Give me something to believe in...

I was 10 years old and too young to be listening to the popular rock music of the 1990’s. But I remember my oldest brother hiding his cassette tapes under his bed so my parents wouldn’t find them. Among the contraband was the newly released album by the glam-rock band “Poison” which included their chart topping mega ballad “Something to Believe In.” Bret Michaels, the lead singer, is deeply scared while he witnesses his best friend grapple with life as a despised and rejected Vietnam veteran. Like many great songs, this is a passionate expression of an experience with which many people too often relate. Clearly a cry is heard for something… anything… to believe, and from his experience, it’s not religion.

Over the years this song has become one of my favorite because it addresses a hard question with which we all wrestle. We try to do what is right. We work hard. We are looking for something on which to hang our hat. Our journey through life evokes words such as relevance, significance, value, and meaning. One friend once told me “you can keep your religion. I don’t need your lies.” Like the song mentioned above, religion has left many people lacking and still grappling for significance. Religion is simply the traditions of our faith and without relationships it will leave us empty. T.S. Eliot asks “What life have you if you have not life together? There is no life that is not in community, and no community [when life is] not lived in praise to God.” It is in community, built by relationships, that we find our place of value and significance. The ultimate expression of relationship is God’s desire to relate with us and for us to experience His great love.

Our challenge is to continue sharing in the journey and celebrating together the spiritual moments of life. Our individual traditions of faith bring strength to our community by broadening our perspectives. But our focus must remain on our relationships with those who we come in contact with each day. As we create a community defined by service and love we will find a place to belong. And when we discover this place of belonging, then we will have something to believe in.

Joey Buck, Assistant Director/Dollywood Chaplain

Jacob Baccus: Top Ten Things I Learned In SMRM

Jacob and Rachel Baccus are a wonderful couple who served two summers as summer missionaries with SMRM and ACMNP in the Smokies. They also joined us from September, 2009 until late July, 2010. During this time period, Jacob was interim Chaplain at Dollywood and then served as LeConte Lodge Chaplain and general assistant. Rachel has provided worship and concert leadership with music and creativitiy. Their experience represents much of what SMRM hopes to be in terms of providing for ministry, training for future, and developing Christian character. The following article was written by Jacob as a summary of his journey in SMRM.

Jacob Baccus: Top Ten Things I Learned In SMRM

10. Adaptation
Ministry is ever changing and SMRM has shown me that while what I am doing may be important, I always need to allow for the movement of God in my day and my ministry. Whether it be a car wreck or someone I may pass by who needs a word of hope, I learned to remain open to whatever God may bring before me.

9. Variety of ministry experience
SMRM gives a place for all to serve no matter their skill level or education. I was privileged to serve as one ‘learning the ropes’. Others have found their calling in SMRM because they were able to find their niche for serving God. The variety allows others to explore and understand that there are many ways to serve God and others.

8. Recognition of service well done
SMRM always recognizes it’s volunteers and staff by reminding them that it is they who make SMRM a success. Sometimes servants are overlooked but SMRM does a good job of recognizing those who keep God’s work going through SMRM, through banquets, unique gifts, or personal letters and calls.

7. Intentionality
Conversations of weather and sports become much more when one listens intentionally to not only what a person is saying but what they are not saying with words spoken or maybe silence. Driving down the road, or buying groceries becomes a God given invitation to show God’s love when we look at all we do on purpose.

6. Professionalism
As a minister trying to learn what it takes to direct a ministry, I was taught professionalism and administration. It is difficult for some to see resort ministry as something more than having fun skiing or rafting. Those things happen but resort ministers share God’s grace with whomever they may encounter and I learned it is important for all to see us and that all know we are professionals working and living out God’s calling in this setting.

5. Allowing anyone to be a part of the ministry big or small
Some churches have requirements to participate in ministry, but SMRM allows all to minister the gospel without condition. Whether a person’s skills are playing piano, speaking, or cleaning, all are welcomed and given a place to minister the grace God has shown them.

4. Once a part of SMRM, always a part of SMRM
This statement has been true ever since my arrival to the Smokies. My first summer I had car trouble and didn’t arrive until two in the morning but the assistant director stayed at the dorm until my arrival, showing me he cared. The director and assistant director gave me guidance my first two years with SMRM and the director cared for me as a member of his family as I was interim in 2009-2010. I feel I will always be a part of SMRM and it will always have a piece of my heart.

3. Flexibility to be creative in my ministry
As I explored my calling I was able to be creative in my worship leading and my relationships with people. I felt the freedom to incorporate sometimes non-traditional methods of using God’s creation in worship. Also, I was able to hone particular skills and practice new ones.

2. Freedom to explore my calling
Before SMRM, all I ever knew was ministry within the church. SMRM opened doors to new ministry outside the church walls. I was allowed to have freedom to participate in ministry ranging from rafting ministry to Dollywood chaplaincy. I was able to be a chaplain, music minister, pastor, friend, co-worker, laborer, children’s director, and many more. SMRM has significantly advanced my ministry because I was able to find where God was calling me.

1. “Earning the right to be heard”
For me missions/evangelism was knocking on doors and ‘witnessing’. Before I came to SMRM I was trying to put words to intentional missions without being over the top. This simple yet time intensive phrase gave me the sense of direction and purpose I needed and continue to use in my approach to revealing Christ no matter the circumstance.

Dynamics In Sharing Your Faith With Others In Secular Settings

Dynamics In Sharing Your Faith With Others
In Everyday Settings
Bill Black

1. Know your purpose. Consider God’s purpose versus your purpose.


2. Style matters. People are watching and wanting and they do matter and they do care.


3. Other people exist. Everyone is having an experience, created by God, loved by God. God is active in every individual’s life, whether they realize it or not.


4. Behavior (or lack thereof) is not a point for judgment. How do you understand life and faith in terms of behavior? What is your definition of sin? Grace is needed in most settings. Grace that does not preclude judgment and forgiveness, but rather grace that grants acceptance.


5. Intention / Purpose / Initiative. Prepare to enter into the setting through intentional presence. Keep focused on your purpose. Take the initiative to accomplish your purpose.


6. Nobody will listen to you unless they know you like them. Earn the right to be heard (get attention / build relationship / earn right / be heard) with the Gospel.


7. Other people have morality and values. Christians do not own morality. Their morality may speak to other issues they think to be of life worthy importance: community, tolerance, social justice, etc.--calling them immoral is inappropriate.


8. Find common ground. Focus on what you have in common in terms of feelings about life.


9. Revealing the presence of God in surprising settings and in their lives is what we are about. Nobody will listen to God unless they know God loves them. An act of kindness goes a long way to revealing God’s active care and love in their life.


10. Define terms in their language. Christian sayings and phrases carry implied meanings. Speak in everyday language.

11. Don’t let spreading the Gospel feel any different than telling somebody about a love in your life, about your children, or about a great memory. Speak from your heart and with your heart. In telling someone about Jesus you are telling them of an experience in your life, a love in your life, simply share the story of your relationship


12. Revealing the presence of God active in someone’s life is about them, not us. You are seeking to enable them to see more clearly God’s presence, to hear a loving word, to feel the relationship God seeks with them.


13. Be real. It is important to be honest about our lives. Sharing doubts, fears, and failings is as important as sharing commitment, strengths, and successes.


14. Pray for the salvation of others. The work of evangelism is something God lets us watch, but very little of it is what we do. It is not about convincing others of our ideas. It is about a spiritual exchange between a person and God.


15. It is important to make the ask and to make it correctly. When the relationship calls for it, it is important to ask if someone would like to know Christ. Have several ways of sharing how to become a Christian ready. You will know when and how.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD MISSION GROUP?

Bill Black

Smoky Mountain Resort Ministries has relied on church mission teams as vital expressions of God’s mission in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee areas for thirty years. Bill has learned that good teams are willing to:


Invest into the culture of the field site and the ministry program
It is important to discover where you are going through a pre-project visit that teaches you who the people are that you will be working with and how the local ministry exists within the lives of those people. Beyond the necessary practical work taught in such a visit is understanding and embracing the heart of those with whom you are working. Good ministry teams are the ones who want to understand why you do what you do and how your ministry fits into the setting around you. The culture of SMRM is relevant in its setting and the great teams are the ones who are willing to invest into that culture.


Accept responsibility for the preparation of the team with prayer, logistical work, training, equipping, ministry action, and follow up.
In a day of pre-packaged, pay-your-money-and-show up mission trips for churches, there remains a need for churches who want to go deep into mission with a willingness to take responsibility for their own preparation, planning, and work. SMRM is willing to do advance work in establishing relationships, planning ministry programs, and guiding logistical decisions but we need groups who will do the extra work to be a total mission team.


Respect the relationship of need and dreams for both entitities.
We need groups who are clear with their own hopes for the trip yet who are able to respond to our needs and dreams as opposed to their own “church mission goals”. They need to listen carefully to what is being said by the ministry site and free themselves into those possibilities.
This release enables God’s mission to be fulfilled for all.

The other question:
What makes a good ministry program to host a mission team?

Look for a program that is willing to totally share its ministry with you, one that recognizes the value of your group not only in the work that is done but in the incarnational presence of the team; one that risks itself through empowering you to be the ministers; one that names you as their own and, even more, as God’s people called together for that expression of mission; one that enables you to fulfill your own mission call.

Connection

“CONNECTION”
Bill Black

We live in a disconnected society. Despite our tools that make informational connection easier, we find ourselves more isolated from those around us. At times, this disconnection is because of the insulating and impersonal character of those very tools (emails, text messages, voice mails, ipods, etc.). High tech toys and equipment provide communication without self-revelation and without self-risk. Another example of this disconnection is found in the discordant and strident language of division prevalent in politics and religion. This “us versus them” and “they are not like us” language serves to create a climate of separation for us all.

On the other side of the picture, there is a hopeful word common in the language of mission that is prevalent in the Church today. “Partnership” is often heard as a desired expression of relationship between churches and mission people and sites. “Partnership”, while often said without providing the responsibilities found through its definition, is a word of invitation to relationship.

SMRM seeks to address the issues of isolation in our society and of partnership with our churches through the theme of connection.

Our goal is that of connection.
We want to connect to and with God through Jesus Christ.
We want to connect to and with our self-identity and personhood in Christian growth.
We want to connect to and with others through availability in relationship.
We want to connect to and with Churches, organizations, and entities through responsible relationships that provide for mutual accomplishment of mission.
We want to enable others in the discovery of this form of connection.

Connection works to enable a bond between people and entities. Connection has as its expression the concepts of both “to” and “with”. Connection ties us with responsibility and accountability. It is multi-directional in that it provides for flow both to and from. It requires self-revelation and self-risk; vulnerability and authenticity; availability of self and acceptance of others.

Healthy connection does not just happen because we desire it. It requires understanding of relationship and shared expectations and definitions. We must focus on its efforts through our time and purposes.

The connection to all that is Holy is a grace from God through Jesus Christ. Holy connection is both received and given in that grace. Our work in connection must be similarly grace-filled and graceful.


THEME APPLICATION

Ministry expressions that focus us on connection include:

Theological:
Discipline yourself in the realm of Holy connection
Be sure of healthy personal Spiritual connection in, through, and with Jesus Christ
Creatively ask others to speak of their connection to and with God
Explore how their Holy connection works (for individuals, Churches, or organizations)
Facilitate that connection through prayer, personal evangelism, Bible proclamation and teaching

Utilize resurrection theology that invites all to the good and to its life-changing power
Anticipate the good in all and encourage good action through modeling it
Call all to a high standard of self, relationship, and work

Personal:
Enjoy relationships
Be available personally
Respond when contacted
Engage others
Speak to people as a person
Reward your self-connection with time, activities, and people you need and enjoy

Organizational:
With Churches, organizations, or other entities make sure
of common goal, fit, and purpose in mission
Be clear in the why and how of joining together
Recognize and celebrate different expressions of God’s call
Define responsibilities and accountabilities in relationship

Practical:
Utilize high tech as a tool, not an end
High touch is greater than high tech
Write it down and do it
Write people personal notes
Call people until you get them
Use your touch