Campfire

Last week I was at camp, and I had the privilege of speaking at campfire each night. The theme of the week was Look Up and the verse was Colossians 3:1. To go with the theme, we watched the movie UP, which has become a favorite of mine. The evening speaker spoke on Christ's word, way, worship, work, and witness. I connected my talks to his each day, but I spoke from Philippians 4:8-9. I connected this to Russell's character from the movie since he was a "scout" and scouts have a law, I taught that we have characteristics that we are trying to live up to. So, just to give you a taste of what I taught about here's my main idea for each night and a scripture to go with it:

Sunday Night: Whatever is True - The Truth will set you free from the lies of the enemy, John 8:31-47
Monday Night: Whatever is Right - Righteousness is not just about avoiding sin, it’s all about what is instead right, Matthew 25:31-46
Tuesday Night: Whatever is Pure - Purity of Heart leads to real righteousness and worship, Matthew 15:1-20
Wednesday Night: Whatever is Noble - Nobility in God’s kingdom is based on humility and not pride, Luke 14:7-14
Thursday Night: Whatever is Lovely and Admirable - Those who are admirable and compelling are worthy of following, Philippians 4:9, 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

This is what I taught about each night, and I am so thankful that I was apart of this week. At the end of the week, 6 campers were baptized. This happened not because of my teaching or someone else's, but because God started working in the lives of the students at camp. I thank God for this week of camp and my chance to participate in how he work in the lives of that campers.

Learning from the past

Like I said in a previous blog, I've been teaching a class with a friend on the "History of Christian Spiritual Practices" which is a long way to say how spiritual disciplines where practiced in different parts of history. It was fun to explore history, and this week, I taught my last class on historical matters (I'm teaching one more, but it's on present day).

I have gained a deeper appreciation for those who have gone before in the faith.  I had the chance to study the time of the early church and the reformation.  Although I was unable to completely due justice to the amount of history I had to cover in one hour, I thoroughly enjoyed teaching and was most moved by what people have done to keep the faith alive and to keep the church pure.

In the early church, men and women risked their lives just to be Christians.  They had to give up a whole way of living just to follow Jesus.  They were not accepted and most of time persecuted by those who did not understand or even hated Christianity.

Oddly enough, the reformation cause Christians to undergo some of the same persecution, but this time it was from the church.  People like Martin Luther tried their hardest to help the church be better.  Luther never intended to leave the church, but help it be what Jesus intended it to be. The church leadership of the day did things that were not moral, and Luther (amongst others) tried to reform the church, eventually he started another church based on the beliefs of scripture.

Although, they were not perfect people, the sought to make the church the best possible.  I am certainly thankful for everyone who has tried to make the church better, because I certainly hope to do the same.

If this interests you, I suggest you go rent (or buy because it's worth it) the movie Luther.  It's a fantastic movie, mostly historical, and very enjoyable.

February is over.

February always seems like the longest month in the year. Thankfully, it's over. I am thankful because hopefully it will get warmer. This is one of the first winters where I have actively been wanting warmer weather since the end of December. I think it's because this is the first winter where I am paying for my own heating bill.

This has been a short and busy month. Great things are happening however. I'm almost halfway through my second semester of February. I love seminary and love continuing my education which is good because soon I'll switch to a longer degree. Currently I'm only getting a M.A. in Christian Education, but I'm switching to a Masters of Religious Education. In name it sounds the same, but it has twelve more hours added to the degree. Why am I switching? Because I like school. Also, because the longer degree gives me a better set up for continuing my education. I'm looking around, and have nothing even vaguely set in stone, but I would like to pursue a doctoral degree after seminary.

Other than school, I've started teaching. My friend David and I are teaching a class at Jefferson Street Christian Church. We are teaching History of Christian Spiritual Practices. I know, exciting name. We are looking back into history and seeing what Christians in history did to grow closer to God. It started with Jesus as the example of an everyday relationship with God. The we looked at the apostles and church fathers and their emphasis on baptism, communion, and the word of God. It's been exciting, I'll share more about it later, I'm teaching about the reformation a week from tomorrow. I'm learning to appreciate church history and just started reading Church History in Plain Language. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone curious in learning more about church history.

Hope this finds you well. Happy March!

Retreat Number 2 (Middle School Remix)

So this weekend, we had the middle school retreat. As far as craziness goes, the weekend was a lot less exciting. We didn't loose any keys and we didn't have any serious injuries. Despite this lack of craziness, we had a great weekend.

We went to the same place for the retreat, Camp Berea in NH. I will certainly miss that place, because of the beautiful view. It's one of those views that is beautiful no matter what kind of weather it is.

For the most part we did all of the same basic things that we did last weekend, only this time with middle schoolers. It was a fun time, and I think I laughed a whole lot more. The middle school students are a handful, but are definitely fun and funny.

We had lots of great times with carpet ball tournaments, knock out competitions, and two-hand touch football in the rain. Thankfully, it was relatively warm this weekend (I know, Maine warm in November, crazy) because I soaked my shoes and only had flip flops for the rest of the weekend.

This weekend I also had a chance to teach during the retreat. It was a great experience, mostly because everything you say stirs up questions among the students, and they really want to share. We focused on what it means to change the world from the inside out. It was a great weekend. Retreats wear you out, but it is well worth it to spend the weekend with awesome students.

There are now pictures from both retreats on my Picasa account (see where I've been section on the right).

Retreat Number 1

This weekend was, as the locals say, a wicked crazy weekend. On Friday, we began our trek to Camp Berea in Hebron, NH. We drove for a few hours when we stopped at McDonald's for Dinner. While there we lost the keys to one of the vehicles. So we looked for keys for around an hour, and we didn't find them. So we packed up the stuff in other vans and left the suburban there.

Eventaully, we wond up at Camp Berea (also after getting lost due to faulty directions). We had a great night there settled down and got ready for a crazy weekend.

The next morning was pretty normal. Actually, the morning itself was beautiful. There was a beautiful sunrise over the hills across the lake from where we were. We had a worship service and then a lesson time. I taught about the Bible and the reliability of the scriptures. The class went really well, even though I felt like I bored the kids to death, they seemed to enjoy it however.

That afternoon we did a challenge course.
It was a good time, the hardest part was trying to cross the tight rope wire. It took my group a while, but we had a great time doing the tight rope. We also did a thing where we balanced on a wooden raft thing, but that wasn't as hard as the wire.

It was a great time. That afternoon I played football with the guys and the missionary/speaker for the weekend proved to be a great quarterback. He lead us to victory.

We practiced for the worship service that night, I played drums that weekend. The worship service that night went really well. Afterwards, we had the first ever Fusion olympics. It was hilarious for most of it We had fencing with noodles, we had 3 legged races, discus throwing with their mouths, and weight lifting with chairs. It was a really great night. The only bad part was when one of the students tried to flip and gave himself a concussion on the concrete floor. That was a rough end of the night.

Luckly, the student was ok. The rest of the retreat was pretty uneventful. After getting back from the retreat, I had to lead middle school fusion. Which, even though I was tired, was fun. We played dodge ball for a while. Then Chris, one of the Seniors, gave a lesson and did a great job.

That was my wicked crazy weekend. Hopefully the next weekend (the middle school retreat) will be just as fun but with less complications.