“Why do you keep doing that?”
Have you ever heard a parent ask that question when you were bugging one of your siblings or because you left your clothes on the floor?
In both cases, my guess is you weren’t doing those things for any good reason other than because you were bored, annoyed or in a hurry.
The same question could be asked about LOG. Why do you keep doing that?
You see, after more than one hundred LOG weekends, we are pretty much doing the same things we did way back at LOG #1. Ask Corey Sheets (LOG #3) or Emily Collins (LOG #8). They’ll tell you that a few things have changed – a couple of talks are different and now we trade silicon bracelets when we share the love instead of fondling fuzzies – but basically the LOG weekend is the same as it was 20 years ago.
Why would this be? Why do we keep doing it over and over again? There is a good reason: Simply – because it works! I believe that God has blessed LOG to be a unique and wonderful way for teenagers to:
Experience the love of God
Enjoy Christian community
Grow deeper in faith
Become servant leaders
Share what we’ve found
These five “purposes” are part of the mission statement for MYM and LOG and are derived from the “great commandment” and the “great commission” in chapters 22 and 28 of the Gospel of Matthew:
During the devotional times at the LOG #105 and #106 team meetings this season, we are looking into and talking about Why We Do What We Do. Terry is taking us back to the foundation upon which LOG built and has existed for the past twenty-two years here in Michiana – and for over thirty years out in California.
Over the next two months, we will be focusing on:
Why do we have C-groups?
Why do we have a theme and a theme song?
Why do we have participants?
Why do we have talks and talk songs?
Why do we make so much stuff?
Why do we have an obstacle circle?
Why do we worship?
Keep checking back each week to read the LOGblogs by Terry and other LOG adult leaders on each of these topics.
This past week, at our first team meetings, we focused on the question Why Do We Have A Team? Here is a little acronym to help answer that question:
T = Teenagers
E = Ecumenical
A = Accepting
M = Mine
Teenagers – most youth are apart of or at least familiar with teams: sports teams, choirs, drama or dance troupes, Mock Trial teams or even crews that work together at a job - - all these teams are made up of peers working together toward a common goal. In the same way, LOG teams come together and strive to share the love of God with other teenagers. And although we couldn’t have a LOG team without our adults advisors, the real power is in youth leading and sharing with other youth.
Ecumenical – a fancy church-word that reminds us that a really important part of LOG is that many different churches, schools and even towns are represented in our LOG community. This season, we have youth from 10 different high schools and 25 churches!
Accepting – because we all come from different backgrounds and traditions, we strive to love one another and accept everyone because they are loved by God just as they are. A goal to which our teams aspire is to affirm the things we hold in common and set aside the things that separate us.
Mine – the first of the reasons that we do what we do is so youth can experience the love of God. Many of us learn ABOUT God long before we ever really come to KNOW God. Some studies show that 94% of the time, if a person doesn’t come to KNOW God before her/his eighteenth birthday, it is much less likely to happen at all. Time and time again, LOGgers have said that God became real to them during LOG – that their faith went from their head to their heart while they were in at a LOG weekend or serving on a LOG team.
Thanks be to God.
That is why we do what we do!