My kind of church...

September 03, 2014

My kind of church...

Last weekend, a group of us trundled up to the mountains to attend a campout. It was billed the "Evergreen Lutheran Labor Day Campout" and it was advertised in the church bulletin. I was the organizer and I worried a little bit about how it would turn out.

For starters, the weather was pretty bad. We were in a beautiful spot on a lake but it was cold, rainy and foggy. The families that signed up had little kids and we were all in tents. That can make for a difficult and unpleasant time.

The hikers

As the crowd gathered on Friday night, I started to get excited because we had all (or I should say) most ages. Our youngest camper was 3 and our oldest camper was mid 60's. We had young parents, school agers, high schoolers, and college kids to round out the group.

The ladies at the pool

We were all a little anxious about how this campout would go. The group was so diverse, the weather so wet and what we had in common was church...the fact that we had faith. Whether is was a "weekly attend church faith", or a "I loved the campout last year" faith or the " Terry begged the family to come" faith...we had our church in common.

The fire was started around the camp fire and the camp chairs began to fill the circle. The snacks and drinks began to be shared and the smore sticks were unpacked. The next thing we knew, the guitar was pulled out and the soft guitar music began while everyone relaxed. As the night progressed, the little ones found laps other than their parents to the delight of us old folks.

Jim and his little buddy

At one point that night, I looked over at my friend with my heart so content...a roaring fire for warmth and young and old alike visiting, connecting and being together. My buddy, Sheryl, who has a heart like no one I know said, " this is church" and smiled. Funny, I was thinking and feeling the same thing.

I think of the love of my God similar to the deep love that I felt when I had my kids. The unending love that we experience with the most precious of times...like those moments on the campout.

If you were there, you felt it at times. Maybe not when it was so cold in the morning waiting for our coffee or when the smoke was burning your eyes, or when your feet were so cold in your sleeping bag that you wanted to go home...No, not then. But I bet you felt it when you looked over and saw your little boy sitting on one of the big boys laps, or when the duo was playing their guitars and singing or when I got to have the sleeping boy snuggle into my lap for warmth...Nothing flashy but spiritual and profound. I always feel what I sense of the love of God in connections with people, time spent heart to heart even when it is subtle. Those are the times that stir my soul and fill my tank for all the other times in life when things are hard.

The nice thing about this weekend is that we got together because we attend the same church. I don't know if we would have if we didn't have a faith or a quest for a faith in common. I also don't think you have to go to a church to have times like these...but I'm sure glad that we do!