After Action Report 8.10.2023

     I spent the last two weeks doing ministry at Oil Belt Christian Service Camp. Last week was Deeper Life Week. The week before was a group of Jr. High campers. I was blessed each week with great small groups of kids. The Jr. High kids took to memory work like they were waiting the whole summer to get a crack at it and the kids last week displayed a high level of maturity and Biblical understanding. 

    Now I’m home. It’s been a few days and I am nearly finished with my official de-briefing for the two weeks. De-briefing is a term that was originally used in a military context to describe exactly what it implies. After a mission, the commander and his subordinates walk through the completed plan and determine whether they succeeded or not and whether that success was predicated on the plan itself or some other factor such as luck or the incompetence of the adversary. 

    Ministry is not the military though good planning still pertains. When I am at camp I am not on vacation. It took preparation to get ready for camp and with modern tools lessons and sermons can be calibrated right up to the time they are delivered. I was able to field calls at camp and get bits and pieces of other work done whilst I was there, but my major focus is no ministry there, with the kids, in context. Consequently, even a good week of camp finds me behind when I return home. For this debrief there are three primary concerns

Catch-up

    When returning from any trip I’m behind on some things. The first task is to catch up. I don’t want to derail the work I need to do in my study for this week, but I want to make sure that other issues don’t fester because I failed to find the time to properly catch up.

Get in-boxes to zero.

    The first issue is to get my task list and Email in order. The task list will not likely zero out, but Email can be easily read, pertinent information filed, and pressing issues completed. Camp is ministry. I try/tried to keep up, but my email was out of control. Those full inboxes will distract me until I get/got them emptied out. There may be items that need immediate attention and those need to be turned into tasks in my task list, for Monday morning. 

Focus on this week’s preaching, teaching, and writing tasks. 

    At Oil Belt, camp ends on Saturday morning. The first thing I needed to do was the next day’s preaching, teaching, and worship tasks. That took a good couple of hours. I was already tired, and I wanted to ensure that I did not miss anything, so I took my time. Due to circumstances out of my control, I did not get the last draft of my sermon done until that Saturday afternoon shift. I finished it first, glanced at Sunday School, and got prepared to lead songs. 

    Because I have a good system, I did the most pressing things first and then hastened home to get some rest. I knew that the first part of the week would be busy so I staged my Sunday afternoon and Monday morning tasks so that I could hit the ground running. 

Check-up

     Is there anything pressing from a pastoral perspective? Do I need to contact someone? Twenty years ago, I might have had to hit the phone to find out. With modern communications, I was never out of the loop. I was able to monitor communications while away, so the process of doing a quick check-up did not take very long.

    Additionally, since the next day after my return was Sunday, I was going to see and hear what was happening from Sunday worship.  It is easy to complain about modern communications technology, but it certainly simplifies staying connected with people at home when I’m away. 

Follow-up

    Working camp is a terrific opportunity to meet new people and reconnect with people I already know. One of the things I want to do is make sure that I can contact people from camp in the coming year. (This is the only part of the process that I have not finished as of posting this essay). 

    There are kids from camp who I want to track. (Particularly those who have decided to pursue full-time ministry or who have demonstrated a disposition for full-time ministry). I spent a day on Facebook and looking at phone numbers to organize that information in my contact management apps. I was unable to find everyone, and it may be a week or more before I can integrate the information and make contact. 

    Part of the process is securing permission from parents/guardians and specific items for future discussion. It is important that adults in authority positions not only communicate with teens who may have an interest in ministry but that their parents clearly understand who I am, how I met their child, and what kinds of communication I intend to maintain. 

    Finally, there are ministry colleagues I want to stay connected with. I have been blessed over the years by meeting countless people who preach or teach far away from me. Camp is a lot of work, but it is also refreshing. We have the opportunity to connect and reconnect with colleagues who will enrich our lives and ministries for years to come. 

    Anything we do is worth doing well. A good plan can always be made better by assessing its impact on the work. Camp is about changing lives. Some respond to the Gospel for the first time and there is nothing more satisfying than watching a camp Baptism. Others choose full-time Christian service. That’s also gratifying because guys like me--are getting a little long in the tooth.