comforted, tough people will become gentle, and spiritually hungry people will be fed.
At least for a week, hurt people will feel loved, shy people will come out of their shells, anxious people will find peace, angry people will love others and receive love, unforgiven people will be forgiven, bitter people will forgive, and the guilty will experience God’s grace.
We will have more fun than we can stand. People will wish it were always like this. A couple of years ago, I was riding with a student in a cart on the day before we left to come back “to the real world”. She said, “I wish we could stay. I wish when we got home it would be like this.” I responded, “Be like what?” She said, “Where everyone loves and cares for each other.”
If you have never had this kind of experience it may be hard to understand. Now you know why I love camp and it is important to take as many soon to be adult teens as possible each year. It can be life-changing and life-altering.
The apostle Paul wrote that if we want to have this kind of unity as Christ-followers in the real world, if we want the church to be like camp, we have to focus on Christ. We have to focus on having the same attitude of humility as our Lord and Savior.
Paul wrote: Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Phil 2:3-8 NLT
This Sunday I will continue teaching a series called “EPIC Joy “ from the book of Philippians, Ch. 2:1-11.
We will pray for our students and shepherds and they will leave for camp around 1:00-1:30pm and be back by noon on Friday.....
Join us Sunday and bring a friend.....Nine out of ten people who do not attend church say they would go if a friend asked them.
posted by Royal | 9:44 AM
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