Traveling Thoughts

In all of the bus-riding, city-walking, plane-flying (I didn't fly the plane, but I couldn't use the same verb twice) I had a few inner-debates going.

Not inner-debates as in multi-voices...more so circular thoughts that would spark questions and more questions. I finally wrote most of it down during (what seemed to be) the longest flight of my life.

Here are a few pieces...I'd love to get some opinions on these things:

1) What makes a student so excited about something that they can't wait to tell their friends?

2) Is this something that is easily (or at all possibly) reproduce-able in the church?

3) I had been thinking about the stories of our students...what kind of stories do they have? Would they be willing to share them? Do they think they are worth sharing? Griff's post about his seminary class felt similar to what I was thinking...again, can we duplicate an atmosphere of sharing so we (as a whole) can benefit from these stories?

4) We need a weekend revolution...what does that look like? Where do we even begin? In order for it to happen, does it need fresh eyes and fresh ideas or can this change take place in the eyes and hearts of those who already 100% bleed Wildside?

5) The main ingredient missing from our weekend program is connection. Our students are not known or connected to each other or leaders through our weekend...is this even a possibility? I know it's not the "purpose" of the weekends, but it is a definite value...how do we get enough leaders on board to even make this a reality? How do we take steps toward this with the small, but totally committed, number of leaders we have now?

So, there you go...Ideas? Suggestions? Does you ministry rule at any of these things and really just need a visitor to check it all out? I was overwhelmed this summer as I began to recognize these needs, but I am getting to a place of excitement thinking about what it could be and how it could get there...