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For camp, we get to partner with Christ in Youth (CIY). They are incredible. At the very end of the summer camp week, everyone is given a “kingdom worker” card. There are about 80 different challenges in sealed envelopes that students and leaders get to help move them in their next steps in faith.

Now you have to understand something. I’m really good at social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… I’m boss. Ok, you can call what it is, an addiction. But still, I’m really good at it. So my kingdom worker card said this, “Disconnect from all social media for 3 months, spend that time reading through Psalms and Proverbs.” Perfect. I’m doing it. My wife re-set all my passwords and I’m taking this break. I posted my last post and explained it and went to church this weekend and these are a few thoughts about how students and leaders responded:

  • Students came up to me and said that they were so surprised that someone on staff was actually going to follow through with a card they got and they said it made them want to follow through with their challenge even more.
  • There are quite a few students who got the same card that I got and they asked if we can keep each other accountable and asked if we can talk about what we will be reading and learning in Psalms and Proverbs. These are students who I really didn’t know before. So I’m really excited for that.
  • Why wouldn’t I participate and do my challenge if we were asking all of our students to do the same? It was awesome to see all the students rally together and how even more amazing it was when their leaders said they were going to do it with them.
  • Lead by example. When other leaders did not participate and saw some of our staff jumping all in, they then quickly did the same. Sometimes we tend to just tell what people need to do, which can be effective. But it’s 100x’s more effective when we are leading by example.
  • Got me thinking about what other areas in my life that I am simply just telling students to do certain things but I am not really doing those things in my life all that well. Like evangelism, we tell students to go out and share the Gospel and bring friends to church. If we really are honest with ourselves, are we really going out and bringing people, not students, to church with us?
  • When leaders are all in, students are all in. That goes if its dressing up for rec. games or if it’s a lifestyle of a follower of Jesus. Students will mirror their leaders. What are we reflecting?

So no social media for me. Still blogging here. But I’ll see you on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in 3 months. What are you reflecting?