The challenge I gave to my guys tonight was simple:

- Get into a small group if you’re not in one already
- If you’re in a small group already, take what you learned tonight and make it happen in your own small group

Tonight was amazing! I’ve wanted my small group students to open up, build trust, challenge each other spiritually and become great friends. Tonight they got to see a group that’s already doing it.

I asked Matt if we could combine our groups tonight so I could learn how he leads his group and my guys could see what small groups ideally operate. We weren’t disappointed.

Within couple of hours after cabin time, 4 campers asked if they could join my small group in the Fall. I also have four current small group students in my cabin who now want to take our small group to a deeper level.

Next year’s small group has new-found potential. I’m anxious to get started. Hopefully, this summer I’ll be able to lay more groundwork to solidify the improvements.

Hopefully this experience will help other camp counselors push students toward small groups as the next step of spiritual growth and accountability after camp.

Our summer camp is being held on a college campus undergoing major renovation. Large potions of the campus are barricaded construction sites.

Tonight for our cabin time, I used this to our advantage by making the following points:

- When I visited this college a few years ago, it was great. I didn’t see any need for improvement
- Somebody apparently had an idea to improve the campus. They’ve torn out some things that weren’t bad to make some improvements. They likely took out some things that weren’t good, as well
- God wants to do the same in your lives this week
- He might want to tear down something in your life that isn’t bad to make room for something new that he wants to do
- He likely wants to take some things out of your life that you know aren’t pleasing to him and are holding you back
- Go off on your own and pray that God would show you what these things are
- When I called them back together, I gave them an opportunity to share. Each one did, but didn’t have to
- We closed with a time of prayer. Most prayed, some chose not to
- For the 2nd night of camp, this was a good result. I prepped them for tomorrow night by saying that the sharing will probably get more personal and detailed as the week goes on

I share this on my blog to help newbie volunteers have an idea of what they might want to do for cabin sharing time.

Key points:

- Don’t talk very much, but provide an atmosphere and prompts that will cause the students to want to share
- Allow them some solo time to think, pray and process – trying to go from 0 to deep discussion in under 60 seconds is ripe for feeling like you’re an inadequate leader and causing your students to clam up
- Don’t force sharing and don’t be afraid or intimidated by silence. Students will share if you give them time to decide what they want to say and build up the nerve to say it

For the first night of cabin time, we kept the discussion focused on getting to know each other. However, I did give them these challenges:

- Have the most fun you possibly can. Become like a child, not holding back
- Approach the week with a childlike curiosity and faith. No matter where you stand on your belief in God or your relationship to him, keep an open mind for what he’ll want to show you

Doug Fields shares about when life goes off script, what choices we have and the benefits/drawbacks of those choices. Great message!

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Tonight I finished a series with my small group students. My goal has been to make their faith a central part of their home lives, even if their parents weren’t doing it themselves. The method of choice for of our final lesson was to put their sin side-by-side with their praise so they could see the need for God in every part of their lives. They cannot hope to make Christ central in their home life if they don’t allow Him into every aspect of their lives.

We started with these verses:

Proverbs 6:16-19 (MSG)
16 Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: 17 eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, 18 a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, 19 a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.

They had an especially strong reaction to the phrase “a troublemaker in the family”. I loved seeing the conviction starting to set in.

After reading the verses, I gave each student a piece of paper and a pen. I told them this sheet was only for them and I never needed to see it. I asked them to write what is in their lives that they knew God does not like. I gave them a minute to write and think. None of them wrote much, but the point was to get them thinking about what they knew they were doing outside of God’s boundaries.

I asked them to think about their list as I played a worship song. My hope was that their worldly life and spiritual lives would collide a bit. The point was to get them to come to grips with how they/we compartmentalize God out of our lives. The same God we praise gets treated like a friend we avoid when our cooler friends are around. I told them it shouldn’t be like this.

These are the next verses I read to drive the point home:

James 3:7-12 (NLT)
7 People can tame all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Can you pick olives from a fig tree or figs from a grapevine? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool.

My final point of the night was that if they are ever going to have the spiritual lives they desire, a few things need to happen:

1. They need to quit shutting God out of certain parts of their lives
2. When they feel the urge to do something God hates, to check where their focus is. They can refocus on God through worship
3. Think about this problem as they go home. Let it bother them so they’ll take action. Either they’ll choose to make God the center of their lives or they’ll quit pretending that he is – no more living lukewarm lives
4. To get God into the culture of their homes, they need to allow him into every area of their lives

I don’t usually get that bold with my students. However, it’s important to jar them out of complacency ever so often. I’ve seen lackluster spiritual commitments in them. Hopefully these challenges will move them to take action.

The basis for this study is that Proverbs is written from a dad to his son. This book full of great advice, wisdom and direction for life. Many of our homes are missing that today. We’re so busy keeping up with life and trying to bring it under control that we lose this most important part of home life. Rather than have a Christ-centered home, Christianity is compartmentalized into a Sunday event. My goal is to get my students to bring Christ into the culture of their family’s daily life.

This week we focused on Proverbs 4:18-19, “The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like complete darkness. Those who follow it have no idea what they are stumbling over.”

This dad is painting a picture of what life is like with and without God. How many dads are doing that today? How much better would life be if we had spiritual guidance coming from every parent to every child? I firmly believe having this would put God in his rightful place in our homes, but also alleviate a lot of stress from our daily lives.

My closing thought for the study was, “If we aren’t close to God as a family, it’s not because God doesn’t want to be close to us. It’s because we’re not taking the opportunity.” I challenged them to find a way to bring Christ into the daily lives of their families. I told them, “Don’t think that just because you’re not the parent that you can’t. If you want it in your home, begin to make it happen.”

Who’s Your Daddy?, part 1

Our students made this video for last weekend’s service. They led the service from start to finish. It’s so great what students are capable of when we release them to excel. They still get a little guidance, but all of the work is done by them.

This week and next week I’m taking my guys through Proverbs chapter 4. We’re looking as much at the relationship behind the verses as we are the verses themselves. My goal is to get them to initiate spiritual dialog in their homes if there isn’t any and embrace it if there is. I hope to help them see the need to have a father figure/home life that welcomes a collective focus on God. In the process, I hope they see the need for having a mentor (their dads or another caring adult) who will help them become the men God designed them to be.

Here’s an idea of what we did this week:

Questions I’m asking:
- What is the spiritual temperature of your home?
- Do each of you do your own thing spiritually or does your dad play a part in your spiritual growth? (focusing on father/son relationships)
- What do these verses expose about the relationship between the author and his son?
- Is the dad preaching at his son or guiding him as a caring parent?
- What goal does this dad have for his son?
- Do you have a dad or father figure who is helping you develop spiritually in a mentor-type relationship?
–You need one!
– I can do it or somebody else can, but you need to take initiative to seek out a person who will mentor you in your spiritual development

Personal Testimony:
- When I was 12 I decided what kind of person I wanted to be by the time I turned 25
- I immediately started taking steps to develop those traits

Challenge:
- Decide who you want to be and how you want people to see you/interact with you
- Start down the road today
- If you wait until then, you won’t be able to flip a switch and suddenly be that person, it takes a long time

Follow up:
- For me, a center piece of the journey was completely dedicating myself to Christ
- I made major life changes – including who I was at home – which was awkward, but essential
- I didn’t have the dad to mentor me so I learned as much as I could from other men in my church
– It was a huge help in becoming the person I knew God wanted me to be

Who’s Your Daddy?, part 2

This was originally posted April 30, 2009. A student watched these videos last week and said they really made her think. I thought I’d bring them to the front of the blog so new readers would get some use out of them, too.

Last night I invited my friend Alex who is an Atheist to the high school Bible study I teach. We videotaped the event to show other youth workers what we’re up to. I believe this illustrates a missing link to our outreach programs. If we can talk to non-Christians, we’ll have a better idea how to reach them.

The purpose of this interview was to help students understand how Christians are perceived by non-Christians and what we can do about it. The purpose was not to have an in-depth discussion about Atheism, although the topic was addressed by some of the questions from students. For some great videos about Christianity vs Atheism, click here. This link will take you to some lectures taped at Saddleback Church on September 5 & 6, 2009 by leading teachers on the subject.

Click here for a list of questions I asked Alex. The sections are numbered. Each video has a corresponding number next to the video number to indicate which section’s questions that video answers.

I highly recommend doing something like this in other ministries. The goal of the night was to help students understand how non-Christians view the Christian world. My hope was to help them become aware of how we can be more sensitive and effective. We do this by being intentional about the Christ-like image we project to our non-Christian friends.

Two things I will do differently for my next interview: 1. Write the questions on cue cards. It was too difficult to read them on my iPhone without glasses, 2. Use a video camera that can plug into a wall. We lost a few great minutes at the end of video 9. The good news is that we got 99% of the interview and wrap-up/challenge.

My friend Josh Pease wrote a blog tonight about this same topic of being sensitive about the approach we take when reaching out to non-Christians. Click here to read it. He has some great food for thought.