The Many Regenerations of Montreat College

Folks who know me well already know that I'm a fan of Doctor Who. For those unfamiliar with the show, which is reaching its 50th anniversary later this year, the main character ("the Doctor") is a time traveling alien. To paraphrase one of my college professors, it is intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer that a show cannot survive for so long with a single main character played by a single actor. Part of the secret of Doctor Who's longevity lies in the fact that the Doctor can "regenerate" after an actor has played the role long enough and wants to move on, allowing the character to continue on with a new actor in the role. To date, there have been eleven (canonical) actors playing the role of the Doctor.
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Remembering "With Ears That See" - Part Two

As I demonstrated in Wednesday's post, we spent roughly 18 months working out details in preparation for the 1992 Montreat Youth Conferences, and I have been led to understand that this is the pattern for most years. We also depended on a number of people to make all this work. Besides the Planning Team members themselves, and the up-front Leadership already discussed, we recruit a number of other behind-the-scenes workers to help us keep the nuts and bolts of the conference running smoothly, including someone to help us with child care, to manage the office, to take pictures of the many events during the week, to run back and forth to nearby Black Mountain (and occasionally elsewhere) to gather supplies, and many other roles. Thanks to the advent of social media such as Facebook, I've been able to regain contact with several of these people, but not nearly enough!
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Remembering "With Ears That See" - Part One

Twenty years ago today, on July 4th, 1992, a pleasant Saturday morning, I was privileged to be able to celebrate Independence Day in what is perhaps my favorite place in the entire world: Montreat, North Carolina. I had recently arrived in town to begin the final preparations for the first two weeks of "With Ears That See," which was the theme we'd chosen for the Montreat Youth Conferences for that summer. I've given a bit of background on the experience before, but I couldn't let this anniversary go by without doing something special. But before I can discuss those two weeks themselves, I need to describe some of the work that led up to that time.
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Why I Continue to Support Montreat College, and Why You Should, Too

This message is written to a more focused audience than what I usually write. Today, I am writing specifically to people who are alumni of Montreat College (whether under that name, or its former name of "Montreat-Anderson College"). If I may be so bold as to do so, I am writing in my capacity as the Student Body President for the 1994-1995 academic year (incidentally, the final Student Body President in Montreat-Anderson College history, thanks to that name change).
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Is Your God Boring You?

I've worked in and around Christian environments for pretty much my entire adult life. In quite a few of these settings, I've heard the concern that worship experiences that differ from the experiences of another generation may be influenced by an unhealthy desire to "entertain" audiences. I find this to be a difficult criticism to respond to. It's not that I haven't tried, but rather that the issue is a fairly deep one. If a person "enjoys" a worship experience, are they not entertained by it? Is this a bad thing? Surely we're not trying to argue that people should never enjoy themselves when worshiping God!
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Montreat! Montreat! Montreat!

Although I've certainly shared videos, myself, I have to admit that I really wish that people didn't share videos on Facebook and elsewhere as much as they do. I would much rather everything shared was text. The reason for this is that I do much of my browsing during downtime at work, and I don't wish to disturb my co-workers with the sound (obviously, an audio-only piece can be even worse). Also, it's much easier to leave a page of text alone when a task comes in, and come back to it once I'm done, than it is with video.

All this means is that, when I started to see this video of "Stuff Presbyterian Seminarians Say" making the rounds on Facebook Monday morning, I waited until I was at home that evening to finally watch it. You can watch the video for yourself after the jump, or just go straight on to my comments.
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Music from Montreat: Just Before Daybreak

One of the benefits of Facebook is hearing from friends from other periods of one's life. One of my college friends, who like me had attended the Montreat Youth Conferences while in high school (a surprisingly small number of people, given that I attended college in Montreat!), shared this video from YouTube, which was truly a blast from the past. It features Ken Holt, the music leader for Weeks 3 and 4 of the 1990 Montreat Youth Conferences, singing the theme song for those conferences, "Just Before Daybreak." I didn't imagine that a song written for week-long Youth Conference more than 20 years ago would be available even on a place like YouTube, but now I'm curious to see what other gems of this kind I might find.
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Sacred Place

A couple of weeks ago, the pastor at my church preached a message drawing from Genesis 22, where Jacob has a vision of God at Bethel. In it, the pastor pointed out how the passage took care to mention several times that Jacob was in "a certain place," and how Jacob marked that place after his experience there. The pastor then talked about the ways that God is experienced in certain places in our own lives. While he was careful to acknowledge that God can be experienced in any place, the pastor paid attention to the ways in which the biblical narrative calls out specific places as having special meaning to God's people, as was the case for Jacob at Bethel. We were invited to think of those places in which we experienced God, and although I ultimately was able to come up with several, the first location that came to mind was Montreat.
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Your Future is in Front of You

This post was written for the Fuller Blogs website, where it first appeared this past weekend.

It's that time of year again, when graduation looms just around the corner. Even though I myself got my degree from Fuller several years ago, this is a season that affects everyone in the Fuller community. Whether you're a graduating student looking forward to the completion of your own degree, or a current student just looking to get through your current class and perhaps preparing to say good-bye to some of your friends, or a staff member preparing end-of-fiscal-year budgets or closing out committee work for the academic year, the rhythm of the academic cycle ensures that graduation time is an important season for all of us at Fuller.
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Reflections of a Minor Fiend

Back when I was in college, I was involved in drama.  One of the first plays I was heavily involved in was Screwtape, a play by James Forsyth somewhat loosely based on The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis.  I had the fortune to be cast in the role of Wormwood, arguably the lead of the play (the name notwithstanding).  For those who don't know, Wormwood is a junior demon, and Screwtape, his uncle, is tasked with showing Wormwood the ropes.

One of the tasks of preparing for our parts was to write a brief document from the point of view of our character.  The scene that follows is what I wrote, as I tried to get into Wormwood's state of mind just prior to the start of the play.

---

Ah, at long last, freedom!  I thought those classes would never end.  From now on, old Slubgob will have to find someone else to put to sleep with all those boring lectures on "Pride," "Sloth," and "Avoidance of Truth."  I'm out to find some action!  My patient is going to be so gloriously depraved, I'll be promoted up from grade D (ugh!) to Master Tempter in no time.

It will be nice to get out into the material world.  Hell can be so dull at times.  All we get down here anymore are the same old, boring, self-righteous cretins who simply weren't smart enough to avoid our temptations and deserved to be tossed down here anyway.  Besides, it's not healthy to live in an environment where you might end up as your teacher's next meal if you don't turn in your report on "Keeping Your Patient's Attention on Himself."

I dare say, my parents would be most disgusted to see their "little monster" has gotten this far.  Fortunately, they so miserably failed in their mission with that "Theresa" woman that Lucifer sent them down for consumption while I was still learning the "ABC"s of temptation.  Uncle Screwtape's seen to my upbringing since then.  Not much better.  He's as contemptible as everyone else down here.  Well, I'll show them.  I'll outfiend them all!

Well, it's almost time to see what the Earth is like.  Uncle Screwtape has talked about the opportunities for a young fiend, "if you have the wits to find them."  I'll show him wit!  My patient will be destroying office buildings and shooting down Kindergartner's before I'm through with him.  Oh, Creosote!  Uncle's calling me now!  Coming, Uncle....  (I wish someone would consume him!)

John Calvin at 500

Friday is the 500th Anniversary of John Calvin's birth. Although I am a card-carrying Presbyterian, I'm not such a staunch Calvinist that I'm going to bump my weekly Transformers feature just to make sure that I recognize Calvin's birthday on July 10th, so I have two choices: 1) Do 2 features on Friday, or 2) recognize the birthday a couple of days early.

You can already tell which alternative I've chosen. :)

There is a sense in which Calvin is the guy that Presbyterians (indeed, anyone in the Reformed tradition, which encompasses a number of other Protestant denominations) view as the founder of their branch of theology. Even if Calvin didn't originate a particular doctrine himself (his work owes a great debt to Augustine, in particular), it is often Calvin's particular take on it (often encapsulated in the acronym, "TULIP", which stands for "Total Depravity," "Unconditional Election," "Limited Atonement," "Irresistible Grace," and "Perseverance of the Saints") that Presbyterians look to for authority.

At least, so it is often assumed, both by Presbyterians themselves as well as those outside of the Reformed tradition. In reality, it's generally not so clear-cut. Presbyterians, for example, often either don't know the tenets of "TULIP" (and I don't really blame them, as the acronym's letters each come from the adjective describing the doctrine, and opposed to the core word of the doctrine itself. Knowing "Total, Unconditional, Limited, Irresistible, and Perseverance" doesn't tell you as much as knowing what or who those adjectives refer to, even if you know those things, but don't know the adjectives.) or actively argue against some element of one of TULIP's "petals" (even a Presbyterian pastor might argue against how "limited" the atonement is, for example). Of course, the formulation "TULIP" itself was created in response to Arminian thought by some of Calvin's followers well after Calvin's death, but it nonetheless is considered to be a reliable short-form of Calvin's teachings. In any event, even fewer Presbyterians have an understanding of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, which detail his thoughts far more thoroughly, than they do of TULIP.

But even if Calvin's teachings are not universally agreed to (and I myself am pretty conflicted on that count), there is a sense in which he left a legacy to which not only Presbyterians are indebted, but indeed the United States and other western democracies in the secular world, as well. For one thing, our representative form of government--in particular, the system of checks and balances inherent therein--is an outgrowth of Calvin's teachings on human fallibility. Of course, Calvin's insistence upon reason and academic study is of great importance to those of us who also try to find an intersection between matters of faith and secular understanding. Montreat Conference Center is hosting a conference, starting today, celebrating Calvin's 500th birthday, specifically calling it "an opportunity to rediscover Calvin’s significant and sometimes misunderstood legacy." One of the professors I work for, Dr. John L. Thompson, will be giving a lecture as part of the conference tomorrow: "Psalms of Cursing and Lament as a Prism for Calvin's Use of Scripture." It's his first trip to Montreat. Wish I could join him.

UPDATE: July 15, 2009. This week's episode of The God Complex featured a discussion of John Calvin's legacy. They were nice enough to give me a shout-out at the end as "Intern of the Week," which means nothing more than that I gave them a theme concept for how they would read the names of the people involved in putting the show together at the end of the podcast. I'd invite you to have a listen, particularly for those credits at the end. Can you guess what theme I gave them? I'll bet you can! ;)

Missing Montreat

Montreat's been on my mind quite a bit this past month or so. Sadly, I won't be able to head out there for the Youth Conferences this year as I did last year. Although finances are certainly tight in the current economy, that's not really the reason I can't go this year--at least, not directly. If you serve as a Small Group Leader, Montreat pays for your flight, room, and meals for the entire time you're there. In fact, going last year probably helped my budget for the summer! However, Fuller is in the midst of a significant restructuring effort, and although I won't be losing my job in the midst of it, things are going to be changing fairly quickly, and it's just not a good time to not be here.

But my sister, who still lives in Kentucky, was able to be a Small Group Leader this year, and so I got a lot of updates from her. It was an especially appropriate time for her to be there. 2009 is the 20th anniversary of her first conference, much as last year was the 20th anniversary of mine. Her "anniversary" experience was even more so, however, as the preacher for the two weeks she served was Tom Are, Jr., who gave the sermons back in 1989 (transcribed via the links on the right-side bar)! I'm told that he shared a few of the same stories (after all, the youth of this audience wasn't even alive to have heard them back then!) and a few new ones (I eagerly await the CD my sister has promised me). She even got to sing a song leading the congregation in worship during her time there (that's her in the middle, with Rev. Are on the right, and one of the music leaders on the left. Archbishop Tutu wasn't there. It's just his smiling picture in the back.).

This weekend, Montreat will no doubt have their annual Fourth of July parade, which I still remember watching when I was there with the 1992 Planning Team, and I'm hearing word from many of my Facebook friends (many of whom were fellow Small Group Leaders last year) that they're getting reading to head out there for their Youth Conference experiences (there are six such conferences every year. My sister was at the first two, but there are still four to go!). Have fun! Wish I could be with you all!

Remembering the Man in the Mirror

Like most people, I was stunned to learn that Michael Jackson passed away last week. Unlike other celebrities (like Farrah Fawcett, who died the same day), I'd had no indication that his health was even in decline. Of course, I'd not even been following his career enough to know that he was trying to stage a comeback tour in the coming year, so it would definitely be a stretch to say I was a huge fan. Still, I came of age in a time where Michael Jackson's music was inescapable. Too young to have direct memories of his tenure as the lead singer (albeit youngest!) of the "Jackson Five," I became aware of Michael Jackson right at the time when he was redefining his own career as his own person.

In the summer of 1988, just before I entered high school, I attended my very first Montreat Youth Conference. Toward the end of the week, they always have a Variety Show, and I performed Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror," which I had learned the previous spring in choir. I really should never have done that. I had no background music to play, and none of my friends who knew the song could play instruments, so I did the whole thing a cappella. Also, the song was a bit too high for my comfortable voice range (Jackson is known for a rather high singing voice, whereas my voice has been in the low bass range since I entered my teens). In fact, my voice actually cracked as I tried to hit the high note at the end of the second verse, right in front of an audience of over 1000 people! There was no point in trying to hide it (especially a cappella!), so I basically made a face acknowledging the mistake, and then finished the song. The song was actually well-received, and I got a few compliments for handling the voice-crack the way I did. Still, if I'd had to do it over again, I probably would have let someone else have the slot.

I've often mused about the fact that performers often sing (and even write) songs that don't consistently match their own lives. Someone will sing a song about eternal love, yet have multiple marriages and divorces, for example. There will always be some controversy over Michael Jackson's life, especially the last decade or so of it. There's that incident several years ago where he dangled his baby son from a balcony before reporters, for example, and there will probably always be some question about whether or not Jackson had a problem with pedophilia. In light of these kinds of oddities, "Man in the Mirror" may well be one of those songs that was "just something to perform" that "sounded good," even if the real meaning of it (making a change in one's self in order to make a difference in the world) didn't fully enter into Jackson's being.

But, recognizing the way in which Jackson did take control of his life, not only terms of redefining himself for his solo musical career, but in other ways (both good and bad), I have to imagine that there was at least a part of "Man in the Mirror" that reflected Jackson pretty deeply. I get the impression that he wanted to make the world a better, happier place, and even if he didn't always know the right way to go about it, he got out there and made the effort. His choices were his own, and good or bad, he made them himself. Perhaps that's the best that can be said of any of us.

Keystones and Importance

As I've mentioned before, I was Student Body President of Montreat-Anderson College just as they were making the transition to the name "Montreat College" the following year. At that same time, Montreat College adopted their current arch logo, with the highlighted keystone. The logo takes a cue from the gateway to the town, arguably Montreat's most iconic landmark, which has a couple of these arches (officially, the logo is inspired by arches in the college chapel, but it's hard to imagine that the gateway wasn't in mind, also). Naturally, a lot was said at the time about the imagery behind this logo. Specifically, it was noted that the keystone was the most important part of the arch, and that its removal would cause the collapse of the entire arch. 

For a Christian college such as Montreat, it was an easy step from there to make the analogy of saying that Christ is the college's "keystone." (An official statement from Montreat professor Don King, written at about that time, can be found here. Although I don't see here an explicit statement that the removal of the keystone will cause the destruction of the entire arch, I don't think it's an unfair interpretation of what is there to suggest that this is the assumption.) 

I've always wondered a bit about the claim that the keystone is the most crucial part of an arch. When I was a child, I remember playing with an exhibit at a children's museum, where were invited to make an arch out of blocks on a flat surface, which could then be raised to stand upright. Remove the keystone, we were told, and the whole thing would fall down. This was certainly true, but it was just as true that removing any other block would achieve the same result! Not that this mattered too much to me as a kid. It was just fun to build the arch and tear it down again! More recently, I stumbled upon this article (linked via the Wikipedia article on keystones) that argues that keystones are not only in the position of least stress on the arch, but may in fact be unnecessary altogether!

This work of art lies outside one of the business complexes in Monrovia. While I don't presume to know what was in the mind of the artist who created it, it certainly seems to consciously subvert the conventional wisdom about keystones and arches. Here, we see two sides of an "arch" remaining upright despite the obvious removal of the keystone, which sits at the bottom as though it had simply fallen out of place. 

Whatever the architectural realities behind keystones may be, I do think the symbolism at Montreat remains valid. But I also think it's worth remembering what I'd inadvertently discovered as a child. Other parts of the arch are important, too. While the removal of any other part of a system may not cause the entire system to collapse, as was the case with that block arch in the museum, I think it's safe to say that a system is often weakened when parts are removed, and care must be taken to ensure that parts are removed with care, if and when they are removed at all. 

Christianity has an illustration that conveys this idea rather well, I think: that of members of the church being Christ's body. Each of us serves a function, and is considered important to the well-being of the body as a whole. While I certainly don't wish to argue that Christ is anything other than of central importance, I sometimes feel that some church leaders are too willing to ignore the importance of individual people in favor of some supposedly Christian ideal or another. I do not believe that Christ is honored when we do this too flippantly. Christ is honored when the members of Christ's body are honored. In this time of economic hardship, where many businesses and many churches are having to make very difficult decisions, it is my prayer that those in positions of leadership remember this.

Campus Ministry While at Montreat College

Some time ago, I was informed by PC(USA) Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow about a Presbyterian "Bloggers Unite" event on Campus Ministry, scheduled for April 1st. I didn't think ahead properly to realize that April 1st is April Fool's Day, the day when anyone with any sense knows better than to believe anything one reads on the Internet. I can only give you my assurances that I'm going to play this straight, and not pull any tricks or deceit when talking about my experience at Montreat College.

Before I get to that, though, I really should provide a link to this site, which provides links to a great many ministry opportunities for PC(USA) college students. I was in college when the Internet wasn't remotely this readily available. AOL was still the portal of choice, and the World Wide Web was still in figurative diapers. I would have loved to have had access to this kind of information back then.

What I did have were the student organizations on campus, especially the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and the Student Christian Association (SCA). Having pretty much never considered myself an "athlete," I probably wouldn't have gotten attached to the FCA on my own, but one of my friends/roommates was the person almost always called upon to play worship music at campus events, and the FCA folks were never too particular about whether or not the people who came to their worship events happened to be "athletes," so I was usually around on Monday nights when they met for praise and worship. Likewise, the SCA often met for worship on either Wednesday or Sunday nights (my memory's not clear on that one. Perhaps it was different in different years?), and I was usually there.

Both groups' worship times tended to combine a time of singing with a speaker. In the case of FCA, the message was usually focused on dealing with the complexities of life (especially in a college context) in a way that honors God. In SCA, as often as not the speaker would give his/her "testimony." Non-evangelicals may need to have that term unpacked more than others, but in the evangelical context, "testimony" almost always refers to a personal story of what kind of a life a person lived before he/she "knew" Christ, and how God through Christ changed all that for the better. I'm a bit more critical of such "testimonies" now, partly because there's a danger of actually highlighting the sins committed in a person's pre-Christian life, and I don't think that's healthy. I'm also a little sour on "testimonies" because I frankly came to see them as growing more than a little stale each and every week for months on end.

Both groups engaged in various ministry opportunities, as well, although I confess that I'm not particularly qualified to write about what the FCA did. In the case of SCA, one mainstay of the four years I was there was the weekly collection of an offering to be given to the well-being of a child in a third-world country. There are lots of these organizations around, of course, and my current church does something similar in our Sunday School program. Other projects were done on a more occasional basis: some folks would work on Habitat for Humanity houses, others would serve in soup kitchens, and so on. On one occasion, I joined a group that traveled up to Pittsburgh for three days to attend the annual Jubilee Conference, which I'm happy to see still happens every year. Jubilee inspires Christians to be a part of changing the world through volunteerism and civic involvement, seeking ways to change structures toward greater justice in the name of Christ.

A common theme that I heard throughout the years of my college experience, and which I expect is almost cliché elsewhere, as well, was that a person shouldn't wait until after one is "established" to become involved in volunteerism and ministry. In fact, despite the pressures of classwork, I would argue that I had more time for those kinds of activities then than I do now. Maybe I just had more energy then, I don't know. But I'm glad I took part in the activities that I did, and found that they influenced my attitudes (hopefully for the better!) on a great many matters of Christian life as I left college and entered seminary. I definitely recommend taking advantage of whatever opportunities are available in your own context.

Creative Solutions to Difficult Economic Problems

Just about everyone is strapped for cash these days. Costs are going up, while access to funds is generally going down. It's also no secret that educational institutions are especially hard-hit.

Two weeks ago, Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard Mouw led a convocation detailing Fuller's responses to the crisis. Although I will admit that some of the "solutions" hit harder than I expected them to, that's more a measure of how much bigger the problem is than I had previously understood it to be than it is about Fuller doing anything wrong. In fact, I'm happy to go on record as saying that Mouw handled this difficult convocation event as well as could possibly be expected, and I feel that the community as a whole has demonstrated remarkable understanding in their responses. A quick run-down can be found here, but if you care to see a video of the President's portion of the event, you can do so below (it lasts less than 15 minutes).



However, I'm really not interested in talking too much about Fuller, but rather about the other institution of higher education which I'm proud to consider my alma mater: Montreat College. Montreat College constituents received an e-mail last week from the current President of the college, Dan Struble. The Montreat situation, as detailed in the letter, seems in many ways similar to Fuller's, and perhaps even worse (I don't believe that Fuller is so dependent on endowment income). But one of the actions Montreat will be taking is not only one that I haven't specifically heard that Fuller is taking, but may prove to be a "win-win" for most parties concerned. Since the text of the letter is publicly accessible via the Montreat College web page, I am assuming that it is safe to quote a portion of it here:

We are also substantially increasing the number of student jobs available on our Montreat campus beginning this spring. We hope that doing so will have many positive effects. First, this should make it possible for students to help defray the costs of their education in two ways: by using earnings to pay for tuition, and by allowing us to reduce our costs. Second, research on student success indicates that students who work on campus are more likely to do well in school and to persist to graduation. Third, working on campus should allow more students to live without cars (further reducing their expenses, improving the environment, and reducing energy dependence). Fourth, student work experience increases employability upon graduation. And last but not least, we believe that increasing the number of students working on campus will enhance our community in ways that make Montreat College better, more enjoyable, and that models for student show real communities work when all involved pitch in to meet each others' needs.

Now, I should be clear at the outset that I am not suggesting that Fuller also seek to have more of their jobs filled by students. We already have a more-than-significant number of our positions filled by current students, and while I think that this is a strength of our community, I actually think that Fuller would do well to have more positions filled by people who aren't expecting to leave the community after graduation. Fuller's situation is different than Montreat's for several reasons, not the least of which is that Fuller's students are here being trained for predominately church-related employment, and the types of jobs being done here on campus are not as analogous to that kind of future employment as the types of jobs available at Montreat are likely to be for Montreat's considerably broader constituency.

That said, I can proudly say that I benefited from having been employed by the college in various ways while I was a student there. I worked in the Library, as a Teaching Assistant, and as a Resident Assistant in one of the dorms (and those were just the paid positions!). I definitely do feel that these positions were helpful to me when I applied for and got the job that I have now, just as I still hope that, when financial times are better, my current job will prove helpful in getting whatever my next job ends up being. Although I did have a car while I lived at Montreat, having jobs on campus definitely meant that I didn't have to use it all that much (and I did live on campus, as well), something I miss now that I live in vehicle-dependent Southern California and have to commute to work.

Obviously, even this creative solution will be hard for many people (especially if anyone is losing their current job at the college, but although I see "reducing staff" on the list of actions to be taken, I know from experience at Fuller that this is often accomplished through attrition rather than through actual lay-offs), but I hope that it becomes an opportunity for those who are able to take advantage of it.

UPDATE: 2/4/09 - A friend recently commented on the possibility that Montreat might be actively laying off staff and replacing them with student workers. This may be based on information that I was not given, or it may simply be a different (but possible) interpretation of the same information I have already commented on. Although I am indeed under the impression that Montreat College is seeking to reduce staff positions held by non-students, I assumed that they would be doing so through attrition, not through laying off existing workers. I made this assumption because I know that this has been Fuller's general policy in similar times. If it is indeed true that Montreat is actively laying off staff, and replacing those people with students, my attitude toward this action is significantly less positive.

Notes from Montreat Epilogue 3: Theme Music!

Believe it or not, I had actually planned to "leave Montreat behind" (in blogging sense) with my entry on Thursday last week. I spent the past weekend with my wife's family, including 7 nieces and nephews, to celebrate her grandfather's 90th birthday. But we got home really late last night, and I haven't had a chance to process the pictures we took from the weekend, so I'll have to get to that later.

But I discovered something this morning that no extensively chronicled account of the Youth Conference experience would be complete without. The theme songs (we had two of them this time!) are now available for download as MP3s! This is in addition to PDFs of lyrics, guitar chords, and more, which were already available a few days ago.

So, those of you who were at Weeks 3 and 4 of the Youth Conferences, as well as those who just want to know what the heck I'm talking about, can go to this web site and download both "Alive" and "Throw Open the Doors" for free.

Notes from Montreat Epilogue 2: Unpacking

Well, I'm back home, and have been in the process of unpacking everything for about four days now. Although I'm still getting some of the books, computer files, clothes, and other odds and ends I brought with me back into a state of normalcy, I think I'm going to need even more time to unpack some of the experiences that I've had.

Between this blog, Facebook, and my face-to-face communications, one phrase that I find I've used a lot over the couple of weeks I was in Montreat is "I've missed this." I've missed being around people who understand the significance of phrases like "Exit 64 on I-40," who know the goodness of My Father's Pizza, and who can talk at length about what David LaMotte is up to. I've missed early morning energizers that leave you exhausted and sweaty and messy and your glasses all fogged up, yet ready to face the day with enthusiasm. I've missed sappy theme songs sung every day (often multiple times a day). I've missed not feeling like I have to walk on eggshells around certain hot political and religious issues — not because everyone there agrees (for proof of this, one need only look at the mixture of friends who label themselves as "conservative" and "liberal" among those who've been added to my Facebook "friends" list over the past week), but because people are able to look past those issues and agree on the things that really matter. I've missed seeing buildings that I used to spend many, many happy hours in, and landmarks through which I've left my own mark on the city. I've missed Montreat.

But now I'm home. Of course, besides the memories and many, many pictures I've taken while there, I have a few more physical mementos of the occasion, too. I took advantage of the opportunity to pick up a Montreat car magnet and a David LaMotte bumper sticker. I have the gifts given to me by the Planning Team with the "Throw Open the Doors" logos on them. And I have what I'm calling my "Montreat Rock Collection." I briefly mentioned earlier that at the end of the week, we gave out prayer rocks to members of the Small Group. I currently have five such rocks. One will be sent to a Small Group member who sadly couldn't be present for the last meeting. Two of the others were from other leadership staff, as we did a similar ceremony among ourselves at the beginning of each week. The last two are from Small Group members — one for each week — that I happened to draw their rock as other members of the group had done. Likewise, four people out there have my rocks from these various occasions. It's one way of reminding us that we're all still connected, even though we're not all physically in Montreat any more.

It seems that I'm not the only one who's suffering from Montreat withdrawal. Many of the "status reports" on Facebook these past few days among my new friends say something to the effect of "I miss Montreat." Readjusting to the "real world" has been tough. But perhaps we can help each other. The prayer rocks are a great example. Those of you who have the prayer rocks with my name on them, keep those prayers coming! I can sure use them! I promise to do the same in return.

Notes from Montreat Epilogue 1: David LaMotte Concert

I stayed in Montreat for an extra day to see David LaMotte in concert. It's easily the only time I've only ever seen him in a dress shirt and jacket. The reason he wore such "nice" clothes on this occasion was that this concert was tied to a Patron's Dinner for supporters of the Mountain Retreat Association (although the concert itself was free to anyone able to attend). Before the concert began, they also introduced a short fund-raising video which included clips from the conferences I was attending for the previous couple of weeks (among others). That video is now available online. Check it out on Facebook! That the video was shown as planned is a testimony to the hard work of Montreat's Summer Staff, who had to deal with an unexpected technical problem. The light bulb in the video projector which hangs some 15 feet off of the ground had burnt out, and they didn't have the time before people would start arriving to get a ladder tall enough to change it properly, then test the projector out with the new bulb. So they wrangled a portable projector and scrambled to get the sound and video all working together in the last 40 minutes or so before the concert began. No one who arrived with the bulk of the crowd (and therefore didn't see all this scrambling in progress) would have even known that there was a problem!

David LaMotte's roughly hour-long concert included songs from across the spectrum of David's 18 years (so he tells us) of singing and touring. It's the first time I've ever heard a few of his songs live (even some songs that I know he'd written before the last time I saw him live about 9 years ago). One such song, "S.S. Bathtub" is a song from his children's album, recorded in 1998. It was especially cool when he interrupted himself while discussing a different song to talk to a small child in the front row (who requested "S.S. Bathtub") and, when learning that the boy would be three the next day, got everybody to sing "Happy Birthday to You."

Another noteworthy moment of the concert is when David sang his cover of Sting's "Walking in Your Footsteps." He did the same basic technique I described Jeffrey Harper using in my last post: looping various background sounds and stretches of music, and then layering them one on top of the other. I'm only sorry that I didn't keep track of how many layers David ultimately used. It seems like he must have had at least 10 going on at once!

Perhaps the most special bit for me was getting to speak with David briefly after the concert. There was a bit of a line, but after waiting 9 years, I wasn't in any hurry if he wasn't. He recognized my name, and even commented about how I was usually on the "other coast" and how we had just missed each other a number of times over the past few years. That made my day! Definitely worth staying an extra day in Montreat for!

Notes from Montreat: Finishing Up the Second Week

As I write this, it is Saturday morning and I'm sitting in the lobby of the Assembly Inn, talking with new friends as they get ready to depart from Montreat and head home. I'm actually sticking around for one more day to catch a David LaMotte concert, but will already be home by the time this appears on Monday morning. It's been an amazing two weeks.

I didn't make it to the Variety Show during my first week in Montreat, but went this past Thursday. It is traditional for the youth members of the planning team to host this event, and the youth for this particular planning team were more than up to the task. Just as we did when I was on the planning team back in 1992, they also got to lead in a couple of the morning energizers that Nick and Rachel usually did this week. The energizer that goes with "Istanbul" (as sung by They Might Be Giants) is a perennial favorite that I'm pleased to see is still popular 16 years later. In fact, that particular energizer might have been introduced at my conference, but I'm actually not sure (Obviously, I wouldn't have been the person responsible for that. If it was introduced during my conference, it would likely have been Steve Price that came up with it). That version of the song was released in 1990, so it's possible that a conference a year earlier (or two at the absolute most) might have come up with the energizer to go with it (indeed, it might not have even originated at Montreat at all!).

The Variety Show was particularly good this week, with many talented and entertaining acts. The show-stopper for me was an act done not by one of the youth, but by musician Jeffrey Harper. Throughout the conference, Jeffrey utilized a recording machine that enabled him to record a short bit of sound and play it in a loop. This made it possible to do, say, a bongo drum background while playing the guitar or the piano. For the Variety Show, Jeffrey layered several vocal elements, one-by-one, in front of the whole audience, until he was doing a full-fledged version of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy." It was awesome!

Friday was the last day for the conference, and thus of my official reason for being in Montreat these past two weeks. Although most of the actual events were the same as last week (lessons, photo session for last Small Group meeting, candlelight service, etc.), the fact that I knew that I myself would be heading home soon added a bit of poignancy to the event. Then, at the end of the day, the Small Group Leaders, Planning Team, Work Crew, Summer Staff, and various other behind-the-scenes folks met for one last pizza party to celebrate the completion of not just this week of conferences, but of the "Theta" team's involvement. Lots of hugs and good-byes all around.

Then, on Saturday morning, folks started their way home. But it's not too quiet as I type this, since the "Omega" team and Small Group Leaders are already starting to arrive for their conferences, which will be going for the next two weeks. Part of me wishes I was sticking around to join them, but I'm also pretty tired of two weeks of such intense activity, so I'm ready to head home soon. Still, I hope that I can come back and do this again sooner rather than later. Nine years away from Montreat is far too long!