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Reflections of a Church Camp

by Jake Muncy
8/04/2007 / Teen Issues

The First Rule of Church Camp is This is Not a Church Camp

"Super Summer is not just another camp, but a week of structured and focused training-- a week which is also a lot of fun."--Super Summer webpage

I don't have a huge amount of experience with camps. I was never the kind of kid who desired to go to some outdoor resort and play games and do crafts. It never appealed to me. It still doesn't. I'm not the kind of kid who's going to go to a church camp on some ranch and spend two weeks with raucous youth groups who don't act like they came from a church at all.

Super Summer is, first and foremost, not that.

The first thing that strikes me about Super Summer is the differences between Super Summer and the communities of teenagers I'm used to. I'm a geek, and if I go into a high school and talk to a blonde cheerleader-type, I'm going to be given a look that makes me wish I never existed. I have talked to a variety of people at Super Summer, and this has never happened. I can go up to anyone of any race or social class at Super Summer and start up a conversation. I can make friends without fear of insult, hatred, or mockery. Something feels genuine there.

People are kind there. Honest, sincere, gentle, loving, and spirited. This is not something I'm used to. Jesus says to the apostles, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35) Here, unlike in so many other places, I feel the love.

Super Summer began in 1974 as discipleship training. Super Summer's original vision was to train young people to serve God in their lives and world. It started as a project done by a group of churches in North Texas. Since then, it's blossomed.

Hosted at Hardin-Simmons University, the fourth session of Super Summer, the one I've attended for two years now, is not your average church camp. The term I'm inclined to use to describe Super Summer is not "camp" at all, but "seminar." Unlike a camp, the majority of your time at Super Summer is not spent in various forms of recreation and "fun" activities. The majority of your time at Super Summer is spent learning.

The two primary activities are listening and discussing. Listening to a speaker or leader, and talking about what you just heard in small discussion groups. The Super Summer website estimates that approximately 24 hours of five days is spent in the intense learning sessions.

Super Summer is specific about the kind of kids it wants: the best. Super Summer accepts teenagers, from those going into eighth grade to those going into their first year of college, as students. These teens must be approved by their youth minister as the cream of the crop. These are the kids that listen best, know the most, and love the greatest. These are the kids who truly love Jesus Christ.

Rarely do you meet a phony at Super Summer. The seminar method weeds them out rather quickly. When the vast majority of your activities are sitting in auditoriums being preached to and talking about God, unbelievers don't tend to stick around long.

The rigorous schedule reinforces this. Each day begins with breakfast at 6:45 and doesn't wind down until 10:15 that night. The only times when you have breaks of more than a half an hour are right after meal times, and those are usually spent showering or simply sitting.

I'm always grateful to sit down at Super Summer. I estimate that I walk a distance of at least a couple of miles each day going back and forth from teaching sessions to my dorm to lunch to everything else. I've become convinced that I lose weight during my weeks at Super Summer. And after two days home as I write this, my legs are still sore.

Super Summer Session 4 begins sometime in the middle of July. This past year, it was the 16th to the twentieth. It starts on 3:30 PM on the 16th and ends at around noon on the twentieth. There's no leaving if you don't like it. No going off campus for any reason except an injury. Or, of course, if you break the rules. Any semi-serious infraction will get you sent home at your own expense. Which, considering most people travel at least two hours to get to the campus, is a big deal.

There are no cell phones, no electronics, allowed at Super Summer. All connections to the outside world are cut-off for those five days. In my mind, I compare Super Summer to the monastic experience. Live in an isolated area with nothing but the faithful, cut off from the outside world, and spend most of your time in quiet study and corporate worship. A strict code of discipline is enforced, and those who can't do the work can't be a monk. The experience is intensely spiritual. The only difference between a monastery and Super Summer is that Super Summer exists to prepare us to go back into the world. Super Summer takes very seriously Jesus' words in Acts 1:8, "...You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Super Summer, at its heart, is focused on reaching out. On arrival at the campus, I look at the front of the main auditorium and see a large banner declaring, "Youth Evangelism, Texas Style" which conjures to my head images of young cowboys handing out tracts to the farmhands. While no tracts are given and no theological fast-track formulas to salvation taught, the focus is inevitably on evangelism.

The word evangelism scares a lot of people. To non-Christians, it brings up the idea of crazed, wide-eyed street preachers and overzealous public figures trying to convert the world or damn it in the process. For Christians, it makes the tense up, fearing that they're going to be told to go out on the street and awkwardly share Jesus with the pedestrians.

There's a comedian named Jim Gaffigan whom I love. I think he's a hilarious, hilarious man. He has a few religious jokes. One of his jokes is about people who use that evangelistic strategy. "I want you all to feel comfortable, so I'm going to talk to you about Jesus.

"It doesn't matter if you're religious or not, does anything make you more uncomfortable than someone coming up to you and saying, 'I'd like to talk to you about Jesus?' Yeah. I'd like you not to. I bet you could say that to the Pope, and he'd say, 'Hold on, freak! I like to keep work at work!' "

Most everyone, in one form or another, knows exactly what he's talking about. The chase-you-down-on-the-street process of evangelism, together with the ring-your-doorbell style, just don't seem to work, and they even make Christians uncomfortable. Super Summer's style is the alternative and (I believe) much more effective style that is often called "relational evangelism." The kind of evangelism that just tries to make friends and share the love. Some of the evangelical instructions I was given include, "Go to the mall," and "hang out at Starbucks for a while and meet some people." The idea is that Christians need to come into contact, naturally, with non-Christians, and share the gospel naturally in the context of friendship.

One of my speakers at Super Summer, an amazing man by the name of Jason Sturgeon, said that so many church youth groups advertise the church as a "safe place" where teens can come hang out away from the rest of the world. This, he said, completely defeats the point of what a Christian should be doing. A Christian should be going into those "dangerous" places and dangerously living out the Christian faith in front of non-believers.

Super Summer pushes all of its resources to this goal. It brings in speakers, leaders, and volunteers from all the states around Texas to come together and train students to go back into their world and evangelize. Students are taught how to build relationships, get closer to God, and stay strong in their faith so that they can impact others.

Super Summer attempts to build what I often hear called a "student leader." Christian students who go into their campuses and lead for God. The kind of kids who head Bible studies, lead Christian communities, bring others to Christ, and set an example for the believers around them to follow.

It tries to break the complacency that so many teenagers have. Super Summer attempts to train radicals who look different than the world around them. To this end, the first thing Super Summer does is organize its charges.

Students are first divided into one of six schools, based on their age. Those going into eighth grader are Red School, ninth are Blue, tenth are Orange, eleventh are Yellow, twelfth are Green, and those who recently graduated are Khaki. In addition, there is a Purple School for the khaki-aged students who plan on going into full-time vocational ministry. I don't fall into that category, so my student career at Super Summer will end in Khaki school.

Beyond that, students in each school are divided into a 10-15 student group called a family group. Each family group, made up of males and females (so far as I know) randomly grouped, along with a mother and a father. The parents are Team Leaders: volunteers above the Super Summer student age-group who wish to help out and lead the students. Many, if not most, are college-aged graduates of Super Summer themselves.

Each school meets for a school session three times a day. School sessions are led by a Dean and an Assistant Dean, function mostly as preachers and teachers. These school sessions are led out by a "worship leader" who leads us in singing praise songs. At the end of the day, all the schools meet in the main auditorium for a Rainbow Celebration corporate worship and learning time, which is led by a worship band, a magician or comedian (I'm not sure why, but Southern Baptist events seem to be in love with illusionists), and a speaker.

These main activities are separated by meals, a quiet time, and a two-hour, completely exhausting time of recreation, the only such time we get during Super Summer. In short, Super Summer proves challenging and joyous, exciting and exhausting, five days of intensive worship and instruction that has, every year, left me different than I was the Sunday before.

Super Summer or Gang Territory

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing."--2 Corinthians 2:15

Super Summer starts out with basic entry procedures. Get checked in, find your room, set down your luggage. But one stop most people make is at a table sporting Spirit Packs. Spirit Packs are collections of gear (t-shirt, bandanna, etc) fashioned in the various colors of the various schools. I grab one and head to my dorm.

Upon exiting my dorm, I'm clad in bright yellow. My blue t-shirt has been replaced by a yellow t-shirt boasting, "Property of Super Summer," and a yellow bandanna is tied on the top of my head like a doo-rag.

In most realities, I look like an idiot. In my hometown, I wouldn't even go outside the house looking like this. And wearing something, anything, on my head is odd to me-- I'm not a hat person. A friend of mine joked that the only other place where you dress like you do at Super Summer is in gang territory.

Super Summer has its own fashion sense, and the order of the day is to represent your school in the most flamboyant way possible. In my yellow garb, I'm fashionably normal. I declare, through my clothes, that I'm a member of Yellow School and proud of it.

When I first enter the Yellow School session room, I'm slapped in the face with the school's theme: smell. Breathmints are littered on the front table. A bread maker and a coffee brewer sit on a table on the side of the stage. A unique fruity scent hits my nose.

Sturgeon, my dean, explains the theme. The theme is based on a verse in 2 Corinthians, starting with 2:15. "For you are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one you are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life."

The point is that we are supposed to be noticeable. We are supposed to have a distinct aroma to us; the aroma of Christ. We are, in essence, to imitate God so closely that we smell like him, and everyone around us should be hit with this overwhelming divine musk.

Dressed in my Super Summer fashion, everyone knows that I'm a Yellow Schooler. Everyone can tell what group I belong to. In a sense, my yellow clothes set me apart from all the other people at Super Summer. I belong to a special kind of group and society that the majority of the others don't.

God's influence in our lives ought to be the same way. People should know, based on the way I act, move, and speak, that I'm different. That I'm set apart. That I have something in me that most people don't have. That I, like Jesus, know where I came from and where I'm going (John 8:14). This is what it means to smell like God.

The scent of God is also the smell of authenticity. Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians, "Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God (2 Corinthians 2:17)." A true Christian that truly smells like God acts in a way that's authentic to his mission. He doesn't share God's word because it's profitable, and he doesn't live differently because he gets something out of it, but he lives and shares because he has been called by God to do so, and he sincerely pursues God's calling.

This is the smell that we, as Christians, are all supposed to have. To some people, this is going to be a good smell. It's going to be a sweet perfume to the people who are receptive to God's message. They are going to see in us something they want. Something they need. Something they're searching for. But for others, the smell of God will be revolting. It'll be judgment, condemnation, and all manners of evil, because they are so far removed from the love of God.

It comes as a natural result of smelling like God that some people are going to hate us. Jesus, in fact, spends a lot of time preparing His disciples for this eventuality. "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)." If our smell is not revolting to those truly opposed to God, then something is probably wrong.

Allow me to be self-righteous for a moment.

When I go to school, when I look at the so-called Christians around me, this is the one thing that irritates me the most. Most "Christians" in our world today, at least in my generation, smell just like the world. Unequally yoked with unbelievers, they sound, act, and move just like everyone else. They're normal. Complacent. Indistinguishable from the common, unbelieving rabble.

This is a tragedy of unequaled proportions, when God's people no longer have the mark of God on them. No one is revolted by their smell, everyone loves them and accepts them. They're popular and loved and everyone wants to be them. Jesus warns that this is exactly how the false prophets were treated in the Old Testament times (Luke 6:26).

But the fact is, these people are completely lukewarm and useless in their faith. They do nothing one way or another. They never explicitly deny God, but they never explicitly point to Him, either. They just live a normal life, the seed of God choked by the concerns of this world.

We are supposed to live radically different than the world. Another thing Jason emphasized, a challenge he gave. He said that he had had so many schools, so many Super Summer classes that were just toeing the line. They were nice and polite and they acted like perfectly well-behaved sinners, but that's it. Jason challenged us to live above that. To raise the standard. To go the extra mile, to give the shirt off our backs.

He issued the challenge of being five minutes early everywhere we go. He set us on "Yellow School time." He started five minutes before the schedule, and chided us if we were any later. In the same way, he let us out five minutes earlier. We were consistently first to family groups, first out of family groups, and first to the recreation field.

Everything we do as Christians is done to the glory of God, therefore it's our God-given duty to give everything our all. Cheer as hard and as loud as you can at the recreation field. Work your heart out to make those straight A's at school. Use your talents to the best of your ability to glorify God. Be kinder, gentler, smarter, and stronger than the world, because you have something they don't, and you better show it.
Revelations tells us that nothing revolts Christ more than a lukewarm Christian who doesn't excel and doesn't smell. "I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-- neither hot nor cold-- I am about to spit you out of my mouth (Revelations 3:15-16)."

We need to decide. Are we going to smell like God, or are we going to renounce our faith? We can't live lukewarm-- there is little that God despises so much as that. Either live it fully, or don't live it at all. Either smell like God, or don't smell at all.

The Problem with Worship is... What now?

"Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them."--A.W. Tozer

The School Sessions dominate most of our days, and they're done with the use of a curriculum book, full of follow-along bulleted messages and fill-in-the-blanks. I make no secret about the fact that I really have little respect for these tiny books. From their stupid pictures to their misplaced Bible verses, I really find the things not terribly useful. Perhaps I'm just more cynical than I was the first time I went, but those books kind of got on my nerves.

I'm not alone in this. My youth minister, who worked as Assistant Dean of Khaki School, was greatly troubled by the statements in one of the lessons he was supposed to teach using the book. It was a lesson about worship, a lesson Yellow School also went through (with some changes and deviations from my Dean and Assistant Dean).

The statement that troubled Jim was, "Worship is the #1 duty of a Christian."

When I first heard the statement, my exact response was, "Bullcrap." The foremost duty of a Christian is in service and love. Jesus says He wants mercy, not sacrifice. My duty is not to sing silly songs but to help those in need of God's mercy and love. Isn't it?

There's a story in the Bible. A man, a man well-versed in the Scripture, comes to Jesus. He asks a question that was posed to many of the rabbis and teachers of the day. He wanted to use the question to test Jesus.

The question:"What is the greatest commandment?" This Jewish scholar was, in fact, asking the exact same question my youth minister found himself asking as he prepared for Super Summer, the question he asked my pastor, and the question we discussed the Sunday evening before I left for Abilene. What is the primary duty of a Christian?

Jesus' simple, succinct answer: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37)."

Notice how my answer differs from Jesus', and the book's answer differs even moreso. It's funny. I've read that passage time and time again, and I know, in my smart, stuck-up intelligentsia way, that this is the entire crux of Jesus' message. Yet, when asked, I give the wrong answer. At Super Summer and the talk with my youth minister afterwards, I began to understand the greatest commandment.

Something Jason said that stuck with me: "If you don't feel like witnessing... don't." Instead, focus on loving God: all good things will proceed from that. St. Augustine's adage is similar: Love God, and do as you will. The greatest duty of a Christian is simple love for God. From that love for God, worship flows, as does obedience, as does evangelism, as does love for neighbors, as does service.

So then what's worship? In John Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that God seeks those who worship Him "in spirit and in truth." Okay. So He wants it to be authentic. But what is it?

I find, writing this, that I don't know where I'm going. I had an idea going into this, but that idea has very fully left me. What is worship? How do you define it? The first mention of worship is in Genesis, and it's mentioned all the way up to Revelations. We label our Sunday services "worship services," as if worship was something specially limited to a few pews in an old building. There's a section of music in the music store labeled "worship." But what exactly is it? What is involved in the process of worshiping God, and how does it spring from my love for God?

I searched my Bible for answers, and I daresay I've found one, although I'm not sure I like it. See, it kind of irritates me when I have to use a verse that I find overused, even hackneyed (although applying such a term to a piece of Scripture would probably get me stoned in some places), but, such is God's will, apparently.

The verse that I've found, that best describes worship, is Romans 12:1. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship." The definition of worship in the books is, "giving God what's his," and that definition kind of irritates me, but it's a decent summary.

Now, in the Bible worship is used synonymously with exalting, and bowing down. "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker (Psalm 95:6)." However, it's obvious that worship is not simply kneeling before some altar or even some throne pictured in our minds. In Amos, God declares that He hates the injustice of His people and therefore despises their worship and turns His nose to it.

Worship comes from offering up our wills to God-- as Romans says, by offering our bodies on the altar as sacrifices, but instead of animal sacrifices that are burnt and killed, we are sacrifices that move and act however God directs, players in God's drama. Worship, then, is giving all of yourself over to God. The reason for that is the greatest commandment. It's the result of loving God.

"This is love for God: to obey his commands (1 John 5:3a)." Worship is tied to obedience. It is the expression of our love for God, and that expression comes from the way we live our lives. Worship is walking with God. Worship is meaningless if all it is is singing and lifting up hands and swaying from side to side and looking "blessed." Worship is spiritual and truthful: it involves every aspect of your being and is an ongoing process: worship is doing what God says.

Singing songs is something we Christians do as a knee-jerk reaction. Whenever we get together for a service or an event, they will always have what is now termed a "worship leader", some musician whose job it is to come up and sing pretty songs for us. I heard a story about a revival where the musicians started playing "You are the Wind Beneath My Wings" during the service. Most people sang along to that, raised their hands and swayed, just the same to that inspirational interpersonal ballad as they did to "Holy Holy Holy." It's obvious that these people weren't listening at all to the words that were being sung. It was all about appearance.

Worship nowadays (and I use the term "worship" in this context loosely) seems to be modeled after the Pharisees. We care so much about how we look and what other people are doing. I catch myself doing it, at times. I worship and I get into it, then... I look around to see what others are doing. Are they worshiping like me? Are they doing more? Am I making a fool of myself? Do I look better than them? To truly sing to God and to truly do the kind of things you do in a service (what I term praise, because the singing and joy and celebration is a natural result of obedient worship), you have to deny yourself. You must throw down your appearances, your comfort, your selfishness and self-centered-ness. To truly praise God is to be last in your own mind and everyone else's, as He is your only focus, and the words you're singing are an expression of the condition of your heart and your soul. Now, when I say "condition of your heart," most people, myself included, think of feelings. This, I believe, is wrong. Feelings are not important: they are another part of myself, and they may need to be denied to truly worship. God can and sometimes will speak through feelings and emotions, but sometimes they can be used as temptations. There are times when I go into a praise service, and sing the songs and try to focus on God and then... I feel nothing. No rush of energy, no tingling along my spine, no tears of joy or contrition. I begin to get distracted and I wonder, "Why am I not feeling anything? Am I doing it wrong?" But then I realize that what matters is what I believe-- not what I feel. What matters is that God deserves praise and I know it-- not that I'm feeling particularly praise-y.

But worship is something entirely different. Worship is loving God so much that you do everything to glorify Him. This point hit home on the recreation field. Now, something you need to understand about me. I'm not athletic. I'm, in fact, slightly chubby around the belly, and pasty (hence why I'm a writer). The burn and exhaustion of athletic work is no prize to me-- there is no rush, and feeling the burn brings no pleasure or energy at all. I simply realize how badly I want to sit down.

Now, recreation at Super Summer is two hours. The first hour is called Texas Olympics and has the kind of games you'd play in physical education in elementary school, with a few sometimes entertaining twists. I often get drafted to play these games, and I always suck. The second hour is called Wild N Crazy Games, and features people (not me, oh, gosh, not me) performing stunts involving disgusting substances in large quantities, from mayonnaise to prune juice. And did I mention I'm kind of squeamish?

In short, I despise recreation. My first year at Super Summer, I just kinda tagged along at rec and sat on the grass in the shade every chance I got. I distanced myself from my family group as much as possible. I was the lazy kid trailing behind, frowning. Now, this year, Jason tells us to glorify God as yellow team in every part of Super Summer, including rec. He led the cheers on the way out there. Jason, like me, is overweight and pasty, and he (secretly) hates rec too. And it occurs to me.

I have the worst attitude on the rec field! I am not glorifying God at all!

So, that week I try to glorify God and have spirit. I volunteer for games, I cheer and even lead cheers when no one else is there to do it, I run around and stand up even when I don't feel like. I felt like I really grew on the rec field, which is something I never thought I'd say. And, I hate to admit it, but it actually got to be a lot of fun.

Who knew worship could be recreational?

Cultivating Outside the Garden

"Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in [Jesus] because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers."--John 4:39-41

The theme for Super Summer this year was "Cultivate," based on John 4:39-41. The example to follow is Christ's. He stayed with these Samaritans, spent time with them, and cultivated a relationship with them, and through that many of them ended up believing in His message. Sharing God's message through getting to know people and sharing with them, or, as Super Summer said, "Building the kingdom one relationship at a time."

The main barrier to this for Christians is this little thing we all have around us. It's invisible and often imperceptible. We almost always stay in it, and we have a comfortable butt-groove right in the middle.

I'd like to call attention to the comfort zone.

So many of us stay easily rooted in our own circle of friends, our own kind, our own "sphere of influence." And we may not realize it, but this greatly inhibits our ability to witness. All through my sophomore year of high school, I truly really tried to live out my faith. I fell on my face a good portion of the time, sure, but I tried. And yet nothing happened. No one was really influenced.

Well, if the people I'm exerting most of my witness energy on are Christians, then... duh. Spending all of my time sitting with my nice Christian friends and choosing to work alongside them in everything I do... Of course I'm not making any impact! Who would I impact? That kid in the corner I've never spoken to?

The Christian church seems to have this mindset of monasticism. Separate but equal, if you will. The secular, "sinful" world has their own little set of hangouts, book stores, musical genres, media, even coffee shops, and we have our own. They stay in their corner. We stay in ours.

This accomplishes nothing. The correct biblical maxim is instead "in the world, but not of the world." We should seek to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, but at the same time we need to be around them.

The result of this church/world split is that we are able to lower expectations of ourselves and act in a way that makes us indistinguishable from the world at large. We are told to not be like the world-- when we're not in the world, we can define that standard however we choose. But when we see how the world acts and have to survive in it, we see the pressure to strive higher.

And it's impossible to reveal the truth to unbelievers if you do not live with them. If you do not befriend them, talk to them, get close to them, and love them, you will never bear that kind of fruit. You may be a perfect vision of peace, love, joy and faith, but if the unbelievers never see it, what good are you? We cannot let our lights be hidden. Salt is worthless unless it comes into contact with the meat.

With that in mind, it's necessary for us to see our prejudices for what they are. Due to our natural comfort zones, we have groups of people that we simply write off. We don't believe them worth the gospel-- at least unconsciously. And even if they were, we think to ourselves, they won't accept it, and certainly not from me. The reality is we only want to cultivate when the things we cultivate look just like us. We don't want to be fellow laborers in God's fields. We want to grow our own little spiritual garden, pulling along a little harem of Christians that look and act just like us.

The Body of Christ is very open to diversity. There are intellectuals, jocks, quiet folks, loud folks, shy and confident, introverted and extroverted. The Body of Christ welcomes the weird kid with the mohawk just as much as it welcomes the perfect image of suburban middle class normalcy. Therefore, we need to realize that those people that aren't like us, those people who are entirely opposite from us, are just as desired and just as needed in God's fold as you and I. Jesus wants the freaks, the geeks, the popular kids, the addicts, and the skaters.

In order to truly cultivate God's kingdom and work in His fields, we need to rid ourselves of class and social prejudices and see all people as equal before God. We need to reach out to the groups of people we'd never think of witnessing to, because those may be the very people we're supposed to witness to.

The Great Commission cries out for all nations. The first Christians faced a massive cultural barrier. They were Jews, but they felt the call more and more to witness to gentiles. Their entire culture was geared against this idea. Get too close to a gentile, and you might even be considered unclean. But look what God does. He calls Peter to the house of a gentile, and there Peter shares the gospel, and this man became a believer. The fields of the gentiles were ripe for harvest. They were waiting to be cultivated.

The fields of our outsiders may be just as ripe. The people we distance ourselves from the most and most discount are the people who need the message of God most, and they may be perfectly ready to receive it. Making a difference for Christ may simply mean getting into the hot, overgrown part of God's field and cultivating there.

"Jesus replied, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.'"--Luke 9:62

The Implications of Leadership

"Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth."--John Wesley

I don't know what other people see when they walk into a high school. I don't know how other Christians feel looking at the situation of their teens. I don't know if my school is an exception or the rule. But I know what I see.

I see a black hole. You walk into my high school and it's like the truth scatters, rats in Satan's cellar. The guys are talking about their newest conquest. Girls are talking about the newest fashions, or how hot that boy in second period is, or, more often, what a bitch that girl in second period is.

The scary thing is, if I went up to these very people and asked them if they were Christians, I imagine around half would say "yes." Something is seriously wrong here. The fact is, the best and the brightest in youth groups today go to school and completely ruin everything they've learned.

Most walk into our schools as simply a place of work, a place to deal with irritating teachers and too much math homework. They completely ignore their calling. They forget that high school is little else but the largest mission field they may ever see. They forget that our high schools are bastions of spiritual darkness.

The teenage years are the years when kids really begin to see the big questions in life. Some people even consider questions like, "What's the meaning of life?" and "Why am I here?" to be the amusement of the younger generations, something to be outgrown like an old pair of clothes or an immature attitude.

Teenagers are often in the very unique position of seeking purpose. This is a perfect time in their lives to meet Christ. They seek meaning: He is the meaning. They seek purpose: He is the purpose. They seek a path of their own: He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). And yet, instead of seeing spiritual revolutions among the teenagers of our day, what do we see? Instead they turn to drugs, sex, alcohol, masochism, dead-end relationships and blind ambition. It's as if they seek out every answer to their problems except the right one.

How can this be? How can people so willing to challenge old assumptions and turn their lives in new directions be so far from the truth? There are some teenagers who are willing to change everything about themselves for a chance at acceptance and love, yet they never become saints!

Something is seriously wrong here, and the problem is us. Our Christian youth are falling to the challenge, scores at a time, neglecting their peers. They know the answers. Many have heard the answers since they were children. And, yet, during the pain and blind groping of their friends, they stay silent. They know the methods and the hallmarks of a Christian, they've seen the examples, yet they back away and stay out of the spotlight of righteousness.

Why do our teenagers so uniformly miss the point? Are our churches not doing their jobs? Are our youth ministers not doing enough? No, they're doing more than enough. The youth ministers are very often doing the jobs of the Christian youth themselves. The youth ministers take it upon themselves to reach out to the teenagers in their local schools and communities. To be perfectly honest, this is not their job. Youth ministers exist to strengthen, encourage, teach, and support the Christian teens under their charge. We are all given the job of witnessing and ministering, but the calling of reaching out to our lost youth rests solely on the teens themselves.

I am sixteen years old, and I'm ready to say that it's my job. I am the youth minister in the true sense of the phrase. The adults who claim the title are in truth assistants. They exist to help and mentor us, and prepare us for the youth ministry. If this country's high schools are filled with the spiritually dead, it's because those of us who know better are not doing our jobs. If curses and expletives are so common in our hallways that even the most righteous of us become desensitized, it's our fault. If kids cut themselves for lack of an escape from pain, it's our fault. If kids without hope take guns to their heads, it's our fault.

It's our fault for being quiet.

Super Summer calls itself a leadership camp. The kids who congregate on college campuses in Texas are the leaders in their youth groups, the ones who know all the right answers. They are the ones who show the most spiritual understanding and who display the most Godliness. They're the ones who know better. We're the ones who know better.

One thing that I heard at Super Summer and other places is that our generation of youth is going to be the herald of a coming revival. We are going to complete the Great Commission, we are going to speed the second coming of Christ. If that's so, then we need to get off our collective rear and start fighting back.

We need to fight back against hatred, depression, fear, ignorance, anger, and lust. We need to fight back against the corrupt culture that victimizes our peers. We need to fight back against the American dream of going to a school that bores you to work a job you don't like for a guy you hate to buy crap you don't need. We need to fight against the evil Satan has wrought on our peers. We need to fight God's fight. We can't afford to be lazy anymore. The souls of our friends, teammates and class presidents depend on us.

It's time for a revolution in our high schools and our football fields, in our band halls and libraries. This is a revolution fought without weapons or destruction, without bullets or blades. This is a revolution fought with words and deeds. Frankly friends, we need to start living it. Jesus says that you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). There is no such thing as a true Christian who acts like a saint in the youth group but a devil in the cafeteria. That Christian is no Christian at all. No halfway point here. Like Luke Skywalker in Dagobah: "Do, or do not. There is no try."

One time, as Jesus is traveling from place to place teaching, he sees a large crowd following him. The Bible says, in Matthew 9:36, that Jesus "had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." The last part of this verse, "sheep without a shepherd," pretty much sums up the Christian youth of today. They have no real examples except for youth assistants and pastors, mothers and fathers. No one around them their own age who are actually getting the job done. No real youth ministers Who is there to bring God's truth to bear on the issues going on in their own schools? Who is there to bring Christian youth together in service for God in this massive mission field? Where is the church in the high school?

If God's revolution is going to happen, the first step is for us leaders to start leading. I feel very strongly that if those of us who truly understand God's calling started living it, our weaker brothers and sisters would start trying to follow our examples. In 1 Corinthians 4:16, Paul says, "Therefore I urge you to imitate me." This is the hallmark of a Christian leader: He walks in such a way that his weaker brothers and sisters can get closer to God's example simply by imitating him. If we live like that, the Christian youth who don't get it, awed by our reality and resolve, will imitate us, and we can show them how to imitate Christ.

If that happens, true Christians will multiply and our high schools will start changing. God will start working in our halls and our classrooms. "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24)."

This leadership is going to take some work. The first step is getting closer to God. We need to be in prayer, and in the Word, communicating with God, sharing thoughts, drawing strength and getting nearer to possessing the mind and heart of Christ. Letting God influence us intimately.

From there, we need to follow a Biblical outline for behavior. The hallmark of such an outline is love. Jesus said that love is the way you can tell Christians apart from others. Christians don't hate. They don't slander. They don't get angry easily and they don't get into confrontations hastily

There is a passage of scripture that I see as a basic guide for Christian behavior. I think it's very applicable to the high school mission field. If I have a creed, this is it.

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "it is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary,

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals
on his head."

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." --Romans 12:9-21

That covers the actions part. I think it's pretty self-explanatory. Along with that, we need to speak in a way that honors God. We need to share the gospel whenever we have a chance, pouring out God's truth to Christians and unbelievers alike. Both need to hear it in one way or another. In 1 Peter 3:15 he says, "Always be willing to offer a reason for the hope that you have. But do this in gentleness and respect."

If we start there, and start sharing the vision of God's revolution with our peers, and follow where God leads, there will be no need to wait for a revival. We'll start having one. We can lead. We must lead. And why not do it now?

There's a song I used to love, by a band called Rage Against the Machine. It's not the most Christian of songs, but there's one part of it that comes to mind.

"It has to start somewhere.
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here?
What better time than now?

"All hell can't stop us now.
All hell can't stop us now."

If we are walking with God, if we are leading like Jesus, if we are being the youth ministers we've been called to be, then we are being the church of God, "and not even the gates of hell shall prevail against it (Matthew 16:18)."

I am Jake Muncy, a student currently residing in Fort Worth, Texas. I'm a leader in my youth group and the odd teenager who is intensely fascinated by theology, philosophy, and English. If you like this article or want to print it, contact me at [email protected]

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