Tonight’s ‘God-sighting’ was based on a story of a Bosnian muslim who was persecuted. To make a long story short (even though the long one that Johnny told was great), the man went through recovery and the last step was when he realized he’d been welcomed with a gift that he felt like an actual human. Johnny tied it in by thanking the participants for not only growing in friendship with each other, but really welcoming each other and helping each other see their self-worth. Tonight after all of the leadership labs, we went out and played, cooked and ate by a lake. One of the Eureka employees, Chuck, has a property bordering Lake Eureka and he volunteered his place for us to do our evening activities. The lake was a calm, relaxing place.

The group from the Great River Region led us in worship on the lakeside. They waited until it was dark and then had us sitting around sections of candles on the ground. It was a worship service built on simplicity, good music, and the environment we were in.

Another benefit of the weekend that I forgot to mention, was that Randy Kuss came down and spent time helping out and also promoting his God@Center retreats which he now does.

I haven’t seen Randy since last November at Triennium in Lexington, KY. At that event I didn’t get a chance to really see him much since I was running around like crazy getting background work done. Well, now it’s time for Chinese food with Bill and Michael. We started this tradition at ICYF in Atlanta — we couldn’t let it die here (actually, it’s a tradition here, before it was just a memory of something we did late at night at these events).

‘ve now finished my long drive home (well, to Keokuk) from Eureka. What a weekend. The car ride luckily gave me plenty of time to reflect on it. Was I short on sleep? Definitely, but that was expected. Were there moments where I was wishing it would be over? Yes, but I’m blaming that on the lack of sleep. Did the event make enough of a change in the individual councils that God’s work will be done by more-willing servants? I’ve changed my mind from hopefully to definitely. Here are some examples of model service that I saw this weekend:

Last night, as we returned from picking up the leftover trash and materials from the games and meal we had before worship, we arrived at the Cerf Center and Wendi and Diane from the Great River group came up to us and asked if they could clean up the worship area for the worship service tomorrow. They asked!?! It was shocking. Even after we’d had an incredibly fulfilling yet tiring couple of days, even when most of the youth were hanging out and jamming to music in the lobby, even when the leaders of the event were mostly getting ready to crash, these two were wanting to help clean up. HOW COOL!!! Talk about showing by example. The entire event was about servant leadership and yet their actions caught me off-guard.

Another example is Terry Ewing. Terry went above and beyond his role as hosting college chaplain. He led a leadership lab. He handled most of the interaction with the university for us. He found a university employee who hosted us on his family’s lawn for dinner and let us do worship by the lake. Terry supervised the kayaks (a couple of which were his that he let us borrow) during the game time at the lake. Terry’s interests weren’t his first priority — he had to have had several other things he could have done, but instead chose to give and help where he could.

How about the worship team? The team that went to Johnny Wray’s worship lab last night planned our service for this morning. Were they content to do another standard worship without being creative? Nope; instead, they chose to trust their hearts and decided to take up an offering for the event. Even though none of the creators of the event had planned one, they decided that Week of Compassion was such a great cause that they needed to do what they could while they were here. Sure, they’re going to go and do more in their regions and congregations to support it, but at this event, they did what they could.

Servant leadership is one of the great challenges we face today. It’s existence isn’t the challenge; it’s absence is! Not only are good leaders hard to find, but good leaders who are willing to take an altruistic attitude and put others first are extremely difficult to find. This event showed me that it is possible to teach servant leadership; while not remaining simply a natural, innate characteristic present in only a select few, servant leadership is cultivated through demonstration. Our prayer can only be that those who became better servant leaders at this event will cause even more to imitate.

Who thinks of this?!?: I love light! You can maneuver it and change how it shapes and illumines. This morning was awesome because I was able to use something learned from photography to make a really cool effect. In reality, I’ve used this before at Triennium and other events, but never on my own without a video mixer. Johnny Wray had a music video on a DVD he showed the group and we decided to show the words with it. Even though I don’t have a video mixer to capture multiple feeds and use them, I did remember a cool light effect — if you put words in white and the background as black, then the black portion can be stacked on top of another light source and it acts as a mask. Pretty much what happened is that I took two projectors (one with the video and the other with the words) and made the words go along with the video. It was a fun ‘eureka’ moment — I know, I just couldn’t resist. What other things are stackable? Interns?

Johnny Wray and Anthony from Kentucky?

In any case, I know that light is. What fun. How many images can I come up with? Is truth stackable? Are there multiple truths? OK, enough questioning … I’m going to take more pictures and enjoy this event. My next workshop I’m leading is this afternoon. I’m kind of anxious again.

Johnny Wray just gave another “God-sighting.” He was struck at how well the youth worked together during the group-building (cow — don’t ask, long story) games. One of the games they played was the classic “join hands in weird configurations and untangle yourselves without dropping hands” game. He tied the game and their effectiveness into how essential it is for servant leaders to be willing to work together for loosening some of the knots that plague the world: poverty, terror, evil.

A group working on coordination

Johnny Wray joining in energizers!

Earlier in the morning the new President of Eureka talked to them about different ways they can incorporate servant leadership as they go on – through high school, to college, and beyond. The Dean of Admissions, Brian Sajko (pronounced ‘psycho’), also invited them to not only check Eureka out, but also talk with them about any of the issues students are facing with making a transition to college. Both of them impressed me — they, along with Terry Ewing, are great assets for the school.

Eureka President Dr. David Arnold

Dean of Admission Brian Sajko

Today was also fun because several things got switched around. This event is so cool because it has a relaxed atmosphere. The leaders of the youth councils planned much of it, but each group is bringing content and programming to help. It’s a collaborative event and so flexibility reigns. Originally I was going to be doing one of my technology workshops tonight. This morning Johnny Wray had to do a conference call for Week of Compassion where he helped handle some of the aid going to those in Haiti, Cuba and the Florida Keys with the hurricane going through there now. Because he had the conference call, we switched my leadership lab to this morning and pushed his worship one back. It still went incredibly well. Now I need to find some time in the next week and write a bunch of it down and put it in easy-to-use guides (hopefully soon to be downloadable in PDF format).

Terry, Bill and Michael coordinating

Whenever people ask about the future of our denomination I just wish they could spend an hour at events like this. There’s SO much potential here. Even though there are only five different groups, you can see each of them demonstrating unique leadership abilities. The Kansas group was especially that way; during the time where each group introduced themselves with skits, the Kansas group made a specific point of leading the cheering. They’re welcoming. They’re encouraging. I’m going to need to specifically watch and see how well they split up at meal times to include others.

Tonight Johnny Wray started by giving a short message. He’s the chaplain for the event and he’s giving us different examples of “God-sightings” throughout the weekend. Tonight, he lifted up one that was obvious. He told the story of a time where worship had left him needing more, how communion was an essential part that he missed. He closed it by lifting up the generosity of the youth here; they came and greeted him and welcomed him even though he’d only been briefly introduced. The youth also did group building games where they were forced, and eventually wanted, to meet and hang out with people from the other groups. By worship time there were few sitting in their own groups — they were all mixed!

What makes youth this way? Is it natural for these specific ones as leaders? If so, they’re already well along the way to becoming servant leaders. Is it an expectation they set or someone set for them before they even arrived? Is it simply the hope that they all embrace that they’ll grow from this event?

So I just arrived at Eureka College. The last time I was here was for the Youth Ministry Event in 2000. Five years; things have changed completely. Five years ago I was just entering the Upper MidWest Youth Council and this was my first event with the group. This year, I’m done with three years of college, on the verge of seminary, and helping lead the event. This event is called Servant Leadership Network (SLN). Because of the General church’s inability to put on a training event for youth councils, four regions decided to get together and hold their own. We’ll have over 50 people from four different areas: Kentucky, Upper Midwest (Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota), Kansas and the Great River regions (Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi).

When I came to YME in 2000, I was learning in all of the workshops. At this event I’m not only still learning, but I’m also going to lead two on using technology in ministry. One of the most exciting things about it is that Eureka has some hot internet connections which I’ve used to set-up a wireless hub. While I’ve had this hub set up throughout the summer, it’s been at the church and on a dial-up connection. It’s nice, even though for such a short time, to get high-speed wireless internet. More to come soon!