S'CAMP Highlights

We got back from S'CAMP last Friday, and it's taken me that long to recover to be able to write this post. We had an awesome time at S'CAMP. We got to see God move in amazing ways. A large percentage of our group made re-commitments in their faith while several others made first time commitments to Christ (some of whom we have been praying for for long time). I also had the privilege of baptizing eleven students on this trip! Our whole experience was so deep spiritually, and on top of that it was truly amazing socially as well. Students were encouraging each other on in the faith. Age barriers were broken as Senior and Freshman and everyone in between found ways to break down the barriers of cliques to unite as one church family. I must say I was blown away at the amazing love I saw displayed by our students for each other as well as their love for all of the other groups at the camp.

These kind of trips are so unifying for our student body. It really does unite us and helps us build momentum towards personal spiritual growth as well as outreach to those who have yet to experience the love of Jesus. Please keep praying for our students and our ministry as we will seek to use this energy to reach Charlotte teens with God's love.

And by the way... our dates for our Fall Retreat are October 7-9. Mark your calendars.

A Specific Ask

Following up to my last post about serving, I want to check in with some of you parents to see if you can give a little bit of time to the student ministry this summer. Our middle and high school ministries are combining for one big service each month, and we are in need of people to help with some set up. These services will be meeting on the Mondays of June 27, July 18, and August 22. We will be doing most of our set up on the Sunday afternoon the day before each of these meetings. The approximate time we need help will be from 12 P.M. to 1 P.M. after our last morning service on Sunday. If you feel a desire to come help us out, please send me an email to let me know and I we will be in touch with you soon to let you know more details.

Serving this Summer

It is a high priority of mine to emphasize serving in the lives of our students at REALife. There is so much to be said for developing a life of prayer and meditation on God's word. These are such essential pieces of our spiritual lives, but so often that's where most people stop. I like to try to instill in our students that the Christian life is meant to be lived as evidence to the love of Jesus that we have received. The book of James chapter one verse twenty-two also tells us "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." When the Bible tells us to love God and love our neighbor as ourself, these are not commandments to "feel" love for people, but to live it out in our lives.

At REALife we do this in two ways. We encourage our students to get involved at Meck serving in one of our ministries. We have so many areas where we are in need of volunteers at all of our campuses. From guest services to MECKidz and the arts team there are plenty of areas where they can get involved. We also go outside of the walls of our church to serve somewhere in the community once a month. The reputation of our students precedes us, as the workers at places like Crisis Assistance and Second Harvest Food Bank always tell me that our group has so much life, energy, and love.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, this summer I'd like to encourage you as parents to serve along side of your son or daughter. If you are not already serving at Meck in a ministry, talk to your family and see where you all might want to give of some of your time at Meck to help us towards our mission of reaching people with the love of Jesus. If you know of a place you would like to serve as a family, or even have more questions about it you can contact our director of connections, Kati Leach, at kleach@mecklenburg.org and she will connect you with a ministry leader who will get you serving right away (and if you want to serve at REALife, just let me know. I'd love to have you on the team).

There are also several opportunities each month to participate as a family in our monthly serve days at Meck. This is a great opportunity for students and parents, as we also encourage our REALife students to join up on these Serve Days through the summer instead of scheduling our own. For information about these Serve Days or to register head to mecklenburg.org/events for more details.