Camp

Camp was so much fun. In fact I remember being a little kid playing in buckets and having a blast. Camp was almost like that….

Someone New

So this last Sunday was Rachel Oblon’s first day as our HS Pastor. I felt bad for her as she entered the HS room. She did not know what to expect, she was not being eased in with an intern to help her, in fact she was just thrown in with hopes that she could swim. I don’t know about you, but that would make me crazy. However, she did a great job.

In late June early July she had the chance to hang out with the HS students at camp. Unpaid and unsure she still did it. She connected so well with the students. In fact all the students that went to camp said that she Rocked.

So Sunday when all was said and done, I asked some of the HS, who didn’t go to camp, what they thought about Rachel. Everyone thought she was cool, they all had good things to say bout her. I was so happy.

For those of you who haven’t had the chance to meet this wonderful woman, you should. Rachel is going to do an amazing job with the HS group. I know that God is going to do some pretty cool things through Rachel with the HS group. I hope that you will all get to know her and welcome her to Parkcrest.

Rachel, thanks for joining the Parkcrest team. I pray that God will guide you and keep you strong and fearless when it comes to doing HS ministry. I pray that you would constantly be reminded of why you chose to take the job of HS Pastor.

Finally UCYC

So, I have been to two camps this summer already, and this Sunday I leave for my final camp. UCYC. I am actually really excited for Junior High camp. It’s one of those camps where I can connect with the students that I am involved with constantly.

HS and Adventure Mountain were really hard camps for me to attend because I was hanging out with students which I don’t have a lot of contact with, so I had to really work at building trust and respect with them. I admit HS was  a little easier because I knew most the students, but they have grown up and life has changed for them, so it still took some work.

Where as Junior High camp, I know most of the students going. I will have to build trust and respect with them, but for the most part I already have it with over 2/3 of them. It’s also my thing. It’s something I am invested in. So, it makes it seem like a lot less work even though it might be the same amount.

Anyways, we leave sunday. I am excited to be taking 57students and 10 leaders to camp. I ask that you would all be praying for a safe time, that God would change lives and that students would come home with an excitement for God that would radiate through the Verb Ministries, their homes, and their friends.

Quote to think through…

The heart is the place where one can meet God. He who follows his heart follows God.

- Ole Martin Hoystad

(1947 - ) Norwegian Professor of Cultural Studies and Literature

Back from Camp.

So I got back from camp on Saturday. Adventure Mountain was a great camp and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the students. However, there were two things that just amazed me while I was at camp.

The first thing was that for a good month we looked for a guy to be a leader at Adventure Mountain with me. It was hard to find someone. Until Eric Rivers stepped up. Eric is a HS student, going in to his Junior year. He told me that he was thinking about being a leader, and that he wanted to step up in faith, and then was given this chance which he could not turn down. Not only did he decide to go to camp as a leader but, he decided that he would rather do the church leader thing, then the family vacation thing. That impressed me so much, that as a HSer he would rather help students learn more about God. Talk about doing God’s work. Eric was amazing. He got stuck in a tribe where he didn’t know anyone, with leaders who all knew one another and never complained. He constantly encouraged his guys and hung out with the guys that he had. Eric truly is a leader and is going to do amazing things for the Kingdom of God.

I also have to give a shout out to Matthew Granillo, who as a HS guy lead a group of Indian Village boys all on his own. Eric and I had one another to talk to here and there. Matthew went without having anyone. That Rocks. Matthew did an amazing job and I know that He as well is going to do great things for the Kingdom of God.

The second thing that was amazing was how our kids really do love people unconditionally. My 8 guys as well as Veronica Richardsons 8 girls got placed in the tribe of Amazon. Amazon included Love and Unity a black church from Compton and Bel Air Presbyterian from Bel Air. Our kids interacted with one another without any of the leaders saying anything. They became Amazon, not Parkcrest, or Love and Unity, or Bel Air. Counselors from Adventure Mountain said that they were impressed on how well our students connected with each other. Our students ate with each other, played games with one another, cheered each other on, and didn’t even realize what they were reminding us as adults about. As leaders we talked about how if they could keep this up as they get into JH, then HS, then College they could change the church forever. It was truly a reminder that we are supposed to love all, no matter what background you have. We are to be the Kingdom of God, not parkcrest, not (insert your name here).

Away at Camp

So, I am leaving again this week for another fun filled week at camp. I am going with the 5th and 6th graders to Adventure Mountain. I don’t think that I will be able to post for the next week since there is no wireless in the mountains. I am going to try and twitter by phone, but can’t guarantee that I will have cell reception there either. So have a great week.

Ugly people do get picked

It all starts with one trash bag, one soda, or even one stop sign. The breakdown of ones integrity only takes a little bit. It’s a single viper that looks more like a corn snake, but before you know it, your too close and you have been bitten.

As I sat and discussed the idea of integrity with two men who are much wiser then I, we began talking about the reality of ones integrity. integrity is definitely like the ugly person at the dance. Nobody wants anything to do with it. In fact if you have ever been to a JH dance where girls stand on one side and boys on the other you would know that just asking a girl to dance is a hard thing to do and to ask the ugly girl…man that is almost impossible.

The sad reality is that keeping ones integrity in tact is a tough thing to do. It’s like asking a girl to dance, you have to be pushed and prodded by your friends, you have to psych yourself up for the big ask, and then that isn’t even enough. On the way over to ask her so many things can distract you, make you turn your back and run. It’s the same thing with integrity.

Not running a stop sign is something you have to constantly psych yourself up about…”there’s a cop around the corner and I know I will be caught,” or “the one time I role it will be the time my grandma steps off the curb in front of my car.” However, that doesn’t always work. to keep your integrity in tact you have to stay focused. No letting the little things distract you, like the cute girl on the corner, or in the car going the other way. That’s when your integrity fails.

The saddest reality is that we become the ugly people we can’t even ask to dance. And It happens before you know it. A stolen work pen here, a rolled stop sign there, an illicit affair on the weekends and to top it all off you bad mouth your boss behind their back. Now, you have become the ugly person with no integrity. Standing on the side of the gym with all your mistakes and hiccups in life there for people to see. Standing there hearing the whispers of condemnation falling on you.

One of the guys in my group said that the one trash bag is where it starts. You either see it for a 15cents which nobody cares about so why not, or you see it as the $3 which you could have easily gone to the store and spent, even if you only want just one but now have  50. It’s either the reminder that your charcter is challenged and in question by the taking of the one trash bag, or the one soda, or even runing the one stop sign.

The best part about all this is that ugly people do get picked to dance. None of us are going to be perfect, in fact most of us are a little ugly. We have allowed the corn snake to get to close, which turned out to be a viper. Whether it is the little stuff or the big stuff, we all have a streak of ugly in us and God’s the one who crosses the dance floor and takes you by the hand, even when nobody else will. In the midst of everyone staring and whispering, He’s the one that wants us to know that you are worth it. God picks the ugly people, grants them Grace and sends them on their way to do the same.

I pray that I would grow in integrity. But as I grow I would not become so caught up in the honor of my integrity that i would judge others. No, I pray that I would cross the room to those whose lives had been made ugly and take them by the hand and show them what it means to know God’s love.

The Stupid things that Student Ministries Pastors Do

Make sure you watch the kid in white! (hehehe)

The Church

So tonight while sitting at HumeSD, listening to Darren speak, I was reminded  what the church is.

To the Church of God…

- 1 Corinthians 1.2

I have been working in JH Ministry for quite awhile now and about this time of year I tend to get the same thing from some students.

I don’t want to go to HS Ministry

I have to say, that the egotistical side of me likes that they don’t want to leave JH. However much of a struggle it is, I have to constantly remind myself that I don’t want them to stay in JH because of me. If that is all they got out of being in the JH ministry then I have failed. I am not the church. In fact I am a far cry from the church.

The church is God’s. If they don’t get that then they are going to be let down for the rest of their life.

We see this all the time. People church hoping, looking for a new pastor that will teach them what they want to hear, a new band that will play the music they want, a new JH/HS pastor because their’s isn’t cool, or just a new place to go because the people at theirs aren’t as Godly as them.

It’s people thinking that the church is about the Pastor, until he lets them down. It’s people thinking that the church is the music until it changes and they are let down. It’s people thinking that the church is all about the programs, until they don’t work and are let down. It’s people thinking that church should only have perfect people, until they find out they are people and are let down. But, it’s not.

It’s a problem that we in the church have caused. It’s a problem that even I have caused. JHers get attached to me and not God, so they don’t want to leave JH because the HS person isn’t as cool, their then let down because church isn’t what it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be cool Scott.

I love to draw and about a year ago I drew a picture and blogged about it, you can check out the blog and picture here. This picture is a constant reminder to me that I have to give the students God. I can’t put on a circus act, a big show, and expect them to find God in it. I can’t expect them to understand what church is  if I never show them what it’s really about, if I never bring out the Lion, God. No matter how cool I want them to think I am, No matter how much I want them to connect to me, I have to remember that the church is God’s not mine. That people should be following God in the church and not me. And that God should be glorified above all else, and not me.

The Church belongs to God. He will never let them down. He is perfect, loving, gracious, kind, gentle, infinite, constant and God. There will be a time I will not be and if it’s about me I will have led thousands to a wrong understanding of church and will or probably already have let them down. So for those of you out there that have been let down by me, who don’t attend church because something I have said, the way I’ve acted, or any other reason, I apologize. I AM NOT THE CHURCH.

Here are some fun things happening here.

Don’t know why…