I am about to spend some time in prayer and then practice a bit and then I can go be a part of all the ministry preparation that takes place before everyone shows up. After I’m ready to speak mentally and spiritually, I like to stay busy and not think about it. Usually I will have to make a trip to the restroom. I have done this pretty much before every “talk” I have given for the past 15 years. The body has strange reactions to public “performance.”

So anyways, please pray for me if you read this. Pray that God would speak through me and that my flawed and faulty memory would work better than it usually does.

I’m speaking on what we have as the second to last statement of Christ. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” – Luke 23:46. This was actually a traditional bed-time prayer for Jewish children and comes originally from Psalm 31:5. The powerful act that Christ completes with such child-like humility is astonishing. Also, that He is quoting Scripture with His very last words is a remarkable example. He was depositing His spirit to the Father for safekeeping, but He had the power and authority to take it again at any time – John 10:17-18.

I’m looking forward to sharing that in 180 seconds and then spending a lot more time than that remembering and reflecting on the sacrificial death of our Lord.

Any other plans from people from other churches?

I was listening to Mike Erre’s Preach It series that he gave me. It’s 10 hours of talking about preaching and teaching God’s Word. Awesome stuff. I’m really growing from it and feeling challenged to 1)do something like it with people at Calvary 2)continue to hone my teaching with some of the principles from it.

Now I’m going to relax and shower for another hour and a half and then go pick up Gracie.

Peace.

He also talked to me about a guy named Peck’s stages of faith that are roughly described as:
1. Chaos – don’t know God, all over the place mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
2. Order – come to know God and love structure and a form of legalism that feels really good to them for the time. One Year Bible reading, etc.
3. Breakdown – Dark Night of the Soul, daily devotional reading feels horrible, straying from organized religion or religiosity
4. Return – a return to God in some sense, but also a redefining of what spending time with God looks like, etc.

This is a rough description from our 10 minute conversation on the topic. I want to read more about it, but the main thing Mike talked about was to be intentional about considering that we have people from all four groups in our congregations when we are teaching. We need to connect with all of them in some way.

Finally, we talked about some cool things they are doing at ROCKharbor with reducing Mike’s teaching to about 20 times per year so that they aren’t based on his personality alone. They have some interesting plans for the future around this reduction that I don’t know if I should say yet. We also had some good personal conversation. The guy is really good with remembering things about you. I felt bad because he remembered Bea’s name and knew that we were having a girl and I didn’t even remember how many kids he has.

Update: Here are Peck’s Stages from a Wiki – a bit of an ultra-long post. Sorry.

* Stage I is chaotic, disordered, and reckless. Very young children are in Stage I. They tend to defy and disobey, and are unwilling to accept a will greater than their own. Many criminals are people who have never grown out of Stage I.
* Stage II is the stage at which a person has blind faith. Once children learn to obey their parents, they reach Stage II. Many so-called religious people are essentially Stage II people, in the sense that they have blind faith in God, and do not question His existence. With blind faith comes humility and a willingness to obey and serve. The majority of good law-abiding citizens never move out of Stage II.
* Stage III is the stage of scientific skepticism and inquisitivity. A Stage III person does not accept things on faith but only accepts them if convinced logically. Many people working in scientific and technological research are in Stage III.
* Stage IV is the stage where an individual starts enjoying the mystery and beauty of nature. While retaining skepticism, he starts perceiving grand patterns in nature. His religiousness and spirituality differ significantly from that of a Stage II person, in the sense that he does not accept things through blind faith but does so because of genuine belief. Stage IV people are labelled as mystics.

Scott Peck argues that while transitions from Stage I to Stage II are sharp, transitions from Stage III to Stage IV are gradual. Nonetheless, these changes are very noticeable and mark a significant difference in the personality of the individual.

Some of us drove home on Saturday night because we had church responsibilities. I actually preached both services on Sunday. I like doing the Celebration service. It’s about twice as big as our Elevation service, but that’s not why I like it. It’s has less energy and enthusiasm as our Elevation service, but that’s not why I like it. I like it because the people love talking about it after the service. I was talking to these three adorable older ladies after the service who just wanted to chat. It was funny and kinda fun. They loved that I teased our Sr Pastor in my sermon about being a germa-phobe.

Then we had Hume Lake sign-ups and had hundreds of people outside the gym. We had a big “cookout” as my southern friends would call it. We raised about $1,500 for the Kenya trip with the BBQ as us SoCal people call it. Awesome.

I left the house at about 6:30am and got home at 2:45pm and I was on my feet the whole time after being on the Men’s Retreat. Needless to say, I am exhausted. It’s good to be with my family.

P.S. We leave for Maui next Saturday. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

I taught on serving God for His glory and not our own – from Matthew 20:20-28. I mentioned the weird parts of preaching where you sometimes feel like you are doing it for the accolades and positive comments from people. So it was funny to see how people responded to me afterwards. Some joked and said, “Eric – you were awesome. It’s all about you.” One Jr High girl said “Good job this morning” and then she said, “Oh wait, I mean, God spoke through you today.” It was cute to see her catch herself. I also got an email from someone that said, “Glory job,” instead of “good job.” That was creative.

Any thoughts on either topic from people in ministry or other fields where this applies???

Positives of Camping Ministry:
Away from distractions and some temptations
Focus on God in nature
Time for relational ministry
Awesome camp staff who love students and care for the youth pastors
Quality time for worship
Fun

Negatives of Camping Ministry:
So much focus on “hooking up” by kids
Annoying 19-year-old camp lead counselors that think they know more about youth ministry than the youth pastors (and sometimes act like they know your kids better too)
Kids get so tired that they are almost too moldable
Rec and program leaders create a mob mentality through cheers and competitions
Speakers and worship leaders push for an emotional response instead of allowing the Spirit to work in His time
Too much focus on decisions and not long-term commitment
Decisions don’t last down the hill

I think many of these negatives can be placed on youth ministries as well. I think the biggest thing in here is the push and shove for an emotional “altar-call” response. People need an opportunity to make decisions, but sometimes these camp altar calls are all about feeding the ego of the speaker and aren’t really even about the kid as much as the mass of kids coming forward.

If any of my friends from Alpine, Ponderosa Pines, Forest Home, or Hume Lake read this I am sorry if this feels like an attack. As I process this, it is less an attack on camping ministry in general as it is a challenge to certain speakers, worship leaders, and camp programmers – including myself.

I spent the morning working on talks for a camp I’m speaking at this weekend. It’s a smaller camp called Alpine up near Lake Arrowhead. I love doing camps for Junior Highers. They are the best. They are usually totally into it and enjoy getting to know you as the speaker. Just praying that God will use the time. Camps always feel like it takes a lot of time to give to people you might never meet again. I’m glad that Bea and Grace are coming with me.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how camps are potential brainwashing. I will probably post on that more after the weekend. I’m not saying that all camps just brainwash kids, but it’s a concern I have. Get them tired, lots of hype, mob crowd influence, and then ask for a commitment…that’s what I mean. More to come.