2008 Summer Camp Recap

We just got back from Student Life Camp at Daytona Beach, FL, and it was an AMAZING experience! Here are a few things that stuck out to me the most:

-Last week was the fastest week of my life! I could have sworn we skipped a day or something.

-Stopping every 2 hours (or less) on an 8 hour drive extends the travel time quite a bit!

-Sam has a bull-ring piercing through his nose. As we stopped for lunch, I jokingly said it would be funny if someone put a straw through his nose and drank out of it. A few seconds later….Cody took me seriously.

-Since (I thought) we were staying in a hotel with kitchens, we planned on fixing lunch and dinner each day. The only minor catch was that this hotel didn’t have any full kitchens. No wonder they looked at us funny when we brought in all of our pots and pans. Anyway, we smuggled in a hot plate and worked some miracles just short of 5 loaves and 2 fish. Thank you Barbara, Kelly, and Publix for making it happen!

-Louie Giglio straight up brought it! I’ve heard Louie speak literally hundreds of times, but I’ve never heard him be so direct on on point. All 33 of our students and leaders were in awe of God after each session.

-3 of our students stood up and made public decisions for Jesus!!!!

-Chris Tomlin was rockin’! He has always been one of my favorite worship leaders because of his passion, heart, and authenticity. His songs “Sing, Sing, Sing” and “Jesus Messiah” are unbelievable!

-Worshiping with 6500 teenagers is an unforgettable experience. Seeing students with hands raised, neck veins popping, and weeping is incredibly moving.

-I hate the “We love Jesus yes we do” chant. Our group responds, “We love cheese puffs yes we do…”

-Daytona Beach is officially the most humid place on planet earth!

-Lifepoint students are amazing! It’s going to be scary to see how they point their friends to life in Jesus this year! They are ALL on mission!

-It never gets old seeing teenagers come to life in Jesus. We had several let go of anger, depression, insecurity, fear, self doubt, and sadness. I’ve already heard stories of our students telling their friends and families about what God did in their lives this week.

These are just a few, quick highlights. Later this week, I’m going to post some of Louie’s notes that really challenged me and our students.

a good reminder of why I do what I do

I was challenged by what Greg Surrat taught us at the ARC conference a few weeks ago. While Greg was doing some intense searching and listening to God, he sensed God’s leading to give people a chance to respond to Him during their Sunday morning services at Seacoast Church. A few weeks later, Greg implemented 4 ways people could respond to God: lighting a candle, writing out confessions and pinning them on a cross, taking communion, and/or praying with someone.

I decided to try some of these different elements out during the past two Ignite services. And, the response was amazing! Students could light a candle to represent 1). They were turning from darkness into the light, 2). They are committing to being a light for Jesus during the last month of school, and/or 3). They were praying for a friend to know Jesus.

Students could also write out a confession or a prayer and pin it to the cross. I didn’t really go into much detail about this particular element, but the response was humbling. Here are just a few of the things they wrote:

• “IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR. I WON’T LET IT GET ME AGAIN. I LIVE FOR YOU!”
• “I don’t know how to show Jesus to the world because no one likes me and they all call me annoying and ugly. I’ve tried to settle down & I tried to ignore people but it keeps getting louder and louder. I am so lost. I thought I knew where I was but now I don’t. I need one physical friend. God, I am so lost please help me!”
• “God I’ve just not been on the right road that you want me to take, and I want to change that tonight. So please help me shine a light.”
• “I haven’t seen my mom in 2 months and I’m worried.”
• “God you have blessed me and my family beyond my wildest imagination, and yet I still sin against you, and you still continue to love me the same. I pray that I may do the same thing for people that have wronged me.”
• “I’m tired of trying to make people proud, to make people love me, to make anyone want to be in my life. I don’t need my parents, they don’t know me, they aren’t a part of my life. I put too much into people, they never give back. What can I do? Why should I care about them? But I do. I know who I am and I know my flaws all too well. I need some sort of comfort. I don’t want anyone else.”

I wish I could share all of them with you. Some are very encouraging, and others are absolutely heartbreaking. Please keep Ignite in your prayers so that we will be a light for Jesus as we reach teenagers in the Wilmington area!

ARC Conference

I just got back from my first trip to the ARC Conference in Birmingham, AL. I went into the trip with not knowing what to expect, but came away blessed, encouraged, and better equipped to reach students in Wilmington! I wanted to list each speaker and write one or two things they said that resonated with me:

• Chris Hodge (Church of the Highlands, Birmingham, AL):: Anytime you try and take territory for Jesus, there will be a fight on your hands. Satan takes this very personally. When you snatch people out of hell, Satan takes offense. When we take new territory, there are 5 Kings we’ll have to defeat: 1). The King of Demonic Attack, 2). The King of Rejection, 3). The King of Loneliness, 4). The King of Temptation, 5). The King of Discouragement.

• Greg Surratt (Seacoast Church, Charleston, SC):: In a recent survey of unchurched people, they were asked what would attract them to church, and the #1 response was to be able to “experience” God. Every Sunday, attenders of Seacoast have a chance to experience God by nailing sins to a cross, lighting a candle to let the light of Christ in their life, and take communion. Greg asked us, “In your church, where do people encounter God?”

• Dino Rizzo (Healing Place Church, Baton Rouge, LA):: Four things that a church must always be about: 4). Have relational-servanthood leadership, 3). Acknowledge and honor when others are doing great things, 2). Protect our personal passion and intimacy with Jesus, 1). Enjoy our life–ALL OF IT!

• Brian Houston-session 1 (Hillsong Church, Sydney, Australia):: When we move forward to what God has in our future, we have to go through and past the once-upon-a-times. If you want to reach young people, you have to have a youthful spirit. When you become older, you lose your sight and hearing. A sign of becoming spiritually old is you don’t see and hear God like you use to. Don’t just be young while you’re young, but decide to stay young and have a youthful spirit (like Moses).

• Brian Houston- session 2:: 1). What do you have in your hand?- In the Old Testament, the hand was related to authority (Moses’ staff). God can take what’s in our hand, and give us authority. 2). What do you have in your house?- What area do you have the greatest need? What’s in your house that you can use? Leaders are often blinded to whats in their house because we only focus on what we don’t have. Great churches aren’t built on the gifts and talents of few, they are built on the sacrifices of many. 3) What do you have in your sphere?- What can you use to make a difference? In terms of influence, we underestimate how God can use what’s in our sphere.

To read more in depth notes from each session, check out Jeff’ blog.

Unleashed::Pt. 2

The Unleashed conference was awesome!  Perry and the rest of the NewSpring gang did an amazing job of encouraging, equipping, and challenging church leaders from all over the place.  If you haven’t heard Perry preach, you need to stop what you’re doing and go watch one of his messages online!  He has a way of saying things unlike any other person I’ve ever met.  Here are a few of his Perry-isms:

• “I believe in gun control.  If you break in my house and I have a gun, I’m going to control you.”
• “Jesus is saying, ‘If you’re not going to use the church, I’d like to have it back and give it to somebody who acts with urgency.’”
• “God doesn’t care who wins the election!  He has the trump card.”
• “People say to me all the time, I wish I could say what you say.  Why can’t you?  If God put it in your heart, say it!  If you don’t, you’re not a prophet of God, but a prostitute of the church.”
• “If you’re not offending someone,  you’re not preaching the gospel.”
• “I made a 790 on my SAT.  Was that on the verbal or the math?  NO, that was it!”
• “I don’t do snakes…  If you think it’ll be funny to come and throw a snake on me, I’ll introduce you to Jesus.  You’ll walk into heaven with your throat ripped out, and they’ll say, ‘You threw a snake at Perry.’”

NewSpring, thanks for taking your time, energy, and money to invest in other churches, and for truly understanding we are all on the same team!

Unleashed::Pt. 1

The Unleashed Conference at NewSpring is going awesome! As of now, it’s only halfway over and my brain has already taken in more than it can handle. (No mean comments please). Even the drive up here with Brad yesterday was a great! Here are a few of the adventures:

• This is technically before the trip, but I won this week’s contest of Lifepoint Biggest Loser.
• Chick-fil-A was giving away free chicken-minis! Because of the Biggest Loser challenge and my hardcore devotion, I didn’t partake, but I was stoked vicariously through Brad.
• Shortly after South of the Border, we rolled by an 18 wheeler that had been pulled by 5 or 6 cops. The back doors of the trailer were open, but there wasn’t anything inside. As we got closer, we saw several what seemed to be illegal immigrants standing around. That is the first time I’ve ever seen a smuggling immigrants bust!
• I met up with Drew Powell at a coffee shop in Anderson (which paled in comparison to Port City Java). We headed into the Bloom to grab a snack, and I spotted raw cut sugar canes that were about 6 feet long. Drew bought one ($3.00), grabbed his pocket knife, and widdled the bark off a 3 inch section, and began gnawing on that thing like a dog on a bone. It was a classic moment.
• The student meeting at NewSpring was off the chain! They opened up with a live version of Jesus Walks by Kanye, Brad Cooper spoke and knocked the ball out of the park, Daniel and the band rocked some Hillsong songs, and then they broke up into small groups. We tried to leave after the meeting, but Jeff had my car. Brad and I felt like middle schoolers waiting to be picked up from school. But, the other student pastor Alden, threw me his keys and said, “Just take my car man. I’ll come get it at the hotel later.” I love that guy.
• Finally at dinner, we were eating at a pretty nice place in Anderson called Tuckers. Why we were waiting for our check, there was this scurry of motion at the bar area. I jumped up on my seat to see over the divider, and that’s where I saw my first ever bar fight. I felt like I was officially in Anderson, SC!

That’s it for now. More to come later on the Unleashed conference!