Tag: camp

Acceptance: Institutional or Confessional?

Posted on by Andrew Conard

I reflected about acceptance at camp and in the church several days ago. My friend, Ben Simpson, clarified for me a distinction in acceptance through sharing the following:

Institutional acceptance is based on a characteristic of a particular institution, organization or community.

Confessional acceptance is based on our confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and the character of the God that we serve.

I have experienced churches to be accepting based on a mix of these in varying degrees. Can you have one without the other? How do they interact?

Institute: What’s the Point? (5 of 5)

Posted on by Andrew Conard

I spent last week at a youth camp, Institute 2010: God’s All Stars, which is a ministry of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry of the Kansas East Annual Conference. This post is part of a series reflecting on the week and making applications for the local church.

I am unable to deny that there are some positive outcomes to Institute. I was still left with the question, What’s the point? It could have been:

  • Provide a safe place for students
  • Offer freely given love as part of a Christian community
  • Create a place where people are always accepted
  • Meet new people
  • Move forward on the journey of becoming a deeply committed Christian.
  • Have fun and play games
  • Create a culture of hearing God’s call to ministry

After a week, I am not sure what is the driving purpose of Institute. Those who come to camp become part of the leadership team that plans the next year. Students come year after year. Adults come to serve because they came when they were young. It has been going for 99 years…

I gained some additional insight from Notes on Camp and commend it to you as a great listen and insight into summer camp of all sorts.

Institut(ion): In Every Sense of the Word (3 of 5)

Posted on by Andrew Conard

I spent last week at a youth camp, Institute 2010: God’s All Stars, which is a ministry of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry of the Kansas East Annual Conference. This post is part of a series reflecting on the week and making applications for the local church.

Institute is an institution with the good and the bad that it brings. There are rich traditions and a history that brings the past to light and looks to the future. Many of the adult leaders at camp this summer remember an experience of the very same camp when they were young. One of the pastors among the adult leaders remembers feeling first called to ministry in the very place where we had morning worship during the week. However, the rich history has the side effect of narrowing the vision of what could be possible for a camp among the high school students of the Kansas East Conference. There are some practices that are clearly leftovers from time gone by and while faithful have ceased to be relevant.

What about in your local church? How has the past shaped who the community is today? In what ways does the history shape both the present and the future?

Institute: Prayer Squares (2 of 5)

Posted on by Andrew Conard

I spent last week at a youth camp, Institute 2010: God’s All Stars, which is a ministry of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry of the Kansas East Annual Conference. This post is part of a series reflecting on the week and making applications for the local church.

Part of the practice of the week at camp was to share a prayer square. Here is the practice of the prayer squares:

  1. Choose a strip of cloth from the cross as a part of morning worship.
  2. Write your name on the square and carry it with you throughout the day.
  3. Return the strip of cloth to the cross as a part of evening worship.
  4. Repeat the next day and continue to be in prayer for all those whose names are written on the cloth.
  5. On the last day, take one home with you.

This is a cool practice. In addition to the opportunity to be in prayer, I was struck by the power of the entire camp moving forward to the cross. These pictures are from morning worship. You can see the cross in the front covered with green prayer squares and the students moving forward to the cross.

In what ways is your local church inviting people to the cross?

How are people equipped to pray for one another?

Institute: The Clique Where Everyone is In (1 of 5)

Posted on by Andrew Conard

I spent last week at a youth camp, Institute 2010: God’s All Stars, which is a ministry of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry of the Kansas East Annual Conference. This post is part of a series reflecting on the week and making applications for the local church.

On the first day, I realized that Institute is a clique. There are insider language, traditions, games, jokes and expectations. My first response was negative, do high school students really need another clique? As the week continued I realized a significant difference in the clique that is Institute and others which exist in the world:

Institute is a clique where everyone is in.

If you are present at the camp, you are in. You can be part of the exclusive group, learn the traditions, language, games, jokes and expectations. Everyone is accepted into the clique.

What about your local church? Is there there insiders and outsiders? How do the common words and practices of your local church seem to those who are new? Is everyone in?

Institute 2010: God’s All Stars

Posted on by Andrew Conard

Today begins my first experience of Kansas East Youth Institute. From a promotional poster:

For almost 100 years, young people have come to Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan., to attend United Methodist Youth Institute. Institute is a tradition of the Kansas East Conference Council on Youth Ministry. Institute is a unique week of spiritual formation and discipleship for senior high youth. At Institute, youth are taught to both receive and give care as taught by Jesus Christ.

Youth who have completed the eighth grade through graduating high school seniors are eligible to attend Institute.

The 2010 summer theme is “God’s All-Stars.” The Institute Vision Team selected this theme with you in mind. We will consider how people whom God calls upon for leadership are often a different type of All-Star than those the rest of the world calls upon for leadership.

Here goes something…

The Kingdom of God at CaMMp Sonflower

Posted on by Andrew Conard

On Monday this week, I was blessed to have a small part in CaMMp Sonflower, a 4 hour day camp for people of all ages with special needs. The camp is a part of Matthew’s Ministry here at Resurrection. Here is a quick overview of the ministry:

As I watched the campers and volunteers gather in Wesley Covenant Chapel, I thought of some of the first words that Jesus proclaimed,

The kingdom of God is at hand.

I felt God present in that time and place in a profound way. Thank you to all the volunteers, leaders, and participants of Matthew’s Ministry and CaMMp Sonflower for sharing God’s kingdom here on earth.