Summer Staff – Giving on Top of Giving
Can you imagine a person who’s willing to work almost all their waking hours 6 out of every 7 days for less than a couple hundred dollars a week plus room and board? Now take it another step and picture 700 people making this kind of commitment.Go one final step and imagine that these 700 individuals believe so much in their work that they’ll give some of their pay back so that others can benefit from the jobs they do.
If you’ve created this mental picture then what you’re looking at is the SpringHill summer staff team.
Our summer staff, like camp staff all over the world, work incredibly hard for very little money. But what makes our team unique is this – they’ve also given over $14,000 out of their paychecks so that kids from economically challenged situations can attend SpringHill.
Think about it, people who are going to college, starting careers and working for very little keep giving on top of giving by contributing over $14,000 to further help those they’ve already committed to serving.
So what’s the secret to having a team that’ll keep giving on top of giving? It’s a simple combination.
First it starts with great people (and our summer staff are great people).
Second it requires an organization that’s mission and values aligns with and inspires its staff.
Finally leadership’s needed that creates a vision of the impact giving can make in the life of another person.
Combine these three factors and you have a team, like our summer staff team, who’ll keep giving on top of giving resulting in transformed lives – both the campers and their own.
By the way if you’d like to join our staff in helping kids attend SpringHill click here. Thanks!
Thank You Bill and JoAnn Dinsmore
Today was Bill Dinsmore’s last day with SpringHill. Bill’s been VP of our Indiana overnight camp for the past 6 ½ years and has answered the call to become the Executive Pastor at College Park Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.I, and the whole SpringHill community, will miss Bill and his wife JoAnn being a part of our staff team. During Bill’s tenure there’s been significant growth in the ministry of our Indiana overnight camp. Bill’s lead initiatives that focused on the quality of the experiences we provide campers and their parents, improved the camp property in significant ways and built key partnerships with supporters and other organizations. Each of these initiatives has not only improved our Indiana overnight camp they’ve had a positive impact throughout the rest of SpringHill.
But what I’ll miss most will be working with Bill in an effort to reach more kids more effectively with the SpringHill Experience. Part of the joy I have in my job’s the opportunity to work side by side with quality people like Bill and JoAnn to make a difference in kids’ lives.
When one of those friends, such as Bill, leaves SpringHill it’s like a family member moving out of the house. It’s both a sad day and a day of expectation. The expectation comes because we trust in God’s sovereignty and in doing so we look forward with anticipation to the days ahead as we witness what God will do in and through Bill and JoAnn and what He’ll do in and through SpringHill.
So thank you Bill and Jo Ann for your faithful service to SpringHill on behalf of kids and Christ. May God continue to increase your fruitfulness for His Kingdom in the days ahead.
Be Prepared!
As a Boy Scout the motto Be Prepare was drilled into my psyche. It became a part of who I am and there’s not a thing I can do about, not that I really want to.When I pack for a trip I tend to over pack. Why? There’s this still small be prepared voice in my head that’s saying “you might need that.”
On my annual Canadian fishing trips I carry a “survival kit” when I go back into the bush. Why? It’s that be prepared voice asking me “what if you get lost or someone gets hurt or you just can’t get back and have to spend the night out there?”
And each time I hear that voice I respond, as any good Boy Scout would do, by saying “on my honor I will do my best to do my duty… to be prepared for anything that might happen.”
It’s the same voice that has pushed SpringHill day by day, week by week and year by year to continually be prepared by improving our emergency planning and safety efforts. Emergency Preparedness Plans (EPP’s), Safety Councils, near miss reports, etc. aren’t the sexiest, most exciting parts of camp but they, accompanied by a well prepared and committed staff, are absolutely essential to providing an outstanding SpringHill Experience.
You see we consider the care of a child the highest trust given to us by any parent and caregiver. It’s our commitment to provide children with a physically, emotional and spiritually safe camp experience.
And, like my obsessive packing, we can do nothing less than live up to this trust and listen to that still small voice that tells us to always be prepared.
Cascading Community
I love SpringHill in May because our summer staff begin arriving in cascading waves for training. One of the most important lessons they’ll learns the importance of small communities in creating SpringHill Experiences.Small communities, such as families, are powerful places for life transformation. They’re transformational because they’re relational. And it’s within the context of relationships that the important stuff that God uses to transform people takes place.
We build SpringHill summer camps on this reality. We begin with hiring people that can both thrive and create transformational communities. Then we follow with training that shows staff how to create small communities in a SpringHill way.
For the training to stick we don’t just tell our staff how to create transformational communities we also have them experience it by doing our training within small communities. Our staff learn it by living it for the weeks they’re in training.
To accomplish training in this way requires an enormous amount of coordination, investment in leadership development, trust, and empowerment.
So we start with our summer professional (resident) staff. They’re trained in small communities with the goal of having an integral part in the training of the next staff (summer leadership) to arrive. Summer leadership staff then’s trained to be involved in training the final wave of arriving staff.
This cascading of training in small communities allows us to multiple our trainers which then allows us to multiple our small communities as each new wave of staff arrive. In this way all our staff not only hear but also experience being a part of and leading a small community.So when the 1000’s of campers arrive this summer our staff’s prepared to create 100’s more small communities where young people can know and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and thus be transformed.
Life’s a Dirt Road
We’ve lived on a rural dirt road for 13 years. And it’s apparent that our road has a life of its own, that there’s a rhythm to its existence.
For example the winter’s when our road’s most friendly. The road’s frozen and covered with packed snow making it the smoothest driving of the year. Yet it can be deceptive because it’s also icy.
Summer is the opposite. The road is dry so that when it’s driven on it can create a dust storm that covers our car with a fine grit. We’ll not drive a clean car for months.
With fall comes rain and with rain comes mud. Dust on our cars in the summer turns to mud in the fall. The road’s in decent shape but makes a mess of our cars and garage.
Spring’s when our road’s at its worst. The melting ice and frost followed by rain creates miles of pot holes that causes our cars to rattle so bad that we’re looking for car parts through our rearview mirror. The good news is we drive so slow that there’s no chance of hitting a deer.
But after 13 years we know the seasons so we don’t get mad when our car is shaking apart or covered in mud and dust. As a matter of fact we expect and prepare for it.
Individual, family and organizational life is much the same. There is a natural rhythm of seasons to it and the reality is there isn’t much that can be done to change this fact.
So the best we can do is to anticipate and accommodate each season and not fight them. Instead we can embrace each as a gift with its good and the bad. Maybe then we instead of complaining about the mud or the pot holes we can have some fun in the fall seeing just how covered our car can get or how fast we can drive in the spring and still miss the all pot holes.
One More Time on Calling
Jack McQueeney my favorite Navigator friend knows his call. “Need doesn’t always constitute a call.” Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators.
The needs of others don’t always equal a calling to meet those needs.
But our calling always includes meeting the needs of others.
This is why calling can be so confusing.
And it’s also why calling can be so dangerous.
It’s confusing because it’s easy to believe, either as an individual or as an organization, that we can and should address all the needs of all the people all the time. It’s a positive impulse but it’s misdirected because when we try to meet all the needs of all the people all the time we end up unable to meet hardly any needs of any one anytime.
Calling requires knowing that we are not God and thus can’t meet all the needs of all the people all of the time and trusting Him to enlist others to do what we can’t and are not called to do.
Calling is always focused on specific people and their specific needs. At SpringHill we’re called to serve children, teens and young adults. This is not to say adults don’t have needs that SpringHill can meet or that adults are less important than children. No it’s simply that we’re called and equipped to serve young people. We trust that God has called others to serve adults.
Calling can be dangerous when we have the ability but don’t meet the needs of the individuals God has placed in our lives. It’s when we use our calling as an excuse for not doing something that we put ourselves at serious risk.
What’s the risk? Think of Jesus’ parable in Luke 16:19-31. A rich man walks daily right by a poor beggar named Lazarus without lifting a finger to meet any of Lazarus’ needs. What’s the consequence for the rich man’s inaction? He goes to Hell and he never escapes.
Now the rich man didn’t end up in Hell for ignoring all poor beggars in the world just the one in his life. And that is what separates needs from calling. The needs of the one beggar in our life is our calling, the many needs may not.
Opportunity Does Not Equal Calling
Opportunity is what you can do. Calling is what you must do. That’s a big difference. Yet it’s easy to confuse the two. I should know I’ve done it enough.
Opportunity comes only to those people and organizations others see as successful. Thus it feeds the one thing, pride, which can cloud vision and makes a decision about an opportunity nearly impossible.
Calling comes to all people and organizations. But callings are different for different people and different organizations. So it doesn’t naturally feed one’s ego but it instead requires faithfulness and obedience.
Opportunity comes regardless of capabilities. Calling always matches gifts and abilities.
Opportunity offers something that is apparent to many.
Calling requires going to places and doing things never imagined before or if it has then it’s considered foolish.
The quality of the opportunity’s measured by return on investment in that opportunity.
The quality of calling is measure by the passion one brings to the calling they’re given (click here for my post on passion).
Opportunity is generic. It doesn’t design itself to fit a person or an organization.
Calling is personal and specific thus unique.
Opportunities tend to be short-term.
Calling is almost always long-term.
Opportunity provides no moral or ethical boundaries.
Calling requires the highest good and the greatest benefit to others and God’s Kingdom.
Can opportunity and calling be for the same thing? Of course they can, at least on the surface, but if it’s true a calling then it’s not a true opportunity because opportunities, by definition, present equal alternatives – to take the opportunity or not.
Calling at the end of the day provides only one true alternative – to answer the call.
Be flattered by opportunities, if you must, but just for a moment.
Be always thankful for a calling because it’s a gift from God just for you.
Space for Making Vision a Reality
The SpringHill leadership team has learned the importance and the formula for creating space for the planning necessary to make our vision a reality.
Our team just came out of such as space where we completed some good work thinking through our future organizational needs and design in light of our current (and expected) ministry growth.
What does this space look like for us?
- It starts with a smart and committed team of people with shared values and vision.
- To this end, as part of our day, we have dinner together just so we can hang out and catch up.
- We meet at an off-site location that can inspire new thoughts or perspectives. Today was at a friend’s home on Lake Michigan
- We do a lot of pre-work to assure the information, ideas, and the direction needed for the meeting are in people’s hands long enough for them to prepare.
- During our time together we assure everyone has the opportunity to speak and then we all listen.
- We use flip chart sheets so our ideas can be posted in front of us during the meeting.
- Assure an action plan’s created so our thinking becomes action.
- We meet once a month so the work doesn’t get lost or stalled.
- We always approach this process as an act of discovery.
- We pray together asking Christ to lead us where we ought to go and keep us from where we shouldn’t be.
If you lead a team or just lead yourself, create space to dream, plan and look ahead. You and your team will benefit greatly and the world will be a bit better as a result.
“Leadership is an Art”
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you.” Max DePree in his book Leadership is an Art and repeated to me in my recent meeting with Roger Williams, Executive Director of Mount Hermon.
I’m very appreciative of Roger’s reminder of these words from this great book.
So when I got back to my office on Monday I grabbed my autographed copy and began to flip through it. As I did I realized two important but related facts concerning this book.
First, it is one of the best books on leadership I’ve ever read and was and is foundational in my leadership philosophy.
Second, I saw God’s hand directing Roger to bring Leadership is an Art back to my mind because of work the SpringHill Leadership team is doing in organizational planning.
So I took my copy with me on my trip this week knowing I now had to re-read it.
As I’ve finished it on my flight I’ve been blessed, challenged and affirmed once again because DePree puts into words and stories the heart of leadership. He sets an ideal that is noble, human, convicting and one I aspire to.
It is full of wisdom that is practical, philosophical and speaks to both heart and mind. And it is one of the most quotable books on leadership you will ever read.
It was written nearly 25 years ago so I was worried it was “dated” but I was not disappointed. It reads as contemporary, or maybe even more contemporary, today as it did when I first read it in the late 80’s. Both the truths and DePree’s writing style are timeless.
So I’ve ordered copies for my leadership team. We are going to read it together because it represents the kind of organization and leadership we aspire to.
If you want to be inspired to be the best leader you can be join us in reading (or re-reading) Leadership is an Art by Max DePree. It maybe the best book leadership book you’ll ever read.
Compliments, Integrity and Being Memory Makers
I appreciate compliments that are creative, un-expected, sincere and acknowledge what is truly important. The SpringHill team received such a compliment a few weeks ago from Duffy Robbins, a leading youth ministry expert who was speaking at one of our Winter Retreat weekends.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.
