Oasis Camp '09 Recap

The sporadically inconsistent blogger is back. We just arrived back into Charlotte last night after an extended weekend youth camp in Myrtle Beach, SC. And oh, how we've been suffering for the Lord! Right!

Anyway, it was an awesome weekend. We took the whole band, Andy Cherry, Tim Morrison, and Nate Proczak, and led worship for the student ministry of Ingleside Baptist Church. Andy, Tim, and Nate are some of my best friends, and I always love getting to partner with them.

This was the first time Ingleside has done their own camp, and they knocked it out of the park. It rivaled any Student Life camp I've ever been to. Fred and Scooter, the student pastors, put together a solid week for their 180 + students.

Bill Stanley, from Coco Beach, Florida brought the Word every session and did a great job connecting with students. Tasha and I enjoyed getting to know him and his wife for what will certainly not be the last time we do ministry together.

As we were leaving camp yesterday, the students surrounded our van for last minute pics and high-fives. And as we stood there with these students whom we had built a relationship with over the past 4 days, I just watched them. I watched them interact with my buddies in the band. I watched them hang on every word that the guys would say. I observed these young, impressionable students as they observed us, watched us, studied us. And as a result, I've been reminded of the incredible responsibility we have as older believers, as teachers, as worship leaders, as parents and mentors, to model our sincere faith in front of them--to live consistently what we believe in front of them, because they are watching us. Yes, a lost world is watching us, but so is the younger generation of Christ-followers. They want a model to follow. And they are looking for it in us. How incredibly humbling a truth that is. It reminds me of the words Paul encouraged Timothy with:

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. (2 Tim. 1:5).

Let's live that sincere faith, because they're watching.

Check back for some pics from the weekend coming soon.