Monday, February 28, 2011

Top 4 from Middle School Winter Camp

I know that there are "top X" lists all over the place but this one is going to be special to me.  See in October 2006 our church hired Chase Feindel to lead Ignite; our middle school ministry.  That year was a super tough year for me in ministry and it was nice to pass Ignite off to Chase, actually its realistic to say that I dumped it on him because I was done.  In 2007 Chase ran his first winter camp to Big Bear Lake and did really good with the poor planning and lame set-up that I had done.  I have to randomly include this picture of the coldest temp while were up there.

Well after leading a few more camps on his Chase has totally turned the wheel and done some amazing ministry.  This year was a treat for me to be invited to speak at our middle school winter camp up at Pine Summit in Big Bear Lake.  As I watched, engaged and spoke this weekend here are four things that really stuck out to me:

1) Our church has a great Middle School Pastor
Please notice that I did not say "good" middle school pastor.  Chase has grown into a great middle school pastor and I truly believe that he will continue to grow in his leadership.  I am starting with this because of how I see Chase lead students and his adult leader team.  There is a huge love for Chase in his ministry and I know that he desires to point these students to Christ; that is one thing that makes him great.

2) Adult Leaders who Lead
In our church we call our adults who help out leaders.  We do not have chaperones in our ministry.  Chase has a team of leaders who serve alongside him that are leaders.  Chase is actively training up new leaders and inviting leaders onto the team to lead students.  I loved watching this this weekend and just seeing leaders doing what God has called them to do.

3) God Sending Snow
I have been on so many winter camps that I cannot even count how many I have been on now.  This was my third winter camp this year (I lead one and spoke at another one prior to this) and it was so rad having God send snow!  It snowed about 18-24 inches while we were up there and it just made for a cool weekend.  Anytime you can take a bunch of kids from the desert and get them fresh snow its super cool.

4) Speaking to Our Church
It was so rad for me speaking to our middle school students and the leadership team.  See when I came out here over six years ago we had 8 students on my first night; there were many more than that this weekend.  I felt very strongly that I needed to communicate the message clearly to our students this weekend because I will have these students in my ministry in the coming year.  I felt like I had a chance to share with these students about what they can expect in their coming years at South Hills.

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