Level Playing Field

We spent three of the last four weekends putting on retreats for over 1400 teenagers. One for over 600 junior high students, and two back-to-back retreats for senior high students. There were over 40 staff -- almost all volunteers -- who worked for months in advance to make these retreats a reality, and we all worked our tails off all weekend long.

There were several things that I was particularly impressed with over these three weekends:

• The worship band for the two senior high retreats, The Pennymerchants. This five-member band was incredibly talented, but there was something else that impressed me even more: all five members were on a level playing field when it came to spiritual maturity and their motivation for being there.
  
  I'm a little jaded with the whole worship industry at times -- I've often seen some really sincere worship leaders who have band members who range from spiritually mature to egotistical / aloof, like it's "just another gig". The Merchants were like a breath of fresh air -- all really down-to-earth, spiritual, and servant-hearted. I'd highly recommend them to anyone.
  
  
• The focus for the team of older teenagers and twenty-somethings who poured their all into making the hard work of these weekends happen was "servanthood". We talked a lot about Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, and as a gift to them for their work with us, we gave them each a copy of "Practicing the Presence of God". It was encouraging to watch so many of the emerging generations happily working, enthusiastically worshipping, and becoming friends with the rest of us.
  
  
• There were "titles" that some people wore for the weekend: producer, emcee, director(s), coordinators -- but once the weekend was over, all the positions and titles evaporated into one common designation: servant -- as we all began working hard and long to disassemble everything, clean up, pack the vans, and drive several hours back to Toronto and spend another hour or two (A) unloading the vans and / or (B) driving the various team members who didn't have their own cars home.

I just thought it would be fair and balanced to mention that such a large, programmatic event could actually be used of God to impact the lives of youth and their leaders, to see servanthood modelled and matured in by the emerging generations, and to see that "having a position/title" didn't preclude anyone from rolling up their sleeves and working hard alongside anyone else. Even the guest speakers and band members helped stack chairs, sweep floors, and generally model a servant attitude.

Nice.