Stars and Discipleship

I've been at camp all week with 8th graders. This is the week where everything that they have learned about their faith comes to a point, where faith becomes their own, where we hope God goes from the head to the heart.

What is even cooler about this week is that I have high school students who beg to come with as helpers. So this year, we have four (two guys, two girls). They have been great. And I'm with them 24-7.

We learn in school about how to do youth ministry, how to disciple them via Starbucks, how to plan Bible studies, and mission trips. But no one teaches you that relationships are being built, faith is being developed, and questions get answered under the stars or while sitting on the bunks at night, or while putting on your makeup together in the bathroom.

Tonight we had a "service of call" where we did an affirmation of baptism and gave each students the results from a spiritual gifts test. I did the closest thing to a Lutheran altar call (without being to Baptist-ish). It was a great night.

Afterwards, as we were walking back, the high school helpers asked if we could go and sit under the stars.

So, we trekked out into the middle of the field with blankets and bug spray.

Stories began about past youth trips, camps we've gone to, things we've done. It was a great night, everyone was laughing. Questions about love, questions about God, memories of faith being created. I was in the middle of the field, in the middle of my students, recalling life, God, and memories.

As I sat there, I thought about how Jesus discipled his clan of misfit guys.

I'm sure it looked a lot like tonight, sitting under the stars, getting bit by bugs, laughing at stories of the past, and asking questions of faith.

(Getting a few bug bites is totally worth it by the way.)