Reflection #2: Tying Memories to Christ

Everyone loves to reminisce and laugh about the fun times they have shared together in the past.  I have so many fond memories of my college days where we pranked each other or sneaked ( or is it "snuck"? . . .no, it's "sneaked") out of the dorms to make late night food runs to Taco Bell or Denny's  - ah Denny's, how I long for the simple days when I thought you created high cuisine!  Those were golden days for me at Columbia Christian College - magical days.  It was during those days, building those memories, that I first really took faith seriously.  Many of those harmless nights of fun were actually pivotal in my spiritual formation.  It was there and then that I began to learn that God is honored when his kids enjoy each other.

As I moved into Youth Ministry a few years later I realized that my teens were full of mischief and into the same kinds of harmless fun I loved.  We were in Coeur d'Alene ID.. What an amazing place. It was my first full-time ministry and I didn't really know what I was doing.  Tami and I were newly-weds and clearly very cool in the eyes of the teens.  (In fact on our first day at the church,  Tami was so young and good looking that one of the more outgoing youth group guys actually hit on her, not realizing she was the new Youth Minister's wife - yeah I used that against him for a lot of good mileage - but I digress)

The years we were there we toilet papered plenty of houses and spent as much time as possible out in the sun and on the beautiful lakes. We jumped off cliffs into the lake and water skied every chance we got. In the Winter we skated on the lake and sledded our brains out.  It was there that Tami and I really learned to ski.  In the short time we were there we built some terrific friendships with those teens and those relationships are still important to us and them today.

There was a principle at work then that we didn't even understand.  Paul talks about it in 1 Thessalonians 2:8
 We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of Christ , but our very lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

We didn't know it, but through the fun times we shared and the memories that were being made, God was knitting us together - not just with each other, but with Him as well.  From the time I realized this truth,  I began to live with the belief that ministry, in a nutshell, is about building positive memories and tying those memories to Christ.  

This principle has served us well.  Now as we plan a program, or write a camp curriculum, or develop the next set of Bible studies  this principle guides almost everything.  The key question is, "How can we make this enjoyable, memorable, and clearly glorify God?"  If those three goals are met - whatever the event  it is a success.  In the past 25 years, many crazy, creative events have grown out of this principle and  more importantly, so have many faithful people.