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.
It’s Not 1980 Anymore
It’s dangerous to clean your basement. I was reminded of this fact in my recent purging. What did I find that was so dangerous?Four old Steelcase chairs, the same model I use to assemble during the summers while attending college.
Why would 30-year-old chairs heavy enough to anchor a battle ship be so dangerous? Because, as with most things found buried in a basement, they brought back a flood of memories. And those memories got me to thinking about the world my kids are entering.
First for the memories; I had a great summer job, but not uncommon for 1980.
I averaged between $9 and $10 an hour plus overtime, working 45 to 50 hours a week.
I received: holiday pay for the 4th of July plus two quarterly profit-sharing bonuses
I made nearly $7000 (the equivalent today of over $18,000).
And college only cost me $3500 a year.
Now for the dangerous part – thinking about my kids and the world they’re entering.
There’s no summer job anywhere that a student can make $7000 let alone the equivalent of $18,000 that I made. Today, with a reasonably good summer job, a student might make $4000 to $5000.
The average cost for tuition and room and board of a 4 year public university is hovering around $20,000 a year.
Which means a student may need to finance up to $15,000 a year/$60,000 total for a college education.
The numbers say it all. It’s apparent the values and priorities of our country have swung from assuring our young people have the best chance of succeeding, to financing the lives of those who have already had their opportunities.
2012 provides us yet another chance to make the courageous decisions necessary for our kids and thus our future. I pray that we’ll be courageous once again.
The Blessings of Integrating Our Personal and Professional Lives
Saturday night Denise and I had a chance to bring parts of our two families together – our immediate and our SpringHill families. In particular we had 18 members of the SpringHill family from the Indianapolis area join us to watch our daughter Christina dance in her first Butler ballet – The Nutcracker.
We had dinner together at a local Butler hangout, Binkley’s, and then went to the evening show at Clowes Hall on Butler’s campus. For Denise and me the entire evening was a blessing and a blast.
Afterwards I thought about how so many people seek a separation between their work and their personal lives. I understand this desire but not always the degree people can take it.
Because there’s something wonderful (maybe sacred is a better word?) when there’s a healthy integration between our work and personal lives. It’s what Denise and I experienced Saturday night. We experienced a great blessing when SpringHill staff, board members and other supporters enthusiastically celebrated with us Christina’s first Butler Ballet.
And it turns out to be more than just one evening, because we have these incredible friends who now know Christina, live near her and will be available to her (and us) during the rest of her years at Butler.
And this would not be possible if I kept a strict separation between my work and personal life.
Yes, it’s healthy to be able to step away from our work, but to build artificial walls between work and personal life isn’t, and often keeps us from receiving the blessings of an integrated life.
To strike the right balance between these two parts of our life requires wisdom, prayer and reflection. But when the right balance is struck, as it was on Saturday evening, it’s hard to imagine living any other way.
Qualities of Trustworthy Youth Organizations
Denise and I hold two important, but at times conflicting, goals in raising our children. The first one’s simply to assure our kids have experiences that help them grow physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually and spiritually. Secondly, we want to do all we can to keep our kids safe and to protect them from the consequences of evil.
It’s when we need to entrust our children and their safety to those who provide them life transforming experiences that we can feel conflicted. We want to provide our children these experiences and at the same time assure their safety.
The best way to achieve both is to verify that the organizations we entrust our children to have the following three qualities.
Transparency
The organization and its staff are transparent. Transparency mean’s there’s nothing hidden about its history, operations, philosophies, track record and methods. Transparency also includes our child’s experience.
Accessibility
Related to transparency is accessibility. Organizations and staff are accessible to parents. In addition, if necessary, our kids are accessible when involved with the organization. We should expect our phone calls and emails to be returned timely as well as the opportunity to meet the staff when dropping off and picking up our child as well as any other time we want to interact with them.
Professionalism
Professionalism includes a broad range of key activities that we should expect from an organization and its staff including verifiable training, quality control, safety practices and policies that the staff know and demonstrate commitment to by their adherence to these policies.
These three qualities should permeate the entire culture of an organization as reflected in the staff, websites, promotional material and most importantly in their reputation.
With prayerful due diligence, we as parents, can reduce the possibility of any harm coming to our children and yet still provide them those formative experiences they so desperately need to reach their potential.
The Penn State Tragedy and My Heart Breaking Twice
I’ve been hesitant to write this blog. But I can’t escape the need to address one of the unspoken consequences of the sad and tragic story of alleged sexual abuse of young boys by a former Penn State assistant football coach.
First, let me say, that if the alleged charges prove to be true then the worst consequences, by far, are the effects of these evil acts on the lives of these young men. There’s nothing worse.
Yet there’s another consequence that also breaks my heart every time a situation like this comes to light.
It’s the consequence that every organization committed to serving children will have a growing black cloud hanging over it. This black cloud’s the mistrust of parents of all organizations that serve kids because of the tragic and broken trust by one unrelated person or organization. That black cloud can especially become a reality for organizations, such as camps, to whom parents temporarily entrust the care and safety of their children.
And when parents, out of fear and mistrust, begin to exclude their kids from experiences , such as Christian camps, that can help their children grow physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually then the ripple effect of evil continues . In a world where children need every advantage, every opportunity to grow, every chance to become all that God’s created them to be – to see organizations committed to these goals lose the opportunity to serve kids and their families – breaks my heart all over again.
In my next post I’ll outline some of the characteristics parents should look for in an organization they’re considering entrusting the temporary care and safety of their children to.
For another take on the impact of the Penn State situation on youth ministry read my friend Jeff Munroe’s blog by clicking here.
