Go Fish!

Sunday is a day of wonderful rest after a long week with Junior campers.  We had a full house this week, and provided a great week of fun for all the kids.  But it has been a week in which we have all become tired.  We are thankful that reinforcements from North Carolina arrived yesterday and will be helping us run the program this week.  I am thankful for great helpers who come in to give us a brief reprieve from our labor.  And in the morning, Junior Week 2 will begin.

One of the things that has had such an impact on all of us here has been listening to Andy Stanley's series called "Go Fish" for our Sunday morning services.  Every Sunday I have been challenged with the great teaching I have heard, and today was especially good.  Here are a few excerpts that I thought were great:

"I learned that it was possible to create environments where unchurched, unbelieving [people] could come; and even though they didn’t believe what we believed they would come back the next week to hear more.

"I learned that if you can get unchurched, unbelieving [people] in a community of believers that are loving each other, and caring for each other, and being real Christians; that being in that community breaks down the barriers to unbelief. It strips away big objections [like good God vs. bad things happening to good people], all those legitimate questions.  You get somebody in a community where the church is being the church and somehow the edges get softer, and people’s hearts open up, and life change happens.

"I’m going to spend the rest of my life finding people who understand that you can create environments in the local church that allow us to partner with people who are 'fishing.'  And I want to create environments for people who come, and as they get involved in the community of believers their belief system begins to change, not because we’ve confronted, not because we’ve given them specific answers to specific questions… but because they’re in the presence… of the living Savior.

"The closest you’ll ever get to being in the presence of the living Savior is when you’re with the body of Christ functioning as the body of Christ.  That’s as good as it gets until Jesus comes back."

This is why coming to Camp of the Woods makes my heart sing like it does.  It's because I feel more like we function as the body of Christ than any other place I've ever been.  And because of that, I "feel the presence of the living Savior" in a powerful way.  That's why it's so easy to be bold in speaking to kids about the love of Christ; they can feel it all around them.  That's why I am constantly saying to all of you, "Come and see what this place is all about." 

And Andy's right.  This is as good as it gets until Jesus comes back.