this is a letter i have sent off to a number of fellow youth ministers and interested parties. it’s been quiet, but this a continuation of the recent firing changes of two our most functional and successful parts to the tennessee conference ministries of the united methodist church.

Hi all,

hate to leave a short notice alert for a meeting. but
tomorrow has possibility to be a big day in the world of youth
ministries.

In the afternoon the camping committee is meeting
(at the conference office) to discuss the future of camping ministries
in the aftermath of the dissolving of the program positions as they
were. As it looks, there will be a rubber stamp to have Dickie Hinton,
who is program director at Beersheba, function as director over all
camping. The second point of business is summer camp at Cedar Crest.
There is a real lack of summer staff and if canceling camp becomes the
option then there are many of us that fear it would never come back.
This might be the desire as some as there is a resolution going to
Annual Conference to develop a task force for exploring other options
for Cedar Crest. Though my participation in Cedar Crest has been
minimal over the years I appreciate and know the important of camp. My
own experience in childhood being spent at the methodist camp in
southern New Jersey. We hired James to try and bring Cedar Crest up to
speed as a camp that gives a high adventure retreat space for summer
camps as well as smaller church groupings. My personal opinion, we have
nickeled and dimed our way through camping ministries to get our
current results. I ask for your prayers and maybe suggestions that we
could bring to the table as solutions to not let summer camp die for
the hundreds of youth that call it home for a summer.

at 6:30pm we will be convening the first gathering of the youth
ministry for the conference since the ‘listening’ session a few weeks
ago. This meeting, as i know, is open to interested parties to attend.
As I know, I will be there and some of the CCYM as well as Loyd. The
order or content of the meeting, I do not know. I hope it is a
continuation of the ‘listening’ session where we can do some discerning
and visioning of how to actually move forward. If you car not, or
cannot, make the meeting pray for discernment and listening on all
parts. Like I have said in the past, I am all for churches growing and
reaching those who are lost/unchurched/etc. however, it is undeniable
that the methods for which our trusted leadership took upon themselves
to bring change have caused hurt and unrest.

thanks for all ya’lls time
shalom
-gav