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Earlier this Summer, I began volunteering as a small group leader in Transit, the middle school program at Browns Bridge Church. For the sixth graders, Transit holds a weekend camp called "Boot Camp" to kick things off after school starts to help create community in the small groups. This is a huge experience for these rising 6th graders as for many, it is their first camp experience on their own. I elected to implement a special haircut for the Boot Camp weekend. The response this year was huge, around 200 6th graders signed up, so five buses were waiting at send-off to shuttle us to the FFA campground near Covington, GA. After everyone got signed in, there were tons of Pizza waiting for the kids before we hit the highway. The buses were electric with the kids chattering and activity on the highway. Once we arrived at the camp, everyone got introduced to two characters that would be camp leaders for the weekend, Sgt. Peppers and Col. Sanders. The campers were di...

Who Deserves a Second Chance? If you are anything like me, you have struggled with forgiving the folks in life that have abused you, taken advantage of you, hurt you, have regularly offended you, speaks poorly of you, hurts your family members or someone close to you. Some folks seem more worthy of my forgiveness than others. So, my natural tendency is to forgive the ones that are worthy of forgiveness and not the rest. That seems justifiable and logical. Seems fair enough, right? There is not any real need to forgive someone that is down right evil and has no desire to change their actions, right? In 2006, a very tragic thing occurred in Nickel Mines, PA. Charles Roberts, the local milk truck delivery man, stormed into a one-room school house and began shooting. He shot ten young girls, killing five, and then killed himself. The families of the Amish school girls were devastated. We can barely imagine their grief. If anyone had a reason to withhold forgiveness, it cert...

In a life filled with tension and stress, the promises we read in the Bible seem to be far different that what we experience day to day. Are the promises true? Are the things we read in the Bible just simply rumors of God or are they truths that we can actually experience in our own lives? Is God real? Is He still moving in the lives of those who call out to Him? Do you fell like your life leaves you wanting more? Is there really a "new life" in Jesus like the old television preachers used to talk about? Do you feel jaded by the church? Are you cynical about the power of God in the current day and age? The authors, Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson, discuss the rumors we have all heard about God, but we fail to see in the world around us. Rumors like justice, hope, freedom, love, community, abundant life, generosity, another life, an unimagined future, and commitment. They invite us to find those rumors are all around us everyday and provide numerous real life stories of every...