Unity

It doesn’t really feel like it, but I’ve officially moved out of the house now. It always felt so far away growing up, but they’re right, we grow up so fast.

First things first though, a huge thank you to all y’all and praise to God for meeting the fundraising goal the day I got here to training. If I’m being honest, I did not think that I’d get anywhere near the mark before I left and I’d be spending my weekends here in meetings, but three months and boom! It’s there. And now I’m here on the other side, and it’s like wow, I’m really not here because I got myself here and put myself in this situation, but I’m here because this is where God brought me through all y’all. So thank you!

Training Camp

Now for what we’ve all been waiting for… what has the first week been like? I could talk for hours about just this week I’m sure, and I’ll hit some highlights, but I wanted to focus this on sharing about something that I heard on day one that has been the theme of this entire experience so far for me. It’s something that’s been a huge encouragement for me when things are going well, and also a huge comfort and firm foundation when things get strange and choppy. That thing is unity.

Unity

For a little bit of context, we have a teaching session with the entire camp (all 7 squads) twice a day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. (We have squad, team, and 1 on 1 meetings as well, but that’s not as relevant right now.) The very first session we had when we got here was about John 17 and Jesus’s prayer for the unity of His people (taught by my very own squad leader Bill Swan‼). The main point of this session was that Jesus’s prayer is not for all of His people to agree with each other on everything, but instead to be united with each other in Him.

All of us students come from an extremely wide range of theological and denominational backgrounds. For example, I come from a reformed Presbyterian background, but there are definitely one or two that are Pentecostal. Most fall somewhere in the middle, but the range of beliefs and thoughts on the Bible is pretty darn big. I’ve already had countless conversations with people about things that we just think differently about. A lot of those have to do with things of the Spirit, but just today at lunch we had a two-hour long conversation about the purpose of baptism and its role in the Christian faith. For a theology junkie like me, super interesting stuff.

It’s been a win win loss win, if you will. Let me explain:

• Win #1: I guess this one isn’t really a ‘win’, but I’ll say it anyway. I’m glad I showed up here knowing what I believe, because a lot of those things have been tested pretty heartily. Take baptism, for example. Last night (Sat 9/8/23) we had a “baptism night” where whoever wants to can go get dunked. (I don’t really call it baptism though, because it was simply for anyone who wanted to make visible their surrender of a certain part of themselves to the Lord. Almost like a glorified altar call. Kinda weird to me but anyways…) This’ll probably raise some questions, but I did it. Not because half my squad did as well, but because I wanted to put myself in a position to be held accountable by everyone else to be teachable – something I struggle with when it comes to my faith. For me it felt like a Paul moment eating unclean food with the Gentiles to remove any stumbling blocks that might stand in the way of their relationship. I have a tendency to automatically reject a lot of the ideas of the other side of the theological spectrum, but I want to hear them out in humility. This leads into…
• Win #2: I’ve come to see that there actually is stuff to learn from people I disagree with. I’ve had some people bring new perspectives to beliefs I’ve held in the past, and in a case or two convince me of something I hadn’t really thought about before. Now I’m going to be extremely skeptical of anything you tell me that you can’t back up with well-interpreted Scripture, but I haven’t meditated on the entire Bible yet, and there are always going to be things to learn and way to grow in my relationship with my infinite God.
• Loss #1: We had a Pentecostal speaker in one of the big sessions that talked about things that are clearly not biblical – I’m talking main points built off of twisted Scripture verses – and I can almost guarantee that there were people in that room that took what she said at face value without really thinking about it. Fortunately, the leaders I talked to saw a lot of the same problems and clarified them in our following squad meeting, but that’s a scary red flag walking into this. Prayers for discernment would be greatly appreciated.
• Win #3: I’ve learned to walk in unity in Christ with people I disagree with about lesser theological issues, because the goal of the body of Christ is not agreement, but unity – to be as united with each other as Christ is with God (John 17:22). And as it turns out, some of the people I’ve connected most closely with this first week disagree with me on a lot of things. But we all believe in the same Creator, worship the same Jesus, and are confirmed in Him with the same Spirit, and everything else is peripheral compared to that.

This turned out a lot longer than I anticipated, but it’s been a crazy and beautiful time, and it actually took some self-control not to keep going (me, Jackson, talking overtime? Crazy, I know). I’ll be back next week with more (pictures hopefully!), but until then, peace.

In Christ,

Jackson

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whatsapp: 678-448-7943