The Blog of Travis Johnson, a youth pastor who loves his job!
Saturday morning session
Carpetball. This game is a blast!
Some down time between sessions
Notice the animal mounts. The place was full of them. Name an animal and they had it.
David Fry leading his session.
Chef Kevin and Paul.
It’s relaxing just looking at it!
Number three for me!
I think that’s Paul Fry.
Doing what men do best.
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!
It was one of the greatest weekends of my life! We ended up with only 19 guys spending the night, but we had 21 for supper Friday night. Let me explain a little of what we did.
Friday Night: We took the church coach and a little over an hour later arrived at the Rainbow Christian Camp. We were a little nervous having a men’s retreat at a place called rainbow…this is one reason why we decided not to call any spiritual results that came out of this retreat “fruit.”
When we arrived the setup crew had the campfire blazing and a good supper of cheeseburgers, potato salad, baked beans, chips, etc.. for us. Some of the ladies made deserts for us. Kudos to Sarah who made an out-of-this-world chocolate éclair desert that I’m still drooling over (remember that my birthday is this month).
After supper some of us went fishing in a nearby pond. I’m the only one who caught anything that night!
As the sun was setting we gathered around the campfire and laughed and sang for about 5 to 6 hours! When I went to bed my hand was stuck in the G chord position.
We had our first prayer session Saturday morning. Our theme was the ACTS pattern of prayer. Our first session was on ADORATION. It was led by Mark Mimier. We had a devotional thought and then we spent some time in adoration to God. It was outside under a shelter and man was it chilly!
Saturday morning the camp catered the breakfast for us and it was great!
After breakfast we gathered in the foyer of the conference center and lit the gas fireplace and settled in some very comfy chairs. In this session we talked about CONFESSION. It was led by David Fry. Words can not express how beneficial this session was. God broke through and hearts became melted in this powerful session. I had one guy tell me that this session alone was worth the whole weekend. I agree.
After this session we had some free time. I went fishing again (I caught 2 more). Jerry caught one as well. Then we broke into four teams and had some group games.
After that we had a great lunch prepared by Kevin Wilhelm!
After our late dinner, we gathered back in the conference center and looked at THANKSGIVING. I led this prayer session.
After that, Steve Gardner led us in SUPPLICATION. That was a great session as well.
It was a powerful event and I can’t wait until next year! I hope to post some pictures soon as well.
This weekend about 20-25 men from our church are going here for our first annual men’s prayer retreat. I can’t wait! Hopefully next week I’ll let you know how it went and have some pictures as well.
Kieth Drury has a great article that you can read here. Check it out. It’s called Why study the Apostle’s Creed?
Hey I just wanted to let everyone know about a couple of things:
1. The Youth Challenge website has been updated and you check out this years lineup of speakers and the theme. The executive board is pumped! We want all teens & youth workers/pastors to be there!
2. We now have a Youth Challenge blog. Check it out!
Check out the entire article here. It’s worth it!
If a preacher is not deeply mining the truth of God’s Word to determine the message of his sermons, they are likely being driven by his own preferences. When someone regularly preaches in a way that is not expositional, the sermons tend to be only on the topics that interest the preacher. Thus the congregation doesn’t receive all that God intended. The lesson? Preachers must give themselves to thoroughly understanding the text before setting out to write their sermons. A cursory reading is not enough. Preachers must allow God to determine the sheep’s diet so as to prevent an insufficient feeding.
Last night we had an awesome service with several praying around the altar. At least three people were saved; one for the very first time in his life. Another man and I met with him in my office after the service. We talked to him about sin, accountability, and I gave him a Bible. I hope to set him up with a layman in the church who will serve as a mentor. But this got me to thinking, what are the needs of a new convert? Well, what are the needs of a new baby? The contrasts are very similar:
• Protection. New life is fragile. Ever notice how “paranoid” parents are around their baby when it looks like they are going to lurch out of their infant seat? Instantly, their hands are there to stabilize the baby or catch it before it falls. Imagine if every babe in Christ would have four Christian hands reach out in love to make sure when the new believer falls they will not hurt themselves. We need to protect them. We need to provide a safe environment for confession, trust, and accountability.
• Diet. Beware “loading up the plate.” Newborns, after all, start out with frequent but small portions of milk. Huge slabs of meat are far in the future. It would be ludicrous to ask a baby to eat a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. The poor thing would sit at the table and starve to death! Don’t give a new Christian more than they can reasonably digest. This is why I believe in Sunday School classes or discipleship classes for new converts. They don’t need to be in the class that’s been talking about the Temple furniture for the last 16 weeks! They need to be fed what they can eat!
• Community. Developmental problems result when a newborn is deprived of attention. So do new converts. New Christians need to sense early on that they are part of a family. Community and fellowship is vital. When you do things with your Christian friends, include them. Give them plenty of opportunity to experience what it’s like to be part of God’s family. Then they’ll know they are not alone. That is why I’m trying to get both couples that prayed last night plugged into a small group.
• Instruction. Paul taught the new Christians in Thessalonica “how to live” (1 Thess. 4:1). As they begin to mature, teach them how to feed themselves—through Bible study, devotions, Bible memorization, etc. (Every pastor I’ve had preached to me that I should have devotions, but no one ever showed me. Show them!) They’ll also need training in sharing their faith, praying, dealing with sin, using time wisely, tithing, and so on. Much of this they’ll learn by example. They’ll begin to imitate the “adults” around them, just as a child does. (This is a good motivating factor for spiritual maturity). It’s crucial, therefore, that you spend time with them so they can see you living out your faith in good times and bad. A good example is a powerful motivator.
Yesterday my youngest daughter had just finished a peanut butter sandwich and wanted some Cool Whip in a bowl to snack on. So I got her some and then I started putting the dishes in the dishwasher. The knife still had peanut butter on it and the spoon still had Cool Whip on it. So I licked the peanut butter off the knife (like any good Dad) and licked the Cool Whip off the spoon (it’s a terrible sacrifice that somebody has to make). To my surprise, they were very good together! So I got some clean spoons out and had a nice snack. Try it and tell me what you think. Yum!
one-armed paperhanger with a case of the hives.
one-eyed cat watching nine rat holes.
salmon in cold water.
one-toothed man in a corn-on-the-cob eating contest.
mosquito at a nudist colony.
cross-eyed air traffic controller.
termite in a saw mill.
desert cobra at a mongoose convention.
one-armed trombone player.
deodorant salesman in Paris.
Sorry for no recent updates. Just been too busy.
I had a dream this morning that was really weird. I dreamed that I was in a funeral home and the people were all crying for this man that had died. He was rather young so his family was quite upset. Then, all of the sudden, his sister went over to the casket and started to perform CPR and beat on his chest. Then the dude started moving! He even got out of the casket and sat on the chair. He talked a little funny and was cross-eyed, but he was alive!
I ran down to tell the funeral director and he didn’t believe me. I asked him if they embalmed him and he said no because the family wanted a quick funeral. He then went with me, and looked at the guy; then he looked at the family and said, “My bad.”
Then, I ran out of the place into a church and Tamra was on the back row and I told her about it and she didn’t believe me. Then I ran into another door and IHC was going on. Jimmy Southerland was up preaching and I sat down next to someone and it was Troy Keaton. I told Troy what happened and he said he had already heard about it.
Then I saw Mark Mimier taking picture of Southerland and every time he took a picture his camera would catch on fire.
Then Troy turned to me and told me he missed me at the Youth Challenge board meeting. Then I woke up all upset that I missed the meeting. It took about 5 minutes before I realized I hadn’t missed the meeting after all.
I don’t know what’s weirder, the dream or the fact that I have links for all the people in my dream except for the dead guy who came alive and the funeral director.
I can’t wait to see what happens tonight!
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