It was a Super Week
We had a fantastic week at PBC SuperWeek. It is the first week that I can remember where we had no rain. There was a threat of rain once..... ONCE. It may have sprinkled for 3 minutes. Otherwise it was just hot, especially early in the week. By Thursday the weather was more normal for June in the upstate, with highs in the low 90s and lows in the high 60s.
It was, I will admit, every bit as weird for me as I thought it would be. I participated in BlastOff, I organized the Talent Show, I participated in a lot of skits, I cleaned the Bath House, I played ball, I helped teach the youngest class. Though it sounds like I was very busy, and I was, it felt different somehow. I'm sure that part of this feeling was simply not knowing the program well and not having a lot of up-front understanding. A lot of it was also not being the Worship Director this year. I did get to lead some, but it was just taste. I missed it - a lot. More than I expected to.
I did enjoy spending more time with Natalie this year. I enjoyed the Talent Show a lot - except for it being the same day as Game Day. I give the "dinner theater" thing a B-. It was "interesting" to do dinner in the ark. It was a real hassle doing the talent show while folks were eating. I don't think it made the talent show better. At best it just made it different. Beyond that, the "dinner" setup was still in effect for chapel, and there was too much talking going on during chapel.
While on the subject of chapel - there was another difference that I noted. Too many of the campers (in my opinion) were not singing or otherwise engaged in the worship. To be blunt, there were several staff who were also not engaged in the worship. I don't get this. How can any staff person expect the kids to engage when they won't lead the kids there? I do not think any of this is a reflection of this year's Worship Director. I don't have an explanation. I will continue to say, though, that we really lost something in the singing/worship when the acoustic treatment was done to the ark. It's so weird. Skits are easier to hear. The speaker is easier to hear during chapel. But, try as we may, we cannot "raise the roof" with our singing like we used to. Frustrating. And confusing. And disappointing.
One other opinion - I think EVERY speaker for every assembly should be from within the staff. Some of the non-staff speakers were good, some not so much. But none of them did any better than our staff could have done, and none of them were helped by not being a part of the staff. The relational connection from the staff to the campers lends weight to the speaker's message. External folks just don't have that, so they have to be that much better just to "break even." None of the external folks were "that much better" so it was a net loss, in my humble opinion. I understand why we employed some of those external folks (strategic/political involvement), but I think that this does not serve the week as well as we would hope. Again, this is just my opinion.
I told Danny that I thought it was the best debut for a director I've ever seen. Of course, this is due in large part to the way this transition was planned and executed over the past few years. I look forward to how SuperWeek will grow and move forward.
I'm sure I'll have more thoughts about the week - maybe I'll even post some of them.
It was, I will admit, every bit as weird for me as I thought it would be. I participated in BlastOff, I organized the Talent Show, I participated in a lot of skits, I cleaned the Bath House, I played ball, I helped teach the youngest class. Though it sounds like I was very busy, and I was, it felt different somehow. I'm sure that part of this feeling was simply not knowing the program well and not having a lot of up-front understanding. A lot of it was also not being the Worship Director this year. I did get to lead some, but it was just taste. I missed it - a lot. More than I expected to.
I did enjoy spending more time with Natalie this year. I enjoyed the Talent Show a lot - except for it being the same day as Game Day. I give the "dinner theater" thing a B-. It was "interesting" to do dinner in the ark. It was a real hassle doing the talent show while folks were eating. I don't think it made the talent show better. At best it just made it different. Beyond that, the "dinner" setup was still in effect for chapel, and there was too much talking going on during chapel.
While on the subject of chapel - there was another difference that I noted. Too many of the campers (in my opinion) were not singing or otherwise engaged in the worship. To be blunt, there were several staff who were also not engaged in the worship. I don't get this. How can any staff person expect the kids to engage when they won't lead the kids there? I do not think any of this is a reflection of this year's Worship Director. I don't have an explanation. I will continue to say, though, that we really lost something in the singing/worship when the acoustic treatment was done to the ark. It's so weird. Skits are easier to hear. The speaker is easier to hear during chapel. But, try as we may, we cannot "raise the roof" with our singing like we used to. Frustrating. And confusing. And disappointing.
One other opinion - I think EVERY speaker for every assembly should be from within the staff. Some of the non-staff speakers were good, some not so much. But none of them did any better than our staff could have done, and none of them were helped by not being a part of the staff. The relational connection from the staff to the campers lends weight to the speaker's message. External folks just don't have that, so they have to be that much better just to "break even." None of the external folks were "that much better" so it was a net loss, in my humble opinion. I understand why we employed some of those external folks (strategic/political involvement), but I think that this does not serve the week as well as we would hope. Again, this is just my opinion.
I told Danny that I thought it was the best debut for a director I've ever seen. Of course, this is due in large part to the way this transition was planned and executed over the past few years. I look forward to how SuperWeek will grow and move forward.
I'm sure I'll have more thoughts about the week - maybe I'll even post some of them.
posted by MichaelPolutta at 8:17 AM
4 Comments:
For what my opinion is worth (not much seeing as how i only had 1 day there) I thought Danny did a superb job of being the director... ok, what I really meant to say was... Heidi did a great job encouraging Danny to be the best rookie director ever.
Stephen does have a VERY behind the scenes job. Though I'm not really big on videography, I think he does a superb job of the creative direction & vision casting there! Way to go.
Tommy. Well, it's easy to see that the week's progress owes a ton to you & Becky.
On the note of "every speaker should be from within the staff..." there's one minor exception... and it's only technical: Ernie Thigpen. Technically, he's not on staff... but he's a phenominal speaker, teacher, etc.
I agree. Just on principle (not from this year's experience) I think the speakers being from within the camp staff... and even from among the campers helps unify the camp. It helps build new leaders. Sure, many may not be as eloquent as the speakers we see on sundays. But it gives the STAFF ownership... the CAMPERS ownership of the week.
That's why we all love SWS! That's why we love that week! The participants have OWNERSHIP. When you walk on camp grounds, it's a reminder call that we are going to take OUR task and do it the BEST we've ever done! Even if it requires a heat stroke wearing all black on a 107ยบ June day!
It says something that all the staff are volunteers... it says more that they will pay to work... and even more if they will pay to do the work they get paid to do on the outside.
Kudos to y'all!
Thanks for sharing that. I wish I could have been there. I can sure identify with you on the worship end of things. I am planning on coming back next year, since I'm close.
We will definitely get together this summer. I'm sure the family and I will want to travel to Atlanta on a weekend.
It is interesting that you noticed people not worshipping. I hadn't really thought about it (I guess I was too busy worshipping at the time), :) but now that you mention it, I do recall seeing some campers not singing. However, my impression was that they just didn't know particular songs and would normally sing just like everyone else. Several of the songs were new to me. I think, on the whole, it is good to learn new songs, but of course people aren't going to sing them at first until they learn them. Other than that (and maybe being tired), I can't think of why people wouldn't sing. (BTW, I thought Mike did a great job. I think that is a tougher job than I realized.)
I completely agree with everything you said regarding internal/external speakers.
Hmm, some very interesting comments.
I personally didn't feel I got enough worship in for my tastes. It seemed there was always something going on to pull me away. (kids in the nurses cabin, parent phone calls etc.)
I wonder if we should consider arranging the seating in the Ark or assigning seating so that the juniors might sit in the pews and the older campers get whats left since they have a longer attention span. I've always felt the bleachers were a bad thing for the juniors but they all seem to end up there.
As far as the singing, I thought Mike D. did a great job. There were some new songs that I didn't know and not being musically gifted at all had trouble getting one or two of them.
Lastly, Game Day and Dinner Theater will never find themselves together again. Bad idea!
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