Youth Ministry BLOG

Weekly updates from the Youth Ministry Team

Send comments or questions to rscott@covenantharbor.org

November 23rd, 2010: "It's in God's Hands"

These past few weeks have marked a couple big moments in Covenant Harbor’s yearly calendar. First we opened up for summer camp registration. The schedule went online a while ago and we opened right on time for parents to register their kids for camps like Pathfinder and Trailblazer up at Kishwaketoe, the Explorer and Navigator programs at Pier 30, the Alpha Team and Element Camp for high school students, not to mention all of our DayCamp programs as well as our week ofFamily Camp. All of this is really exciting for us. The second landmark in our camping calendar is that we started the process of hiring summer staff for 2011. Applications have been rolling in (especially for Day Camp staff) and we’re starting interviews and next summer is starting to feel like its right around the corner.

With all this going on it felt like a good time to share a bit with all of you about our hiring process. Hopefully this will help you to understand how the process works.

We post the available positions online (click here to read about available positions) as well as this year’s summer staff application and reference forms. People read what jobs are available, think about what job(s) they think they could do this summer, and then fill out and send in their application. At this point we’ll do a “first interview” (as we call it) basically designed to help us get to know the applicant as a person. Applicants also need four reference forms from people who know them in different situations like at work, or in church, or maybe on a sports team. Once we’ve contacted these individuals to learn more about the applicant we’ll decide if we should schedule a “second interview” or not. The second interview is more job specific and involves questions regarding situations and duties that staff will need to handle. After all this we make a hiring decision.

Now that’s the bare bones on paper version of how we hire someone here at camp. As I’m sure you realize, there’s a lot more that goes into it than that like meetings, conversations, background checks and all that. But I’m wondering if you spotted the largest and most blaring omission from that description of our hiring process? God.

A lot of times it can be easy to overlook the fact that although we here at Covenant Harbor are the ones reading the applications and conducting the interviews it’s God who is making the decisions. Our goal is not to fill our summer staff with the individuals we get along with most or the ones that we think are “cool”. What we want is to be mindful of the guidance God gives us in our decision making so we can assemble the staff best suited to do His work. At times that means not hiring people we know and like in favor of a random new applicant who we feel God is leading us to hire.

Of course we don’t claim to be perfect in our understanding of God’s will but our intention is to put Him at the forefront of our hiring process. In all of our decisions we strive to make God the most important factor. For several years now we’ve been as mindful as possible of listening to God during the hiring process. And for the past several years we’ve had stellar staffs who’ve accomplished amazing things through Christ.

October 26th, 2010: "Have Fun"

So when I was a kid, I didn’t know what I wanted to be. I liked sports so I’m sure at some point I wanted to be a pro athlete. I lived near a fire station growing up and for a while there I wanted to be a fire fighter, so very predictable. But as I got older I knew one thing more than anything else, I wanted to have fun. I realized when I was in high school that I would much rather be happy than rich. Sure I wanted stuff, who doesn’t? Heck I still do. (by the way, if anybody wants to donate an awesome wakeboarding boat to Covenant Harbor I wouldn’t be upset about it) But more than stuff and more than money I knew that I just wanted to have fun and be happy.

My mom used to tell me all the time that “All you ever want to do is to have fun”. Well…duh! I was a kid/teenager/young adult, what was I supposed to be thinking about, the socio-economic state of our nation? And truth be told, I still think about having fun all the time. It dominates my brain. Sure fun is different now than back when I wanted to be a pro baseball player. Less playing outside with toy guns and action figures and a lot more playing outside with my dog and hanging out with my wife. This brings me to the crux of this post. I live and work in an environment that works for me. The way I think, the things I want, they all fit in the life situation I’ve chosen to live in. Do yours?

I’ve said before that God called me to this job, which he obviously did, but I used to think that it was because I was the right tool for his ministry. The reality is that this job, the community I work in, the environment that I live in and the opportunities that are presented to me all go together to create the life that God wants me to live. By following his guidance I am in a situation that allows me to “have fun” all the time. At work. At home. As much as I can I try to have fun. But that’s me, God chose me to live this life, in this situation, with this group of people around me.

More than we realize we try and fit ourselves into a situation that seems appealing to us but often isn’t a good fit for us, our personalities, or our true desires. It may sound glamorous to live in the big city and drive a fancy car, but if God created you to be a farmer and drive a tractor then you’re gonna be miserable trying to live that life. I followed a call to a job but found myself in a situation that God created for me to be happy and productive for his kingdom. Instead of trying to change yourself to fit the situation you’ve put yourself in, why not change your situation to one that God has molded for you. Heck, I get to “have fun” all the time, why not you let God put you in a situation that fits you?

October 5th, 2010: "WHY?"

"Why?" It's a good question. Even when it comes from a 10 year old camper who's wondering "why" they can't go back to the waterfront after dinner. It's in our nature to want to know "Why?" and more often than not the answer we receive doesn't settle the question inside us. The answers we get ("because", "I don't know", "it just is", or "to get to the other side") are usually either no answer at all or they just leave us asking more questions.

As Christians, especially Christians working with children, we encounter "why?" quite a lot. "Why did God make the sky blue?" "Why do I have to go to church every Sunday?" "Why do we sin?" "Why does God let bad things happen to us?" Unfortunately, the answers have become pretty standard ("God has a purpose for everything" or "We can't see it now but God has a plan for this" and "We just need to trust God") and we don't take enough time to really think about these answers to "Why?".

It's hard not knowing. Unlike God, we don't have limitless understanding of the world that we live in. In fact, we understand so very little about it that it's almost laughable. We can barely understand today that the idea of understanding the "why's" of tomorrow is downright terrifying. But those answers that have become so "standard" are actually quite remarkable when we take the time to consider them. God DOES put purpose into our lives if we let him. God DOES have a plan for us. And if we are able to TRUST God then he WILL use everything that happens in our lives, good and bad, to better his kingdom.

Several years ago, one of my fellow summer staffers passed away right before what would have been his 4th summer working in camping ministry. It was an unlikely car crash and it took the life of a great man. I've worked 9 summers in camping and he was the BEST counselor I've ever encountered, and he was a truly unique spirit who I thought was destined to change the world by sharing Christ's love. We were all hurting and we didn't understand "why" it had happened. I remember thinking "why" would God take a man who could have done so very much to benefit his kingdom. Today I know that God already had used this young man to do so much. Since then we've hired former campers of his to work on summer staff, we've heard countless stories of how he affected the people around him, and I know that who he was has been an inspiration to me and others who'd worked along side him .

In the end we should be happy that we have so much "Why?" in our lives. "Why" should be a comfort to us. If we only had control of our lives then we wouldn't need to ask "Why?", we'd already know. But we don't already know, we do ask "why?" and we certainly don't have control in our lives! This is great news, because if we understood it all and were in control of our own lives then where would God fit? If we allow him to, God can be in control of each and every single "Why?" in our life, both the good and the bad, and we can live with the comfort that he'll make the best out of each and every one of them. So go ahead and ask "Why?" knowing that God may be the only one with an answer.

Send comments or questions to rscott@covenantharbor.org