Ultimate Frisbee
You know summer camps’ approaching at SpringHill when almost every free hour our summer staff plays Ultimate Frisbee. It’s a SpringHill tradition we hold as a sacred part of our summer staff’s experience.Last night our Indiana summer leadership staff met at Carey Edgren, our Indiana Camp Director, and his wife Kate’s home for desert and some team building. Right across the road from their house’s a sports field that had Ultimate Frisbee written all over it.
So before you know it there’s a serious game being played. Because I wasn’t drafted by either team I nominated myself as the game photographer (click here to see more photos).
I love the game because it’s both competitive and fun. But I love it more because it’s a game that all staff can be involved with, either as a fan or a player, and it’s a small component in building a strong staff team. There’s something about playing together that cements relationships, builds memories and creates shared experiences. Each of which is essential in building a team that’s focused on fulfilling together a shared mission.
We finished the evening which desert and each of our staff sharing how they came to SpringHill for the summer – again all a part of our goal of building a strong team. What was cool was each story reflected the variety of ways God guides and directs individuals to the places He’s planned for them. Hearing each other’s stories provided our staff with more confidence that God would use them this summer in a great way.For me, it was inspiring to hear each story and to get to know each person a bit better. It also helped to continue to build the excitement for Day 1 of camp when this team will have the opportunity to take all they’ve learned and built together and serve 1000’s of kids by creating SpringHill Experiences that will allow campers know and grow in their relationships with Christ.
“On Any Given Day”
“One game. If we played ’em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world.” Herb Brooks in the movie Miracle
This past weekend there were regional track meets across the state of Michigan and our third child, Mitch a freshman at Northern Michigan Christian, participated in his first running the 200m, 400m and the 800m relay.
He’s had a good season, one where he had some success but also learned a lot. Coming into regionals he knew he’d be battling against older, more experienced runners and he was also recovering from the flu he had earlier in the week.
So needless to say he wasn’t brimming with confidence as Saturday approached.
I told him two things in an effort to combat his dwindling confidence –
First, I told him that all he could do was to give it his best and if he did his mom and I would be proud of him no matter what place he received.
And second, I told him that state qualifying wasn’t determined by what happened during the season but what happened in the regional meet. The only day that mattered was Saturday. I wanted him to know that on any given day anything can happen.
Now I can’t report that the day ended for Mitch like it did 30 years ago for the 1980 USA Hockey Team. It wasn’t that “given day” but I can say that Mitch gave it his best and more importantly as we talked on the way home he shared his new-found vision of what his future regional meets could look like and what it’ll take to achieve that vision.
And as it turns out, that talk on the ride home was his best performance of the season.
Telling Fish Stories
Fishermen (and fisherwomen) love to tell stories. And this group of SpringHill fishermen isn’t any different. Within 24 hours of our first annual spring fishing trip to our SpringHill Indiana overnight camp we’ve already heard lots of them.
Our group’s made up mostly of guys who attend our annual fall Canadian fishing trip. On our last trip we decided we needed to do a spring one as well. Ironically all these guys (and their families) have been great supporters of SpringHill for years but have never had the opportunity to see SpringHill Indiana.
So we’ve “killed two birds with one stone.” We created a chance to do a spring fishing trip and an opportunity to show off SpringHill Indiana to a group of people who have been instrumental in growth and effectiveness of SpringHill overall.
It’s been a blast and there have been lots of fish stories. But the truth is the best story that’s been told is the story about the history of SpringHill Indiana and God’s gracious hand in its founding, development and impact it has had on the lives of 1000’s of kids each year. The best fish stories just can’t compare.
Check out some of photo’s by clicking here
Working like Churchill & Hemingway
What do Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf have in common? They worked, and in particular wrote, standing up.
I became aware of this fact back in the late 1980’s while working at Steelcase, Inc. The idea of working at a stand up desk caught the eye of some office furniture executives including one from Steelcase who put it into practice.
The first time I saw this executive at his desk I asked why he worked standing up. He answered “if creative and brilliant people like Churchill and Hemingway worked and wrote while standing up then it might also help me be smarter and more creative.”
That’s all the reason I needed to get myself a stand up desk and begin working on my feet (I need all the brilliance and creativity I can get). That was over 20 years ago and I’ve been working at a stand up desk ever since.
Now I won’t claim that I’m brighter or more creative as a result but I’ve seen a number of other benefits that come from working standing up.
First, I tend to work faster because I am more focused on the task at hand.
Second, it’s made a difference in my health. I burn more calories and save my back working on my feet.
Third, when people unexpectedly stop by my office and we’re both standing it tends to create a more succinct and to the point conversation.
Finally, it meets my need of being in perpetual motion. I don’t sit still well for long periods of time and prefer to rock if I do sit (typically not many rocking chairs in offices and conference rooms) so standing is my best option.
So I’ll be standing doing my work as long as my body allows so that I’ll continue to be more productive, healthier and, God willing, maybe even a little more creative as a result.
The Jesus Tree
Every camp has its sacred places. Spots considered holy ground because they’re the places over years and years where people have made life changing decisions.
These decisions usually start with significant conversations between camp staff and campers, between campers and other campers and most often between a camper and the God of the universe. As a result, over time, there’s an expectation that something significant will happen when someone’s sitting in one of these places.
At our two overnight camps there are a number of these pieces of holy ground. One spot at our Michigan overnight camp has become known as the “Jesus Tree”. It’s a beautiful old crab apple tree surrounded by stone seats located between the entrance of the Olson Auditorium and the New Frontier’s Dining Hall.
Over the years it’s been a place where a camp counselor and his/her campers have sat before or after a meal to discuss the spiritual theme of the day. Through these conversations many campers have made significant spiritual decisions. Thus this crab apple tree became known as “the Jesus tree.”
When we began the construction of Olson Auditorium one former staffer pulled me aside to ask for my assurance that we wouldn’t cut down “the Jesus tree” in the process. It was a request rooted in the knowledge that places can be sacred and thus needs saving even from the “progress of ministry.”
I agreed and so our construction team protected “the Jesus tree” during the entire building process though it sits in a less than ideal spot in our landscape plan.
And the Jesus tree still stands today on the edge of full bloom in anticipation of another summer of campers making life changing decisions and having transforming encounters with Jesus while sitting in the cool of its shade and in the midst of the aroma of its fruit.
The World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs
Praying for one of the great "entrepreneurs" Yesterday Todd Leinberger, Craig Soderdahl and I had lunch with some of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world.
They’re the greatest because their start-up’s are some of the most challenging in the world. But the challenges create the greatest returns found anywhere.
What makes these start-ups so challenging?
First, they’re almost always started on a shoe string budget and sometimes no budget at all. Banks and angel investors aren’t a source of capital for these entrepreneurs.
Second, these entrepreneurs do most of the initial work themselves from cleaning facilities to door to door sales. The remaining work’s done by unpaid staff, family and friends – the easiest people to love and the hardest to hold accountable.
Finally the service they’re providing has a highly emotional and intangible quality making it hard to measure success, show progress and know if what they’re doing is making a difference.
So why would an entrepreneur start-up such a challenging business? Because of the payoff, the return on investment is eternal, it’s forever. The rewards are personal, deep and significant. Finally it’s a calling. No one does it if they’re not called. And only those called survive the start-up phase.
Who’re these great entrepreneurs? They’re church planters. They’re men and women who have taken the challenge to start churches that will reach and make a difference in the lives of people and expand Christ’s Kingdom.
For example we heard from and prayed for a man whose starting the first evangelical Christian church for Chaldeans in the world. Think it about, an entire ethnic group that doesn’t have one evangelical church and this man’s been working and praying for 30 years to start such a church.
So needless to say we walked out of lunch with new respect for the commitment and talent of these men and women. And we also wondered why the greatest entrepreneurs in the world haven’t yet made the cover of Inc. magazine.
The Tension between Hope and Reality
Life lived well always finds us torn between two places – hope and reality. We’ve hope that things can and will be better but also live in the reality that they may not change in our favor.
Yet if we lose hope reality will drive us to despair. And if we lose sight of reality hope will lead us down a dangerous path. We’re to live in this paradox –”being in this world but not of it”.
It’s the balance we must have when we’re faced with hardship and the need to survive. When my wife Denise went in for her biopsy seven years ago we prayed there wasn’t cancer but knew that it was possible that the lumps on her breast could be malignant.
When they turned out to be cancerous we continued to hope that Denise would be healed but we also lived with the reality that she might not be cured. Hope gave Denise strength to go through chemo, radiation and 7 surgeries. Reality kept her rooted in her relationships with Christ, her family and friends because she just didn’t know how it would all turn out.
This combination of hope and reality is what Jim Collins calls “The Stockdale Paradox”. Named after Admiral Jim Stockdale an eight year prisoner of the Vietnam War housed at the “Hanoi Hilton” where he lived in unimaginable horror.
When Collins asked Admiral Stockdale how he survived this ordeal he answered, as recorded in Collins’ book Good to Great …
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they maybe.”
This combination of hope and reality, of being in the world but not of it, is where we’re called to live and lead as we face, and help others face, the world before us.
Celebrating Mom
Mom on her day. Mother’s Day (and yes also Father’s Day) is the only card company holiday that I celebrate. Why? Because I have a great mom who’s also an incredible grandmother of our children and she deserves at least one day (actually she deserves many days) of honor each year.
I’m so thankful that I have such a mom knowing full well that many did not experience the love, support, nurturing and encouragement of a mother that I did growing up.
So as a result I feel an incredible sense of responsibility to take advantage of the head start my mom gave me in life by making a difference in our world and in Christ’s Kingdom.
Yet my mom’s influence hasn’t been limited to my growing up. She continues to play a huge role in my life and the life of Denise and our kids. She has been there in the darkest hours and the greatest celebrations. She’s been rock solid and rock steady throughout my life and the life of our family.
For this too I’m incredibly thankful. It’s a bonus that many aren’t blessed with and only adds to my desire to put her good and faithful mothering to work in my life.
So today my brother Rich and his wife Sandi, my sister Beth and I along with grandpa and most of my mom’s grandchildren came together to celebrate Mother’s Day. A celebration we’d have even if the card companies hadn’t christened it a national holiday because our mom’s worthy of a great annual party for all she’s done and continues to do and continues to be in our lives .
Remembering Mark Olson
Mark and I at a Winter Retreat leader's meeting Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of my friend Mark Olson’s death. It seems just like yesterday that he was with us.
I knew Mark for twenty years first as a friend and then as a colleague at SpringHill. If you knew Mark you will agree with me that twenty years doesn’t seem near long enough time to have known him.
There’s almost never a day that I don’t think of Mark. Normally it’s because I’m wondering what he might have done in a particular situation I’m facing. So I’m thankful for our friendship and especially for the last 3 years of his life when I worked for and with him so closely at SpringHill. It’s because of those 3 years that I’m usually able to answer quite confidently the question “what would Mark have done?”
But beyond the tactical and technical things I learned about Christian camping from Mark the most important thing I’ve taken from his life was his constant desire to make everything and every person he had a relationship with better, meaning more effective in advancing Christ’s Kingdom in this world.
When Mark saw a need or an opportunity to have an impact he took it. It never seemed to be a duty to Mark. Instead Mark appeared to be compelled to do something as if God’s Spirit was moving him along. As a matter of fact Mark used the word “compelled” in his last banquet messages he gave in 1999 to describe his and SpringHill’s motivation to reach more kids for Christ.
This character quality is one I want in my life, one that ten years after my death I hope others will remember me for – that, like Mark, I did all I could to help other’s be more Christ like and more effective in advancing His Kingdom.
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.
