indian lake nazarene camp may 25, 2013 the kind of camp god can use making sure we stay a...

Indian Lake Nazarene Camp May 25, 2013

The Kind of Camp God Can Use

Making Sure We Stay A “Nazarene” Camp

• To raise your property values

• To serve you with excellence

• To make you “raving fans” of Indian Lake Nazarene Camp

• To make this community a place everyone would want to live

New Commitments to Leaseholders

• To listen to your concerns

• To engage you in changing our shared future together

• To empower and give governing authority to the Leaseholders Association and representation on the new Governing Board

New Commitments to Leaseholders

• A newly designed district website, primarily through the gifting of Jeremy Selvidge

www.onecml.org

To Better Communicate With You

• How God speaks to us in these kinds of settings

• How we learn from the Spirit and we learn from each other

• We “listen” and “ask questions”

Luke 2:46-47

• My history with Nazarene camps

• My deep belief in the importance of maintaining Nazarene centers of spiritual change and renewal for children, youth and families

• Passion for people to encounter God

Why I Am Involved in ILNC

• We have a $4.5 million dollar Camp and Conference Center given to us through the sacrifice of previous generations

• We have a $6 million dollar private community that has grown up around our Camp & Conference Center

Why I Am Involved in ILNC

• Where did we come from?

• How did we get here?

• What was the vision, the commitment and the passion that drove the early founders of Indian Lake Nazarene Camp?

The Founding of ILNC

• “We loved the camp.”

• “Indian Lake Nazarene Camp is hallowed ground. And that it must remain.”

The Founding of ILNC

“There is tremendous life-changing, life-transforming power that can flow in and through a camp environment like ILNC… that has been created for and is totally committed to Christ-like disciple-making.”

The Power of This Christ-Like Disciple-Making Environment

• One Camp• One Service• One Seat• One Moment…can change everything in a person’s life, for the rest of their life! That is why ILNC exists.

The Kind of Camp God Uses… Has a Focus on “God Moments”

The ultimate goal of the Indian Lake Nazarene Camp Governing Board is to

bring the focus of the camp back to what has made it great throughout its history…

ILNC has been filled with “God moments.” Moments where God showed

up, and everything was different.

Becoming & Staying the Kind of Camp God Can Use

I. We must have a clear vision.

II. We must expect lives to be changed.

III. We must have everyone willing to serve.

IV. We must never give up!

The Kind of Camp God Can Use

I. We Must Have A Clear Vision

The Kind of Camp God Uses

“Where there is vision, people do not perish.” (Proverbs 29:18, adapted)

The Kind of Camp God Uses

“At Indian Lake Nazarene Camp, we will never outgrow our vision of what we together believe, one day we will become.”

We Must Have A Clear Vision!

“As a camp, as a private community that has grown up within ILNC, what would we try to do with God, if we knew He would make it happen?” What are our community dreams?

We Must Have A Clear Vision!

“What do we all believe could happen, if God had His full way… if the Holy Spirit brought us together…? If the Holy Spirit created among us…a united vision for our community’s future?

We Must Have A Clear Vision!

“He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. 21 To Him be glory in the church…”

Ephesians 3:20-21

“Big thinking attracts big thinkers!” A good, private community can become a “God-moment” filled community again, with all of us re-aligning our thinking and asking, “What does God want to do here?”

We Must Have A Clear Vision!

1. We usually set the vision too low.

2. We try to achieve the vision too fast.

Four Common Mistakes We Make In Seeking God’s Vision

for Our Community

3. We over-estimate what can be done in the first year.

4. We under-estimate, if we let God lead us, what could be done in 10 years.

Four Common Mistakes We Make In Seeking God’s Vision

Yes, we may have obstacles that limit us…BUT…one thing that is NOT beyond anyone’s control – is how much each of us chooses to believe God. God can do more in five minutes than we can do in five years of personal effort!

Hope for the Future

I. We Must Have A Clear Vision

The Kind of Camp God Uses

II. We Must Expect Lives To Be Changed

The Kind of Camp God Uses

Moving from 750 to 1,500 campers

Jesus Teaching -- Luke 15

The Lost Coin

The Lost Son

Luke 18 – “God be merciful to me”

A Camp God Uses – Big Time

• One Camp• One Service• One Seat• One Moment…can change everything in a person’s life, for the rest of their life! That is why ILNC exists.

The Kind of Camp God Uses… Has a Focus on “God Moments”

We must expect people we have not yet met, to be changed by Jesus! We must believe that we will see people being changed, on these grounds…we must see it in our hearts/spirit…before it happens in real life.

A Camp God Can Use

“…God…gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they already were.” (Romans 4:17)

(also Mark 11:24)

A Camp God Can Use

“We must see…we must expect people to make new spiritual decisions…we must think…we must believe….we must anticipate…. God is going to work here at ILNC …He is at work among us…and He’s going to do even more.”

A Camp God Can Use!

“There is someone, somewhere God is preparing…that God has a vision for…for us to touch… whose life God wants to change. Everything can change in one day…”

A Camp That Expects Lives to be Changed

“We must all pray that God will lead us here at ILNC…to be at the right place, at the right time, to meet the right person, so that God will use us to fulfill His vision for that person’s life to be changed.”

A Camp That Expects Lives to be Changed

II. We Must Expect Lives To Be Changed

The Kind of Camp God Uses

III. We Must Have Everyone Willing to Serve

The Kind of Camp God Uses

“The last 7 words of any dead or dying institution or organization:

We never did it that way before.

A Camp Where Everyone Is Willing To Serve

We must be true to our mission.

We must never change our message.

We must regularly evaluate and adjust our methods and mode of operations.

We must change “community culture.”

A Camp Where Everyone Is Willing To Serve

Bill Gaither song: I don’t want to spend my time singing songs that answer questions no one is asking, when the house is burning to the ground …there’s just no time to stand around arranging pictures on the wall.

A Camp Where Everyone Is Willing To Serve

Every employee must have a commitment to build “raving fans” of every community member, client, partner, camper we have.

Every leaseholder must have a clear commitment to the mission of ILNC & CC

It takes just one person, violating our Code of Conduct, to cost the camp thousands and thousands of dollars!

Renew Our Willingness to Serve

We can be realigned in our mission.

…fulfill ILNC’s original intent

…a self-sustaining community.

…a self-governing community.

…a “covenant restrictive” community

Re-Aligned for Nazarene Mission

We have to first, all of us understand and agree on what a “Nazarene” is. What a Nazarene acts like, how a Nazarene lives, and the kind of “spirit” a Nazarene has. When we say we are “a Nazarene” we are saying we commit to follow Jesus…who was the first Nazarene…and the Nazarene we follow.

How Do We Make Sure We Always Stay Truly A “Nazarene” Community?

Why We Call Ourselves Nazarenes

The Name “Nazarene” in the Scriptures

1. Jesus prophesied to be a Nazarene

“and he [Jesus] went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’” (Matthew 2:23)

The Name “Nazarene” in the Scriptures

2. In his denial of Jesus, Peter was identified with “that Nazarene, Jesus.”

“When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. “You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said” (Mark 14:67)

Why We Call Ourselves Nazarenes

The Name “Nazarene” in the Scriptures

3. At the resurrection, the angel identifies Jesus as the Nazarene.

“Don’t be alarmed,” the angel said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ” (Mark 16:6)

Why We Call Ourselves Nazarenes

The Name “Nazarene” in the Scriptures

4. In the early church, Paul was a leader of “Nazarene churches”

“We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarenes...” (Acts 24:5)

Why We Call Ourselves Nazarenes

Not all Nazarenes that we have right now…are “Nazarene.”

It is possible to fulfill the “letter of the law” in being a Nazarene and totally violate the “spirit” of what the Nazarene Manual intended when it was written.

(2 Corinthians 3:6)

How Do We Make Sure We Always Stay Truly A “Nazarene” Community?

“He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

2 Corinthians 3:6

We’ve got to have a much better and enforceable Code of Character and Conduct. Something that is much clearer than our current requirement of being: “a member of the Church of the Nazarene in good standing.”

How Do We Develop a Community that is Truly “Nazarene” In Spirit?

We believe the solution is a clear “Character & Code of Conduct” that is enforceable by the community itself. The standards are Nazarene, they are set by the community and the expectations we have of each other are never lowered, in fact, they are raised. Everyone involved…everyone treated the same.

Developing A Truly Nazarene Community In “Spirit”

I. We must have a clear vision.

II. We must expect lives to be changed.

III. We must have everyone willing to serve.

The Kind of Camp God Can Use

IV. We Must Never Give Up

The Kind of Camp God Uses

“Do not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up!”

(Galatians 6:9)

A Community Filled with People who Never Give Up!

I. We must have a clear vision.

II. We must expect lives to be changed.

III. We must have everyone willing to serve.

IV. We must never give up!

The Kind of Camp God Can Use