After the Saturday morning session Duffy met for a few minutes with some of our key church partners who were on camp for our annual Council of Advisors meeting.
As he was sharing about the significance of these weekends for teenagers and their youth groups he made this comment…
“You already know this but SpringHill staff are not programmers they are memory makers.”
I was totally caught off guard with this comment. It struck me deeply and was incredibly affirming on a number of levels.
But what made this statement such a powerful compliment?
First, it was unexpected and sincere. We were looking to pick up a few nuggets of wisdom from Duffy about the current state of youth ministry but he instead gave us this wonderful gift.
Second, the spontaneous and creative use of these words stuck with me.
Third, Duffy’s compliment affirmed one of the highest values we have in any SpringHill Experience – that they be life transforming and thus memorable, something that will impact a person the rest of their life.
And most importantly Duffy took what we do – creating life changing experiences – and said, in essence, “This is not just what you do but who you are”.
Wow. Please know we receive our fair share of compliments but this one was one of the finest I’ve ever received on behalf our team. Do you see why? It’s not because it speaks about a new way to describe our work but instead it speaks of our integrity.
You see integrity is when what you do and how you live aligns with who you say you are or want to be.
So whenever someone acknowledges publicly that what you do aligns with who you are, either as a person or as an organization, it’s not just a compliment it’s a statement that goes much deeper. And there is no greater gift someone can give you than to affirm your integrity in a memorable way.