NET Xtreme Camps is entering its third year of preparation. I've been asked to serve as the director for this second year. Personalities are in place, prices have been set and the work toward advertising, enlisting and laying out the fine tuning of daily planning are underway. Things are looking good; however, there is a feeling of restlessness in the planning.
I have to be honest it has been one of my dreams to build a great camp and watch God work. Camps have played a major role in my adult life. I've seen hundred of lives come to Christ, surrender to service, and grow spiritually how could I ever walk away from being the 'director' of my dream? However, due to conflict within the planning group my comfort zone was becoming uncomfortable and in the middle of the fall I stepped down as director.
Side note, God is still using the dream of NET Xtreme and I love that He allowed me to be a part of the process that put this great camp into place.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
The Process Begins
The summer has come to a close and school is just around the corner. Three weeks of youth camp, VBS, children's camp and a MASH trip plus family vacation have made the summer full. Once again we have experienced the power of God in the lives of children, teens and adults.
From my comfortable seat as Associate Pastor I prepare for another year of as usual ministry. Making plans to expand our home groups, keep Sunday school growing, expand the use of technology in worship, teach TeamKID, and MASH Trips are all in place. Ministry opportunities away from the campus with the Lakeview Board, NET Xtreme, Seminary Extension Instruction and volunteering at Pine Tree schools are all in place. Life is good.
In the midst of the comfort God is beginning to make things uncomfortable. The more I challenge folks to be agents of change, to live life on the edge, the more restless I get, the more obvious it becomes that I can't stay in my comfortable seat. But I continue to look for ways to be "edgie" in my comfortable position.
From my comfortable seat as Associate Pastor I prepare for another year of as usual ministry. Making plans to expand our home groups, keep Sunday school growing, expand the use of technology in worship, teach TeamKID, and MASH Trips are all in place. Ministry opportunities away from the campus with the Lakeview Board, NET Xtreme, Seminary Extension Instruction and volunteering at Pine Tree schools are all in place. Life is good.
In the midst of the comfort God is beginning to make things uncomfortable. The more I challenge folks to be agents of change, to live life on the edge, the more restless I get, the more obvious it becomes that I can't stay in my comfortable seat. But I continue to look for ways to be "edgie" in my comfortable position.
God's Blessings
The warmth of the afterglow of the "Purpose Driven Church" Campaign was in full shine. Members were excited, families were visting and becoming involved. Inactive members were becoming active and scarred relationships were healing. Everything was comfortable.
In life away from the church, my position with the Board of Trustees for Lakeview Baptist Encampment was also exciting. The debt for the worship center is almost gone, a new maintainance storage building has been built-debt free, attendance at the encampment is setting records and lives are being changed weekly through the use of the facility. Additionally God has blessed with $250,000 being donated thus allowing us to break ground on a $.5 million dining hall.
Another dream is also taking root as NET Xtreme Youth Camp kicks off uniting three weeks of camps for students 6-12 under one leadership group. This vision was born from a meeting of the Lakeview board and area youth camp directors to assist in combining both financial and volunteer resources. This first year would prove to be tremendous as one week sold out, a second almost filled and the third doubled the privious years attendance.
Who would have thought that in the midst of all this that factors were in place to move my life in a new direction in the year to come. God was blessing mightily and I was getting to be a part of it. Hallelujah.
In life away from the church, my position with the Board of Trustees for Lakeview Baptist Encampment was also exciting. The debt for the worship center is almost gone, a new maintainance storage building has been built-debt free, attendance at the encampment is setting records and lives are being changed weekly through the use of the facility. Additionally God has blessed with $250,000 being donated thus allowing us to break ground on a $.5 million dining hall.
Another dream is also taking root as NET Xtreme Youth Camp kicks off uniting three weeks of camps for students 6-12 under one leadership group. This vision was born from a meeting of the Lakeview board and area youth camp directors to assist in combining both financial and volunteer resources. This first year would prove to be tremendous as one week sold out, a second almost filled and the third doubled the privious years attendance.
Who would have thought that in the midst of all this that factors were in place to move my life in a new direction in the year to come. God was blessing mightily and I was getting to be a part of it. Hallelujah.
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