Emotions, spirituality, and the past

i've been doing quite a bit of reading on emotions lately. Some friends of mine recommended reading The Emotionally Healthy Church, by Pete Scazzero, and i started it last week. It is about the lack of emotional development in spiritual discipleship.

Another book i recently finished is How People Grow, by Henry Cloud and John Townsend, which details the processes people go through in growth, how growth happens, and how to create environments for spiritual growth. It's a wonderful book, one which i believe anyone in leadership should read. Especially for those who run small groups.

One of my main comments when reading these books is that i need to see these issues and processes play out in the real world in order.

And what would you expect? My thoughts (they hadnt even gotten to the point of prayers yet) have been heard by God and situations have been thrown in my life requiring me to sort through these issues, both in my personal life and in the lives of many of the students i minister to.

So i'm pretty nervous because i'm on the beginning of the learning curve in a difficult and dangerous territory. Thankfully, God has given us his Spirit for situations like this. And with that hope, i can run forward - embracing the unknown and learning how to do what it is i signed on for.

i'm scared, but this is the nitty-gritty fun stuff.

What could that possibly mean?!

i thought it would be a wise decision to show that i actually do work in my internship. So here's a picture of my next monday. Monday is generally my office day where i take care of my reading, prepare for any small groups or discipleship appointments, make phone calls, print up advertisements, prayer walk on the campus, etc etc.

But i ask you... what could that little statement in the middle there possibly mean!?

My Summer!

So what's my summer going to look like?

Well, that's a question i've been wondering for a while myself... but while i was in Boston i found out.

Before we get to that, going to Wildwood Summer Project with Crusade in New Jersey was one of the best experiences i've ever had. During that summer i learned so much about how to share my faith in every facet of my life. Most people think just learned how to walk up to random people i didnt know to share my faith, but i learned how to share my faith with my friends from home, friends at school, and co-workers.

Wildwood was also valuable to me because it taught me what true Christian community can be. i cant say that it was perfect, because it was far from that, but it was beautiful to see the new levels on which we would relate over the course of the summer.

Which is why i'm hyper excited to be going to Acadia, it's in Maine - i didnt know that before i was told about it, because i know how good these summer projects are.

When i was asking other comrades what i should request for the summer, without a doubt this was recommended to me by the colleagues i consider closest. Both my campus director and my discipler from my summer in Wildwood said that their summer in Acadia caused more spiritual growth in one month than they had experienced in years.

The theme as far as i know is grace and truth (John 1:17). What i mean by that is being truthful with God, yourself, and others and experiencing God's grace from God and from others in spite of the truth. Spiritual growth and developing spiritual leadership are the foci of the project.

Here's some weblinks if you're interested in learning more what i'll be doing with students this summer:
Summer Projects - All of the projects Campus Crusade offers. Some interesting ones are the NYC art project (Tribeca) and the Alaskan Men's Project
Leadership Adventure - Acadia Project's website

Thanks for checking up on me!
james