Kids Tell A Bible Story – David and Goliath
Another video from SpringHill Winter Retreats. Enjoy!
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.11176492&w=450&h=325&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]1st collector for Kids Tell A Bible Story – David and Goliath
Follow my videos on vodpodThe Power of a Fresh Context
In my last post I wrote about the transformational power of a fresh voice heard in a different context. That fresh voice is an essential part of a transformational experience. But it’s the fresh voice in a new and different context that makes all the difference.
What makes a context different and thus such a powerful combination with a fresh voice?
First, a different context requires, well, getting out of an old context, even if it’s for a short time. Going away, leaving the routines and the familiar behind is the only way to step into a new context. This is why going away to camp is so powerful and transformational for kids. I’ve heard of parents doing “camp” at home for their kids. This maybe a good and fun summer activity but it can’t replace going away to camp, because it will not have the transformational power that leaving home, and going to camp, can have in a child’s life.
Second, a transformational context includes excitement, adventure, challenge, and novelty. It’s why SpringHill and so many other camps have activities such as zip lines, climbing walls, blobs and horses. These are exciting, challenging and novel activities. They’re things kids do not do in their regular, everyday life. When a child or student does something for the first time, such as scale a 40 foot climbing wall, they’re also more likely to do and make positive spiritual and life decisions for the very first time.
The power of a fresh context is also what drives SpringHill to have something new at camp every year. People come to SpringHill expectant, expectant of something new to see or do, and thus expectant of a new and fresh perspective on life and the possibility of a different direction to take.
This is The Power of Camp, and it’s why I believe all Kids Need Camp.
What’s your camp story?
The Power of Hearing a Fresh Voice
I remember a conversation with the youth pastor from our church in Grand Rapids the day after he had taken a group of students to a big Christian concert. He said something to this effect, “whatever this musician said on stage the kids would go crazy. He would say ‘you should read your Bible everyday’ and my kids would scream and jump up and down. I don’t understand it, I’ve been telling my kids they need to be reading their Bibles, but whenever I bring it up, I just get blank stares. Why can this guy, from stage and in such a short period of time, have such a powerful voice in my students’ life?”
The answer to this amazed youth pastor is simple – there is transformational power a person experiences when they hear an often repeated message in a fresh voice, spoken in a different context.
This is why going to camp, having a camp experience, is so powerful, so life changing. At camp kids hear the same message they’ve heard repeated at home, at church or in school. But the voice is different; it’s a different person, at a different age, and many times from a different place in life speaking the same message in a totally different environment – camp.
And it breaks my heart to say this, but it’s an experience that happens so rarely in a young person’s life outside a camp experience. Why? Because there are so few experiences for kids that offer this combination of fresh voice spoken in an exciting and adventuresome context that also aligns with the voices of parents, church and school.
It’s why at SpringHill, we believe so strongly that all Kids Need Camp.
Have you experienced the Power of Camp? If so please share your story, it might encourage others to help a child have the same transformational experience this summer.
The Fall of Jericho
A great video from SpringHill’s Winter Retreats, a fun 4 minutes to begin your week with.
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1st collector for The Fall of Jericho
Follow my videos on vodpodThe Power of Camp
When I was in Indianapolis last week I stayed at the Marriott SpringHill Suites (what other hotel would a SpringHill staffer stay at?).
Upon arrival two Marriott staff greeted me at the front desk. I happen to be wearing a SpringHill fleece and the staff looked at me inquisitively and asked “are you with SpringHill Suites?” Of course this provided an opportunity to share about the “other” SpringHill. After a brief description, one of the staff had this dreamy look in her eyes which caused me to ask “have you been to camp?”
She answered “I went to camp when I was young and it was one of the best times in my entire life.” So, of course, I asked “which camp did you go to?” She thought about it for a moment and said “you know I don’t remember, I just remember I loved it.”
As I went to my room I thought about this woman’s camp experience. It was so powerful that being reminded of it put her in a state of reliving the experience right there in the hotel lobby. It was obvious her camp experience was even more important than the camp itself.
Later I went back to the lobby so I could ask her a follow-up question. I wanted to know what made an experience so memorable that a person would even forget the name of the place it occurred. When I found her I asked “what made camp one of the best times in your life?”
She quickly answered “I loved sitting around the camp fire singing, being with people who have become some of my closest friends, and the spiritual impact it had on me and others.”
This woman experienced the Power of Camp – memorable experiences, lifelong relationships and transformational spiritual moments. It’s these stories that fuel the passion of SpringHill Camp staff and the staff of 100’s of other Christian camps around the country to, every summer, provide “one of the best experiences in life” for literally 100,000’s of kids and families.
To learn more about the Power of Camp click here.
What We do During These Winter Months
It’s during these winter months that I’m often asked (mind you, rarely in a judgmental manner) “what do you and SpringHill do all winter long?” People know what SpringHill does during the summer – we have summer camp – but it’s the other nine months of the year that seem to be a mystery to people.
Now I’m not offended by such inquiries because they give me an opportunity to share all that we do during these busy months of winter. So, just in case you’ve also wondered, let me share with you the answer to the question “what do you and SpringHill do all winter long?”
In no particular order here’s a sampling of our work this winter:
Visit college campus’ across the Midwest to find, recruit, interview, reference check, do back ground checks and contract a 1000 people to work this summer.
Then prepare comprehensive and effective training for each of these 1000 new staff.
Create, plan and prepare 5 major programs and curriculums for campers and summer staff.
Make improvements to our property and facilities in time for our first campers to arrive.
Identify 65 church and ministry partners in 12 plus cities to host our Day Camps as well as identifying dozens of partners for 2013.
Market, sell, register, collect releases, medical forms, payments and answer the questions of parents for 23,000 summer campers.
Raise money to make the needed capital improvements and pay for 2500 camper scholarships.
Work out the logistics of weekly opening and closing days at 9 different SpringHill locations.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot, we’ll also serve nearly 12,000 retreat campers between now and the arrival of our first summer camper.
So as you can see, there’s no off-season at SpringHill, just a different season with different work. So as you think of SpringHill in the months to come, please remember this list and then pray for our staff that we’ll do all our work well, so that God might use our efforts to transform the lives of campers and staff we’ll have the privilege to serve in the coming months.
Calling the Audible
What do you do when you’re hosting over 900 students and their leaders for a “winter” retreat and winter melts away? In light of it being Super Bowl weekend, you call an audible.
That’s exactly what our Michigan Retreats Team did this weekend after days of warm weather melted much of our snow (except, of course, on our tubing hill) including an anticipated Saturday with temperatures in the mid 40’s. So the team decided to open up activities we normally offer during the non winter seasons such as riflery and, of course, the zipline.
As a result, for the first time in SpringHill Winter Retreat history, we have students racing down the New Frontiers zipline. It was an incredible scene watching 100’s of students speeding down both the tubing hill and zipline at the same time.
Sarah Gillespie and her team making it happen But what made me proud was how our team looked at conditions outside their control (the weather) and instead of bemoaning them, searched for a way to take advantage of them, to create an experience that exceeded our guests’ expectations. It meant a lot of extra work – opening up activity areas closed for the season and having staff trained and ready to safely operate them.
Yet the team still called the audible, because the conditions “on the field” warranted it. And the result was a memorable and life transforming weekend for over 900 students and their leaders.
What made an audible even possible? Simple, our team already had a well thought out and fine tuned plan. I’ve often heard people ask “why plan if we’re just going to change it?” Well, you can’t change what you don’t have, if you don’t have a game plan you can’t call an audible.
Former staffer and long time volunteer Nick Deck working the zipline And, as our team demonstrated this weekend, when you have a great game plan then you’re in a position to call an audible, and the right audible can change the outcome of the game.
Can People Truly Change?
“Past performance is the best predictor of future performance.” I learned this fundamental truth about people back in my days as a corporate recruiter. It was drilled into me through the interview training I received and built into the selection processes we used, the same selection processes used in many organizations today.
Yet, I have to admit, there’s been many times when I didn’t want to accept it as true. I wanted to believe people can change. That their past behavior doesn’t mean that’s how they will act in the future.
I’ve, at times, ignored this truth, because I wanted to trust people when they said they’ve changed. But, almost every time I’ve turned my back on this truth, I’ve regretted it.
Why? Because the truth is the truth – past performance is the best predictor of future performance – because most people don’t change.
But can this be the only truth about people? Is this the last word about what we can expect from others, from ourselves?
The answer is no, it’s not the only possibility. People can and do change. It’s rare, but it’s possible. But the second truth is this – people do not change by themselves. It requires something significant to happen to a person for true change to take place and cause a break from their past.
That “something significant” needs to go deep and rattle a person down to the core of their being, and in that place, true transformation happens. And always, at the center of this “something significant” is Jesus Christ, because it’s God who ultimately transforms lives, who grants people a lasting break from their past.
This is why I’ve committed my vocational life to Christian camping. Because Christian camps create those “something significant” experiences, where God steps in, goes down deep, rattles the core of a person, and leads them to a place of true transformation where the past is no longer a predictor of the future.
Winter Retreats – A Little Like Heaven
Photo by SpringHill staff Where, other than life on the new earth, can you find 9000 people from more than 250 different churches and denominations playing, praying and worshipping together? At SpringHill’s Winter Teen Retreats! That’s right, attending a Winter Retreat is a little like Heaven. Because at SpringHill, like eternity, there’s no divisions between God’s people.
Instead the only competition between churches at SpringHill is the annual broomball tournament. The battle on the ice isn’t about doctrinal and governance issues, but instead about winning the coveted Winter Teen Retreat banner.
I have to admit, even after being a part of Winter Retreats for 14 seasons, I’m still amazed every time I walk around camp during a winter weekend, to see and talk to students and leaders from so many churches and traditions. It does make me think about and anticipate the coming of Christ’s Kingdom on the new earth.
What makes such an experience possible? First, every church understands the purpose of the weekend is to help students to know and grow in their relationships with Christ, to assist leaders in developing relationships with their students and to build stronger youth groups. Second, because of this purpose, SpringHill programs around what all Christian churches agree on – Jesus Christ. Finally, we stay away from issues that cause division and encourage the group leaders to do the same, which they’re only too happy to do.
So, this winter, if you think about SpringHill, say a prayer for the 1000’s of students and their leaders who’ll be attending one of eleven retreats, that their Christ centered focus will continue well beyond the weekend, becoming the focus of their lives and the lives of their churches.
Some of My Favorite People
Leaders from Ridge Point Community Church Imagine working a full week and on Friday afternoon, instead of heading home to relax, you rush off to a church parking lot. There you get into a van, school bus or coach loaded with dozens of students. You then make a multiple hour trip to a camp where you’ll be sleeping in a sleeping bag, eating camp food and staying in a cabin with a dozen students for a weekend retreat.
Anyone willing to give up a weekend to be an adult leader at a student retreat makes my “favorite people in the world” list. These retreats, which are so often life changing experiences for students, couldn’t happen without the volunteer leaders and the pastoral staff who commit themselves to the spiritual development of young people.
This past weekend we had our first of 14 student retreats that occur between now and the end of March at our Michigan camp. This first weekend was a Juniors Retreat designed for 4th thru 6th grade students. I had the opportunity to have Saturday night dinner with leaders and students from Ridge Point Community Church in Holland, MI.
Watching these leaders interact with their students was fun and encouraging. It was encouraging because elementary age students are the most important age group of people for the Church to invest in. And it was fun because it was apparent these leaders had special relationships with their students.
So make it a point to thank the youth leaders and other adults who work with kids that you know. Thank them for giving up their weekends, their sleep and their diets, but more importantly thank them for investing in the lives of our children.
