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11 Lessons from Training Camp

  1. Embrace being uncomfortable. Training camp was uncomfortable in many ways. We were stretched physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Being uncomfortable promotes growth. Dealing with deep insecurities is difficult, emotional work. We don’t want to feel broken or wrecked. However, it’s the first step to healing and is important in developing authentic relationships.

  1. Give grace freely. This applies to those around us as well as ourselves. Stop trying to fix yourself from the outside in and allow God to heal you from the inside out. Spend time with God and allow him to transform you. Know your identity. Be kind to yourself and live free from shame. Treat everyone as God’s son or daughter. If you refuse to forgive someone, you are saying that Jesus’ payment for sin wasn’t enough.

  1. Press into the pain. Don’t close yourself off from pain. Ask God to show you why you are feeling what you are feeling. Then ask him what he wants you to do with it. All feelings are mentionable and all feelings are manageable.

  1. Obedience is a fruit of being in love with the Lord. Your relationship with God comes first; obedience follows as a fruit of radically loving and trusting him. If you are doing good works but your relationship with the Lord is lacking, you will feel like you have to earn his love and approval. Ask God to give you his eyes to see his people. Then you won’t be able to stop yourself from loving and serving others.

  1. Hearing the Holy Spirit comes with practice. Obey in the little things and he will trust you with big things. If you spend enough time with God, you will learn to recognize his voice. Peace and joy are markers of how in tune you are with the Holy Spirit. If you’ve lost your peace and joy, ask the Lord to help you find them again. Don’t wait to be convicted to love, serve, and encourage people.

  1. Ministry is life and life is ministry. Don’t compartmentalize your life. Ministry should be a lifestyle. Always live on mission, seeking God’s purpose, which is to bring him universal glory, worship, and reconciliation. Ministry is the person next to you. Look around and make your surroundings more like Heaven. Leave the 99 to seek the 1. Care about the things God cares about. The best thing you can do for someone is lead them to an encounter with God. Live fully present each day.

  1. Community is nonnegotiable. During training camp I experienced constant, life-giving community for the first time, and I can never go back. I fell in love with my community after only 10 days and my heart aches to be with them. We speak God’s promises over each other; the Holy Spirit gives us things to share with our people. We pray over each other. We lift one another up with encouragement. We process experiences together and challenge each other. Your community will want to be near you. They will want to grow closer to each other and to the Lord. This kind of community requires reciprocated vulnerability.

  2. Make Sabbath rest a priority. Rules don’t necessarily help turn the heart of man to God. However, it is important to be intentional about pulling away and finding rest in God’s presence. Stay in his presence, past the awkwardness, until he speaks to you.

  1. Believe God’s love for you. Do you like what the Lord made? What you believe about yourself will shape your relationship with God and others. Don’t find your value in a role or hide behind a mask. Take every thought captive and make it subjective to Christ. God’s love compels us to obedience; we don’t have to try to earn it. Give him thanks and worship him with a heart song.

  1. You have a story that will touch others. Your story is worth sharing even if it only reaches one person. You were called to the kingdom to be a voice, not an echo.

  1. Our job is to plant seeds, not to make them grow. It’s been said that the average believer heard the Gospel seven times before turning their life over to Christ. Ask yourself if you are willing to be the first, third, or even sixth time someone hears the good news. Will you share God with others, regardless of the outcome? Will you serve with a humble heart? Start by having a “yes” in your spirit.

 

Recklessly love and be loved, 

Em