My history of church camps with Mt. Juliet church of Christ (and camps I didn’t attend):

• 1991-1995 – Taylor Christian Camp. The first 3 years of this was very good with Bill Speight leading our group. Everyone seemed to have a good attitude and some great things were accomplished. In latter years we seemed to be going about the motions. Bad attitudes were seen by many. Many things left a general bad taste in my mouth. I saw some things happen that Christians just should not do.
• 1996 – Fall Creek Falls State Park. This was Joey’s answer to TCC. It was ok, but something just seemed missing. It began a string of camps which Mt. Juliet went by themselves (i.e. no other churches along). With the exception of 1999, this MJ exclusive tradition has continued ever since. At this particular camp I was also pursuaded to teach the junior high class…something that I was not qualified, nor capable of teaching. I don’t felt as though I fit in with the rest of the counselors.
• 1997 – Standing Stone State Park…another nondescript camp. No too much happened. I do remember one negative experience where an adult counselor insulted a camper in a way that I just don’t feel was appropriate. Ironically that adult no longer attends church anywhere. One should never talk down to a camper, especially to the camper’s face.
• 1998 – Back to Fall Creek Falls. I didn’t go on this one. I had started a new job and decided I didn’t have enough days to take off.
• 1999 – Short Mountain Bible Camp. I didn’t go on this one either. Short Mountain Bible Camp is the crown jewell among church of Christ sponsored camps in Middle Tennessee. All of the churches seem to want to go to it, but there is never enough room or a free week open. This, however, is how bible camp should be – several churches getting together to make new friends, instead of having camp by ourselves. Mt. Juliet camped with Corinth, Central Pike, and Green Hill churches of Christ. The only problem is that it was the last week of summer right before school started. So everyone went off to camp and then went back to school the week afterwards. The whole timing issue made camp no fun. This camp tradition ended as soon as it started.
• 2000 – 2001 – Camp Meribah, Centerville, TN. I didn’t go on these either. My excuse was that I was using up all my vacation time going to China. Also my boss was on these, so both of us couldn’t easily take off for it.

I initually stopped going to camp with Mt. Juliet because of a number of different factors. First of all my new job had just started and I felt I only had a limited amount of days to take off. Also during the years where Mt. Juliet went to camp by itself, it seemed as if I just didn’t get along with the Mt. Juliet kids. In 1999-2001 I did go to other church camps which Mt. Juliet didn’t attend. Why? Seemingly I felt I enjoyed myself better. Less baggage to carry around from past experiences. People seemed to like me for who I was, not because of who my parents were or where I came from.
This brings us to 2002. I felt as though I’ve grown spiritually since my first years at camp. Seemlingly attitudes of campers have improved. Or it could be I’ve grown older and get more respect from people.
Mt. Juliet has been invited to come back to TCC. Should I use this camp opportunity to pursuade Phil to send our kids back there? Would it leave bad attitudes that I don’t feel like dealing with? Would the whole Mt. Juliet factor ruin experiences at Taylor? Who knows? All I know is that when you start bringing churches together some feelings are bound to get hurt because of some type of doctrinal issue. Can’t we all just get along?
On to other things….
I’m beginning to realize that this webpage might be viewed by way more people than what I thought. If there is anyone international who is reading this, I’ll have to apologize for my post on July 4th, if it offended anyone. I was feeling a bit nationalistic at that point in time and tended to act like an ugly American.
There’s this lady at church who sends out a daily email to church members and other interested parties. This daily email includes prayers lists and things of that nature. I really need to get with this lady to look into the possiblity of using Blogger to update the church webpage with this type of stuff. I figure it should be easy to do. Also I really should get David Shannon to to a web only sermon article on the church webpage. Maple Hill Church of Christ already does this. Why can’t we?