Church

Today at Opportunity Camp I had a chance to visit with one of our first-time counselors.  Alex is thirty-eight and is doing a great job with the kids.  What many of the campers and staff may not know is that Alex first came to camp thirty years ago as a camper. He attended Opportunity Camp for five years, missing a few years here and there.  The last year he attended was when he was seventeen - and he wasn't planning on coming.  He was dropping off his nieces when the director asked him to stay.  It was a decision he still is very thankful he made. He told me of growing up in a rough part of the Bay Area, running with gangs, and dealing drugs.  The years at Opportunity Camp made a difference; he didn't want to stay like that.  He knew there was something better.  He had seen…

The kids arrived Sunday, many without toothbrushes or sleeping bags -- another ordinary start to camp.  We have around one hundred campers this years and over one hundred staff.  That's a good ratio! Opportunity Camp has a tendency to work its way into your blood.  I'm always grateful to see familiar staff faces, many of whom have been coming to camp far longer than me -- and that's been fifteen years on my part.  They come from NYC, Texas, Seattle, Portland, and, of course, California.  And now Colorado. Our theme for this is simple: The Life of Jesus.  It's my task to tell the story of Jesus to kids ranging in age from eight to sixteen.  Each day I'm telling a different part of the story, beginning this morning with the birth of Jesus. I shared with them the ordinary circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus.  How his mom rode…

Back in 1984, most churches still had a Sunday night service.  Preachers would use material they didn't want to use on a Sunday morning and the worship leaders were usually young and gaining experience. On this particular Sunday night, December 16, 1984, my buddies and I settled into the back row and hunkered down.  That's the best way to describe it.  We had to endure the evening service in order to go to our youth devotional.  Hunkering down helped us endure. In our church tradition, every service closed with an altar call, or what we called a "song of invitation."  It was simply an invitation to walk to the front row, ask for prayers, or receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. I took the walk on December 16, 1984, and was baptized at the age of 15. Afterward, we gathered in a circle and sang a song that still holds…

Everyone has a worldview whether they know it or not. A worldview is simply your way of viewing the world.  How do you interpret events?  What assumptions do you have about reality?  Why is one thing right and another thing wrong?  A worldview is a lens through which you see, hear, and experience your environment. We are surrounded by competing worldviews from the movies we watch to the books we read.  A movie that glamorizes adultery is selling you a worldview that fidelity doesn't matter.  Advertisements that promise a happier life if you use Crest toothpaste are offering a worldview that places happiness purely on the surface.  Lady Gaga is offering a worldview that allows you to view more than you ever wanted to view. One of the tasks of the church is to help Christ-followers follow Christ.  The process of discipleship is a matter of mentoring them in a…