Sunday Morning Impact

This was the first Sunday since Beach Blast. Kids were still excited from the week, and everybody seemed to be in a real good mood...and real tired. We started off with a game called Beach Ball Dodge Ball. Basically it was dodge ball with beach balls in case you didn't figure that out. Nathan and Jesse were the 2 winners.
Gideon led worship and did a great job. I know I say this every time, but he just gets better and better every time he leads worship. The kids were in to it. The band was in to it. He just did a great job leading us into worship.
I led a big group because I didn't want the leaders who have been at camp all week to have to come back and do a small group lesson. I talked about keeping the mountain top experience that they got at camp. There were three things I told them they needed to do based on Isaiah 1:11-20. First, they need to have meaningful worship. They need to make time for their personal worship. They need to come with the right focus. We can't read our Bibles and pray just to mark off some spiritual checklist. We need to make time for it and come with the right focus. We will make time for American Idol. We will make time for what we care about. So we need to make time for worship. Second, we need to be honest with God. Confess things that are in our lives. Check our hearts, and try to get rid of the sins that we can't seem to get rid of or really don't want to get rid of. Third, we need to do what is right. I know I feel closer to God when I am serving other people; when I'm helping other people. We need to become other-focused and look past our own problems to see that there are other people out there who are hurting that God is asking us to help.
Doing these 3 things may not keep the mountain top experience from camp last forever. But I think it will keep us connected with God longer and will keep the valley experiences shallower and less frequent.