Lutheran Grilled Cheese 2.0

Specific Activities

When the CITs first got to the camp we played names games and role-playing games to help them feel comfortable around each other.  Our hope was that the CITs had an out of the ordinary common experience with one another so they start to build shared common experiences.

Most of the next few weeks are meetings and we practice with the “learning groups” or lesson plans.  This gives the CITs an opportunity to learn the material more and more and they have an opportunity to develop their own teaching style.

Throughout the summer we talk about and do service projects for the camp and how important it is to give back to those who have given so much to you.

End of Summer Reflections

One of the Calumet alumni told me once about his CIT summer, “Coming to Calumet that summer was the best thing in my life.  I know that if it was not for that summer I would of eventually ended up in jail.”  One of the trainees of the summer of 2000 said to me “thanks for the best summer of my life.  I don’t know where I would be without that summer. I learned so much about my faith in God and myself.  I will always use what you taught me that summer.”

The CIT program is a great program and it will continue to serve thousands of youth.  One of the best aspects of the program and one of the most important parts of the program is  building relationships with the kids.

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The following are portions of a paper I wrote for my undergrad about the CIT program at Camp Calumet.

During, the summer of 2000 I was the co-leader of the Counselor in Training program at Camp Calumet.  We designed and implemented an eight-week leadership program for fifteen and sixteen year olds.  This specific program has been established at Calumet since the mid-seventies.  We were basically handed a staff manual and were told that we had to teach the CITs everything in the staff manual in eight weeks, plus we assisted in training them to be lifeguards, and teach them the basic principals of working with children 8 years old to 15 years old.

Purpose

Calumet Lutheran Camp and Conference Center is a year round Lutheran camp for boys, girls, families and adults.  Part of their mission is to support the Lutheran Congregations in New England.  That includes a summer camp program for kids and a summer campground (with program) for families and adults.  The Counselor in Training Program works with both programs and  is designed to help transition the participants from being a camper to becoming a staff member.  It is equips the participants with skills to become better leaders.  There is also a Leadership and Service program that is a four week program.  This is a similar program but has different aspects to the program but I did not have major involvement in this program.

When the program started we wanted to strengthen their inter and intra personal skills.  At the start of the summer there were twenty-four sixteen year-olds who do not know each other, and they are put into a situation where they have to live together in a confined space.  For most of the youth this is their first experience away from home.  They are going to have to learn to get a long with each other and eventually start becoming their own person.

The first two weeks of their summer  are spent in meetings.  We tell them about the rules and regulations.  We also teach a Bible curriculum and how to take that information  to make lesson plans for when they teach the kids.  Development of activities and flow of lessons is also an essential part of the program and something that the youth do not have much experience with.

After they are done with the program, one goal is to have each youth excited about their faith and able to be confident about their skills and gifts that God has given them and to share  these with others.

Participant Recruitment and Retention

The majority of the youth who participate in the Counselor in Training Program are youth who in some way or another have participated in a Calumet run program in the past.  Most of the youth say that Calumet is an addiction  because once you attend a program you will tend to participate in Calumet programs the rest of your life.  The freedom of expression of who you are and your faith is amazing to those who participate in the program.

The average career of a camp counselor at Calumet is around six summers.  It is not the pay that makes the counselors come back year after year but it is the history of relationships, the fellowship between staff, the ability to grow in your faith and the beauty of the camp that attracts them to come back.

Leadership

Throughout the summer the leadership and decision-making time become more and more frequent for the participants in the program.  When they first come there are rules that they need to follow and structure that is set for them so they can get in a routine and become comfortable with the situation  in which they  find themselves.  As the summer progresses they become more independent and make decisions for themselves and for the entire group.  What they do reflects positively or negativity on the whole group.  This builds a sense of togetherness and makes each of them accountable with one another.  As the group begins to gel the participants become more comfortable with their surrounds which in turn helps them become more comfortable and confident with themselves.

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As many of you might know I am a big football NFL fan.  I participate in a few fantasy football leagues throughout the season.  I try to schedule a little as possible on Sunday afternoons so I can watch football (I have been very unsuccessful at this recently).

Anyway, tonight one of my favorite games of the year is taking place, The New England Patriots vs The Indianapolis Colts.

As a Patriots fan I can’t help but root for my beloved Patriots — the key of this matchup is the QB of each team….Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

Many sports greats had their all time rival —  Larry Bird had Magic Johnson, Muhammad Ali had Joe Frazier, Jimmy Connors had John McEnroe. In the NFL we now have Brady and Manning.

Brady and Manning, will always be linked with one another because of the high level on intensity they share  on the field and the success both clubs have had over the last 5- 10 years.

This weekend, the Patriots and Colts will face off for the 10th time since 2003. It’s the seventh straight year the clubs have met in the regular season and  I think I read somewhere that 5 out of the last 7 seasons one of the teams is undefeated going into the game.  That is true again this year as the Colts are 8-0.

Manning is playing at an all time high right now and Brady has gotten most if not all the rust shaken out since missing least year with a knee injury, so I have high expectations for this game.

One of the things that I really enjoy about this rival is that both Brady and Manning have a deep respect for one another and they bring everything to the field.  Unlike some sports starts who trash talk all week before the game (cough)Joey Porter (cough) – Manning and Brady have nothing but good things to say about each other and they let their play do the talking.

Recently this game has more hype and high level of play than the Superbowl – I can’t wait.

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What are you afraid of ?

I remember reading as a kid many Bible passages where Jesus (or an angel) would appear to someone and they were afraid, then he would say something like “peace be with you” or “do not be afraid” — Come on Jesus!! You appear right in front of me with no warning and you don’t wand me to be afraid!?!!?

Today is Friday the 13th – which strikes fear into the hearts of some people. But there are also bigger fears in the world…..

I believe that most of our fears are learned not genetic.  That means we can learn to not have them!  I also believe since fears are learned that communities can develop a commonly shared fear.

Look at churches…..nothing blocks change quite the way fear does, and when its power is greater than our power to push through it, fear can prevent any change from happening.   Perhaps that is why it takes FOREVER to make changes in the church.

We want that stability in the church because we have constant change in our lives.  For example, we live in a mobile society so people are moving all the time, some lose their job, or they change jobs, and kids grow up.  The one thing that we are crave in our lives is stability – and we are looking for that in the church.

We want a church that is the same from the time we are born until the time we die.  So the question is what does fear prevent us (the church) from doing and what do we do about it?

If we are afraid we tend not to take chances, to take risks and to think outside the box.  We are afraid of having the wrong answers or making mistakes.  We convince ourselves that things should not change and in turn we end up not really knowing what we want or need.  It warps our perception of our community and prevents us from trying to make it better.

Instead of asking what do we want as the church, we should be asking — what does God want us to be as the church?

Fear also keeps us from asking for help when we need it or benefiting from the emotional support offered to us.  Churches can be amazing supportive communities.  We all need help in our lives and we are sometimes afraid to ask for help when we need it.  That’s when the church can step in.

As a pastor want to be there to support people when they are hurting or in pain — emotionally, physically, spiritually or any other way.  I might not have all the answers but I can be there.

However for many people, instead of looking towards the church for help they develop unhealthy habits and behavior patterns….because of fear.

Whey if they (the church) don’t like me, what if they don’t accept me, what if they can’t help me?  These are the questions that we ask, this is the fear that enters us when we need help and then we turn away.

Fear can control our lives if we let it. But we can push through it if we begin to develop a habit of taking well-chosen risks – small ones at first, then bigger ones.

We also can get into the habit of vividly seeing ourselves achieve success, we can overcome the effects of fear and move confidently into the good life we deserve.

What types of fears do you have that are preventing you and your community from positive change?

What steps, even if they are small ones at first, can you take today, or this week?

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Welcome to Lutheran Grilled Cheese 2.0

For many, many years I have tried to develop my own website.  Some of the sites that I have built in the past have included sites that hosted cartoons that I drew, music that I wrote and  recorded, sermons that I preached ect.  I did very little with the websites because of my lack of knowledge in terms of website building and the lack of money it takes to create a decent looking website.

Well recently, after talking with different pastors and leaders of other small organizations, I have seen the great need for simple web setup and maintenance instruction for churches and small Christian organizations.  This need has been the driving force behind the rekindling desire to dive deeper into the internet and learn all I can about website creation.

So I have taken this dive, and I have started the learning process beginning with my blog.  I made the jump from wordpress.com to wordpress.org and I have given my blog a facelift.  I hope that you enjoy it.

I think that I have gotten my blog to a point where I am okay with letting other people see it however, I continue to make tweeks here and there.  Wordpress is a wonderful platform to use to create a simple interactive website.  I have not added too many new things to my blog at this moment.  But I plan on adding more and more as I go along.

So please, take a look around and let me know what you think, and what type of things you think I should add as I move along in the process of building an awesome website.  The possibilities are endless!

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When I worked at Camp Calumet, I would host  youth weekends.  About 5-6 small youth groups would come to the camp to participate in Calumet run youth weekend.  I, as the retreat host would use Friday night and Saturday morning as an opportunity for group building….I would plan activities that enabled the kids to feel comfortable with one another, to strengthen their current relationships in their groups and establish new relationships with the other churches.

On Saturday morning I would take a big piece of chalk and draw a line on the floor.  I challenged the kids to cross that line and take a risk.  I would say “you are one of 80 teenagers at this retreat, you might know 10 others, I challenge you this morning to take a risk, cross this line and meet someone you don’t know.”  You know what?  Almost everyone of the kids did cross the line, they took a risk and it worked out well for them.

So my question for you today is…..Do you consider yourself a risk-taker?

In one of his books, Leo Buscaglia wrote that,”To laugh is to risk appearing a fool, to weep is to risk appearing too sentimental, to reach out for another is to risk involvement, and to expose feelings is to risk exposing one’s true self.  To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss, to love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying, to hope is to risk despair, to try is to risk failure.  But all risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”

So much in our life is based on risk.  I know that I have opted out of certain opportunities in my life because I did not want to take the risk of hurt, failure, embarrassment or despair.  But I have also taken risks and I have been successful, happy and satisfied.

I also agree with Leo Buscaglia.  If, out of our fears, we refuse to risk, we also forfeit our freedom because only a person who risks is truly free. And, only a person who risks can grow, because all personal growth involves risk.

Where in your personal life are you drawing lines?  How can you cross them and take a risk?

This week, take a risk…..see what happens……

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