Jason Carr Writes

Please note, this post is simply my observations and thoughts from this past weekend. Our team has yet to debrief the event and this is not the “official” place for that. That will be found in our new student ministry blog launching on Insidenorthpoint.org coming soon.

That being said, this past weekend we had our biggest event ever. Here are a few day after observations from the weekend that was Walking Wisely 2010. These are just some random thoughts I jotted down over the weekend…

* Creating space for relationships to happen = big win. We did not have a weekend slammed of programming… on purpose. The bulk of the time was spent just hanging out as groups. That gave leaders space to get to know their students more and simply have fun and do life together. Win.

* Having a co-leader makes a big, big difference for a group and the leaders of the group. Enough said.

* Having high schoolers serve is great! It was cool seeing so many teenagers leading other teenagers. I had quite a few leaders tell me how much having a high schooler with them really added so much to their groups.

* We twittered the weekend and it was cool seeing all the “retweets” and mentions from people catching up with the weekend that way. Love using technology to partner with parents & others.

* Trust on a team is huge. I/we were all over the place. What’s incredible is that not once over the weekend did I think “I wonder what ______ is doing?” or “Where is _____ at?” I know that everyone on our team is doing what they do and doing a great job of whatever that is. As a team member in the middle of a big event, it’s reassuring to know you trust and believe in those you work alongside. That’s good stuff.

* Ask questions. We’ve already sent out a survey to glean feedback from leaders about the weekend. I just read through the first wave of responses and leaders were… honest. And we are grateful for that, it will help us make what’s ahead the best it can be. Also during the event as I went from either an event or a house it’s a great time to get some frontline feedback on what’s going on. I learn so much by simply being where our students and leaders are.

* Celebrate wins. It’s a core value of North Point. I’m trying to think through the weekend and any “wins” that I saw and send a thank you card or special email to a leader and simply celebrate those. We also forward emails that we get to other team members to encourage them of any stories from the weekend. Life change is such great fuel.

* The enemy comes in the midst of a big event for us. I have a blog about that coming later this week, but I wouldn’t necessarily say this has been the easiest few weeks for our team. But we made it and are still in one relative piece. Grateful for the perseverance, character and heart shown by our team and I’m so humbled to serve with them.

* Let go. If you read my blog from a few weeks ago my time at North Point has molded me into a systems thinking person. All afternoon and night yesterday I was thinking about things that didn’t go well or didn’t work the way I/we wanted them to. We will refine those things, but there is also wisdom to letting go and trusting that God is fully in control. We will always be tweaking our system, but He did some incredible things over the weekend… and at times we need to simply let go and trust God.

All in all WWW 2010 was incredible. Relationships were cemented. Some healthy foundational discussions were had and students and leaders had a lot fun. In the middle of all that was One very faithful God knitting it all together and drawing us closer to Him. Grateful for all He has, is and will do from Walking Wisely!