Home again then gone...

Back from camp! I'm not going to lie - the following sentence will be as truthful as I will be about any subject in my entire life and will include no falsehoods - camp was awesome. For those of you that didn't go, it would be very difficult for me to encapsulate in words what it was like. The food was pretty terrible, but the company was great, and God moved in student's lives. He really did.

Over the next weeks at The Creek and on this blog I'm sure I will share some of my experiences, but I'll leave you with this thought: if God can move in people's hearts and lives in such a powerful and incredible way at a camp, he can do it here too. He can do it here! No doubt, no question and no reservations...he can do it here! My prayer is that each of us that went this week will bring back the spark that God ignited in our hearts at camp.

I'll tell you this though, I am SUPER tired and MEGA sore. My bed got saran wrapped twice - once with me in it and once when I was gone, and I got hugged so many times I feel like I was in the ultimate fighting championship. It was a great week. Plan on going next year.

But alas, I am leaving tomorrow for a week of vacation in my hometown of Bloomington-Normal, IL. Dan Harris and Dan Taylor are holding things down for me. They are very nice boys. Here and gone...

Seeds, Weeds and Killer Birds

It's 5:30 on Wednesday evening. There is a wet spot on the back of your shorts, not because you can't control your bladder, but because the back of your thighs are so sweaty from sitting on the couch all day that your perspiration has soaked right through. You are probably having a conversation in your head that goes something like this:

Wow it's 5:30...what did I do today?
You watched reruns of Full House all day.
That's not all I did. I took a shower.
No, that was yesterday.
Oh yeah. I did make lunch for myself.
A pudding snack pack is not lunch. Nor would it qualify as making something.
Tell that to the starving kids in Africa.

This is not the best you can do this summer. Wednesday night is your night to find out what you are here for. It is your night to find out who God is and what you mean to him. It is your night to come to The Creek. Peel yourself off the wet spot on your couch and show up.

We just started a new series called Seeds, Weeds and Killer Birds looking at what the Bible says about how we respond to God's word and how he want us to. Don't miss this week!

Camp!

We go to camp next Monday! I’m pretty excited. I was the total camp nerd when I was a teenager. Of course, my idea of camp is sleeping in twin bed in an air conditioned dorm room and having services in a clean, well lit auditorium that has comfortable cushioned chairs. I’ve never been to Missouri camp, so all my dreams may not come true, but I am very excited about throwing dodgeballs at Dan Harris’ head as hard as I can. That is one item that I KNOW will be on my camp agenda.

I do really hope that the campground has a good bug guy because I don’t want to deal with spiders in my room. I HATE SPIDERS! Indiana Jones hates snakes, and I hate spiders. This is total rambling, but I mowed my yard yesterday and spiders were running everywhere. Disgusting. How did I go from being excited about camp to herding spiders in my back yard?

I'm Sorry

I used to play in a band professionally. Back then it was the show that mattered – nothing else. The sound check, the t-shirts and stickers, the miles and miles of travel…they were a part of it, but it was 45 minutes of stage time that mattered. Being a youth pastor, it is hard sometimes for me to separate that mentality from what I am doing in ministry. It is easy for me to get so involved in the details of The Creek service that I forget the real reason we have it: people. You guys are the reason we have The Creek. It is not so that you can be entertained with the best music and light show ever. It is not so that we can all laugh at someone doing a game that makes them look really stupid (although I do love that). The Creek exists so that students can know God. That’s it.

If I have walked past you on my way to fix a problem with the sound, I’m sorry. If I didn’t talk to you when you needed me to because I was scrambling to get service started on time, I’m sorry. If I didn’t show you the love of Christ because I was worried about things going wrong, I’m sorry. The show doesn’t matter…you do. I love you and shame on me if I show you what’s on my mind instead of what’s on my heart.

The good news is that even though I may fail, God’s love never does. He is always there. Psalm 118 says it best, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” His love never fails, never lets us down and never ceases. He is there every second of every hour, night and day. I want to be like that. I hope you do too.

Jr. High

We have our big Jr. High Mini Golf Extravaganza coming this Friday. I’m really looking forward to it. I love Jr. highers because I can mold them and shape them to my will like warm play-dough. Actually, I like Jr. highers because they can’t punch as hard as high schoolers. Ok, that’s not totally true either. I like them because they can fit into the small spaces of my house that I can’t clean because I’m too big and muscular to reach in there.

Jr. highers are just plain cool. I’m excited about seeing a new group of them coming up this fall. With their extreme youth and my extreme old age (23 years or so) we can show those snobby high schoolers what being awesome is really all about.