June 15
RUSH Camp Wrapup
For the last several years I’ve had the privilege of being the speaker at our high school/middle school summer camp – RUSH. I was a student pastor for 9 years before starting West Ridge and I still love the opportunity to connect with students, especially ours. Here’s a wrap-up of camp:
• Hats off to our Student Ministry staff (Dave Cole, Brad Chandler, James Griffin, Christy Smith, and Stephanie Dunlap) for pulling off an amazing week-long beach experience for our students. Anytime you can take 430 people to the beach and bring everyone back safely, it’s a win in my book.
• I’m a big fan of Myrtle Beach, SC. I’ll take Myrtle Beach over Panama City all day long. I know there are some people that love the white sands of the Gulf and the clearer water, but Myrtle Beach is a more family friendly environment for a student camp. Plus, there seems to be less seaweed crud in the Atlantic and fewer shark attacks. One of my greatest fears is getting attacked by a shark. It doesn’t stop me from going out there, but trust me, it’s on my mind.
• The facility we stayed in this year was excellent. The food was great, and the pools and beach were really nice. Plus, there was a Starbucks right next door…the bonus!
• Bret Stansfill (Kristen’s brother) and his band did a bang up job leading worship all week long.
• Our Student Pastors, James Griffin and Brad Chandler spoke every morning to the students around the theme “Become.” I spoke every night. My “hook phrase” was, “in order to become what God wants you to become, you have to do what God wants you to do.” By the end of the week, we had 46 salvation decisions and many other life change moments.
• Wednesday night, I spoke from Daniel 3 and talked about the need to walk away from our idols. That night, I had everyone write down on paper an idol that they are currently bowing to and asked them to lay it down on the stage. We then took all of the pieces of paper outside and buried them in a huge hole on the beach. It was an amazing moment! Note: Some of our environmentally conscious students were on me a bit for burying over 400 pieces of paper in the sand, but I assured them that paper was biodegradable. Plus, I told them that the fine for littering was less then the fine for starting a fire on the beach.
• Friday morning, we had a baptism service at 8:30 AM in the ocean. The waves were pretty rough, but we ended up baptizing 98 students in the water. It was the first time I had ever been knocked off my feet during a baptism service.
• I had a great one-on-one time with my upcoming 6th grader Zachary. Taylor and Amy had to stay home this year because of a sports commitment. My highlight moment with Zach came on our first night. We were sitting on the beach, under the stars, and he asked me, “Dad, do you think I have what it takes to be a pastor?” My answer, “absolutely!” Zach’s a gamer. I love his heart! I can’t wait to see what God does with his life.
• On the last night of RUSH, Kevin Dunlap and I challenged James and Brad to a competition to see who would be the most “buff” by next year’s RUSH. I’m not sure what I was thinking at that moment seeing that James and Brad are both 27 and Kevin is 45 and I’m 43, but it seemed cool at the time. James and Brad are pretty big boys already. Let’s just say Kevin and I have a lot of work to do over the next 350 plus days.