7.24.2008

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

THE GOOD:
Spent most of the day today visiting our three regional campuses at their high school summer camp. We take our junior highers to the same camp next week, so it was an added bonus to get a sneak peak ahead of time. Our three regional campuses are doing a great job and it was really fun to spend a little time with the staff and students from those campuses.

THE BAD:
It was really, really hot. We left right when organized rec. time was starting and I couldn't bare the thought of 400 high schoolers being forced to create cheers, run around with banners and compete for cheesy points. The camp does a great job with rec, but to me camp rec always equals bad. Am I alone in that sentiment?

THE UGLY:
I'll be the first to admit that my youth ministry mindset is often one of "anything you can do, we can do better". While visiting the camp today it didn't take long for me to switch from a mindset of "I'm just here to visit some of my team and students" to "I'm going to critique each aspect of camp and come up with reasons we could provide a better camp by doing it ourselves." I get that part of my role is to provide the best possible experiences for my students and to ensure they are getting their money's worth at events etc. But it is shocking to me how quickly and easily I judge and criticize the efforts of other Christ-loving brothers and sisters who, at the end of the day, have the same goals for my students as I do. I DON'T want to run camp and I'm so thankful we go to an incredible camp that does an incredible job.

4 comments:

Eric said...

Our camp had rec games but completley cut out spirit points. Thank the Lord!

th08 said...

We do a combo. Our camp runs some stuff that they do good and we take the rest. It has been a good compromise.

Ange said...

That's a great observation Kurt. I think most people think the same thing whenever they're around other church venues, other church ministries, etc. It can be good (striving for excellence) but can easily transcend into pride... I think it's a fine line...

Anonymous said...

we implemented rec and rec teams into our camp this year, for one reason. it was a way to help students build relationships with those they might not have otherwise. i think it worked.