What makes Merge different?

Merge isn’t the first ministry to host a summer camp—and it certainly won’t be the last. But there are a few things we do differently that set Merge apart. Some of those differences are the reason our price is lower than many other camps, while others come from intentional choices designed to help us better share and teach the Gospel.

In this episode of the M3 Podcast, we pull back the curtain and talk about the heart behind those decisions. If you’ve ever wondered why Merge does things the way it does, today you’ll get to see the “why” behind the “what.”

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Merge is not the first group to put on camps, and we definitely won't be the last. There are incredible ministries that come before us, and many that will come after us. So the question isn't, are we the only ones? The question is what makes merge different? Today on the M3 Podcast, we're looking at a few areas where Merge chooses to do things differently than many other camps. Not for the sake of being different, but for the sake of being intentional. So today we're diving into what makes merge merge. Let's get into it. Welcome to episode four of M3. I'm Daniel. I'm Luke. For those of you who may be listening and wonder what makes merge different, then this episode is for you. If you aren't wondering what makes merge different, then hopefully you will be entertained.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

We're gonna tell you anyway.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Because this is the third time we have recorded this episode. You're supposed to tell all our business, Daniel. Yeah, the last one we had microphone issues, the one before that, I don't even know what what it was, but third time. So we're gonna talk about the same thing. We've talked about it, you're hearing it for the first time, we're expressing it for the third time. So, anyway, so we'll see how this goes. Yes, hopefully, we will not have to do this episode for a fourth time. Hopefully. So, if you've been listening, thanks for listening. Continue to like, share, get the word out, help us spread the message. Just like with merge, we grow from just emails and word of mouth. It's kind of how the podcast is growing, also. So help us in that. But the biggest thing out the box, what makes merge different is merge is being the church. When we started merge, it was a joint of children and youth ministry come together to realize that there was a gap with seventh and eighth graders, junior high kids, you know, those awkward kids.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

You're not supposed to out them, like certainly they are.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Well, they're awkward, and it makes it more awkward when they're trying to go into a group with 11th and 12th graders.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

So we saw a gap, and I was doing a fifth and sixth grade ministry, and the youth pastor and myself, we had a conversation, and we turned that group into a junior high ministry. So the name merge was two ministries merging together in order to help these students transition from one group to the other.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

So it wasn't just like a cool logo you found that you were like, Hey, we're gonna name it merge.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

No, I was having meaning behind it. I was not riding down the road one day and went, Hey, that's a cool merge sign. I'm gonna turn that into a ministry because that'll be cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

That we should change our logo to just the road sign.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I think when I first started, I think I did use a road sign because I didn't know anything else. And then when we did camps, the logo began to change.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

And yeah, but that that might be an episode one day of how hard it used to be to what we have now and the tools that we have that's yes available to us.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I mean, I used to take Polaroid pictures of signs, and then that was my logo.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I don't know, not really, but so when some uh if you talk to kids today about a Polaroid picture, they wouldn't even know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, well, because it's in a song. They don't know that song, that's our generation. Not ours.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I say ours. You older than me, bro. Shut your face.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

All right, so we're gonna continue here. Uh so when we started the camp, we knew it was going to take multiple people, multiple churches coming together to use their talents and resources in order to make camp happen. So the name merge came to camp with that mindset that we would need people to merge with us. But it's the church being the church, it's different churches that have bought in over time. The staff is made up of over 15 represented 15 different churches who come together. Churches have bought in and they will send stuff, they'll write stuff. We've had some churches have bought things and went, hey, y'all can just keep these type things. So it was the church being the church in order to help us do what we said we would do have a high quality camp at a more affordable price. So that is donors. If you want to give, shameless plug, give butter.com slash merge. Whoa. Uh, you can give to the ministry and you can help, but it's also churches doing that. But anyway, and we see that in the New Testament. When the church started, they sold their possessions. It says in Acts, they sold their possessions, they sold land, they sold things that they have, brought it to the church, and then the church was able to take care of people. Because then you didn't have 1400 churches in one city, right? Uh, it was one church that was getting going, so they needed people in order to to minister, to meet the needs of people, and that was what the church did. So now merge is also, but we also see that all the way back into the old testament as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

I mean, even if you go back to uh when they when the Israelites crossed over the Red Sea, and you see Moses is uh having the conversation with God of what to do. Moses goes up on a mountain, he tells them to build the the the tent of meeting, so not the tabernacle place of worship that is a permanent thing, but you know, the the movable, all right, because they move several places in the wilderness. But uh, as they were building this, you know, they had to get those resources from somewhere. So Moses tells them, Bring your stuff uh to to the house of the Lord, and we're gonna we're gonna use this, right? They didn't have a hardware store, they didn't have nowhere nowhere to go to to pick up these materials. Yeah, like you know what I'm saying. Uh, but so they had to bring of what they had. I mean, you see God's people doing this, I mean, all throughout the old testament, you see it through the new testament, and hopefully you see that still today. We see it. Uh, it certainly impacts us, right? Of people using their resources, you know, many times that is physical things. Uh, sometimes it's you know the gifts and talents that God has given us, but either way, uh, people are able to use their resources uh to to help us, to, to serve with us, to partner really uh with us, to be able to do what we do.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

And you would think churches who are supposed to have the same vision, mission to reach the lost, churches would play well together. But that's not always the case.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

We've already talked a little bit about this on like our second episode. You for some reason we don't find the church being unified with other churches, like you may have unity amongst your own body, but it's like obviously it's not like this everywhere, but in a lot of places, it's like we we're unity inside these walls and we're stiffen arming stiff arming uh other churches, you know, outside of these walls. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

What could the thought of what could happen if all churches got on the same page, as long as they love Jesus. Now there's some churches out there that believe different.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

We're not gonna get into that.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

No, we're not, but if we all love Jesus, imagine what could actually happen if churches did what they do for merge on a bigger scale, on a city scale. Yeah, and we didn't get territorial, we didn't worry about if somebody was gonna leave our church and go to another church. But the sad reality is not every church, but there are churches that don't play well together, unfortunately. Yes, so that's the biggest thing with merge that makes us different from other camps because we're not an establishment, we're not have backing from an organization to where we're paying people to do things, but we're really relying on the church to be the church to help us and the people of the church to support the mission vision and mission of merge to make it happen.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

And when he says we're not, you know, backed by that big organization. We we're there's no corporation out there like uh not to say that this is bad or they're they're not good, like life way. You know, we we don't have this huge conglomerate that's doing me all these different things to to back us. So uh when when he when he says that it's not at all that we look at these things and say, hey, this is bad, we don't want your money. Uh like if there is an organization, a corporation, and things like that that would love to partner with us, uh, it's it's different being you know under that umbrella of this this business, if you if you will, uh versus you know, we we are uh seeking that unity amongst the body. So if you're a corporation or an organization, like we would gladly utilize the resources that you have for us uh to to bring glory and honor to God. We've hit a new level already, all right.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

So the next thing that makes it third time's a charm, baby. Uh I guess when you talk about it twice already, you just kind of go different places. We've talked about this before. The volunteer staff were volunteers. Most 99% of the people that come are volunteers. Two years ago, we were finally able to pay adults' way. So up until that point, they were paying the full price that the kids were paying. We we've we talked about that. But we do all things, which we may talk about next episode, what it really takes to make camp happen, all the different hats that have to be worn that you may look at and go, Oh, you're just putting on a camp. But from writing to producing to creating, all of those things, but because we have people who come together to do that, then we can keep the price down. That's right. And we have donors who have given, we're able to to keep keep the price down for that as well. So the staff you heard last week are like family. We care about each other. Most people I would say that come on staff look forward to the week of camp, and that's the highlight of their camp. I mean, highlight of their summer is to be around these people, to be around the staff, to be around the other adults. But it's one vision, one mission coming together to make camp happen. There was actually a Bible verse. Luke, if you have something to say, talk for a minute so I can see if I can find this Bible verse to make myself sound like a I know it, I memorized it.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Well, we we did talk last week about you know staff and and what what that dynamic looks like, but it it definitely is we're not just saying it's a highlight. It sounds you know obvious from our our end. Uh it's a it's a highlight for their camp. I mean, year after year we that we get that feedback from uh those those students, those adults that come to to give of their time. But uh with with the process of those volunteers being there, you know, we're we're not they're not paid staff to to run the camp. Uh their their buy-in to you know rec and all those other things that that we see them do is is really cool to to experience on our end. Um we we're not having to to beg people to go and and do stuff. It it works out uh really well for us.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

So I found the verse Romans 15. It's actually a couple of verses. Uh the one that stuck out to me was six, but it says, now may the God who gives endurance and who supplies encouragement grant that you be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify and praise and honor the God and Father of our Lord, excuse me, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept and welcome one another just as Christ is hoping to welcome you. But that whole one mind, one accord, yeah. Uh, one voice is what you get from the merge staff.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah. One one mind and one voice, uh, when you're in worship and you don't experience that, uh, it's a mess. And the same is true at at camp or whatever that is uh among the body. If we're not on one mind and one accord, as Philippians 2 says it uh in in a similar way, um, having having the mind of Christ and and being purposeful in uh aligning ourselves with what God is calling us to do, but also the leadership of uh of what you're under, you know, and and I think our the staff from uh adults to um to youth as well have that mentality and have that mindset and have that uh one one accord, that one voice, as you said. Uh it's it's obvious when they're when there's discord, right? It's obvious when it's not unity and they're they're not for that, but uh for the for the most of the most of the time, like that that's what we experience.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

But it makes me think it's we have our issues, no doubt. We're not perfect, but it's even in that what the church should be, right? One accord, it's not about one person or one opinion, it's people coming together, using their talents, abilities, all those things that we talk about to reach people with the gospel. But if you allow individuality to seep into a church or even into a camp, then that begins to uh cause problems and we lose focus and we lose the mission and vision and we are not one mind, one accord. So that's one of the things, not saying other camps aren't unified and have that same mindset, just the staff dynamic and the makeup of the staff help us do what we do. The structure of kids service is something that we have changed over the years. We began running it like a youth service, so you would have your typical 20 minutes of worship, a skit, a video or something, and then 20 minutes of teaching. The people that came in did a great job. They did what were asked, they did a good job trying to connect to kids, and we saw lives change through that, but over the years we were looking at it and going, why are we expecting kids to pay attention like teenagers? Right. Or even in that, adults, adults, yeah. Yeah, I'm not uh great at following or staying on course sometimes if you can't tell already. So even in the kid services, when somebody's speaking, like my mind would wander and all that, but then I looked at a third, fourth, fifth, or sixth grader and thought, man, if this is hard for me to pay attention or to stay focused, what is it like for them? So you watch things and for a kid, things are changing, different. I don't say avenues is not the word that I'm looking for, uh, different things in service, whether it's a skit or songs or object lessons or whatever, but we change those up to where it's not sitting for long periods of time, it's not trying to focus on one thing long periods of time. We'll do worship typical, then we have some kind of teaching with an object lesson, then a skit, then possibly another teaching. So the teaching time frames are supposed to be why you say supposed to be, but you don't, you don't, you just you still don't. Anyway, five to seven minutes, which I don't think Lucas ever talked for five or seven minutes.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

No, I'm I always talk for five or seven minutes.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, plus about another 10 or 15. But the first two are supposed to be five to seven minutes, then the last one is seven to ten minutes.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

So he gives himself more time.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

I do, and then even though I tell you every year, hey, I don't want to speak, I don't have to speak. And they're like, No, you need to speak. I'm like, I don't want to. But then the third person comes in and kind of wraps everything up and ties everything together, but it's nuggets of truth along the way to tie into one big picture or one big idea.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

When I was in college, I changed my major four times because uh I was trying to run from what God was telling me to do. Uh, but in one portion of me changing my major, I was like, obviously, I'm gonna be a history teacher and coach football. And uh so in my uh education classes, I didn't learn it to the extent of I can explain, uh I don't know what each one is called, but I did learn that uh kids learn differently, there's different learning styles, and so what one of the reasons for that, you know, structure changes, we got teachers on on staff with us that help write the curriculum and uh write the the services that you know we're we're trying to hit each uh learning style of of that kid. We know um we will get into it probably one day, but you know, recently you had a kid tell you that you know, merge is great because we make it cartoonish and they can understand it. So so whether you're an intellectual and uh you know, or not as intellectual, no matter where we are on the spectrum, we can hit it from the uh you know the from the auditory learning of just just speaking it and telling them, or the visual learner who needs to see it and it played out in in front of you. Uh so we we hit each of those things, and then with the object lessons and the skits, they're not just you know fun stuff. I mean, sometimes they are a lot of fun on the front end of trying to figure out how do I disintegrate this wall. Those are a lot of fun of playing to figure out how do we gonna make this happen. Uh, but but with that being said, like that there's a there's a purpose in the structure, which some people look at as chaotic, right, and not structured, even though you know we we think it's structured, but we see the big picture, yeah. So some people are like, man, it's really what did they say, choppy? Yes, it's certainly very choppy, but for the the kids, I mean that's what that's what it's there for. It's for the kids, and I'm not trying to you know toot our own horn, but I think we do that well, yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

So speaking of the choppy, kind of my brain went another another place. Have you ever noticed, have you ever watched like a kids' TV show, and I think it's even movies, how often the camera angle or the picture changes. I don't think I ever have noticed that, but now that you say it, I'm like, yeah, every every it's like if you count it, and now I sit there sometimes and I do it three seconds, the longest most of the time, unless it's a serious thing, is like five seconds.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

But if you watch a TV show and count one, two, three, it'll change my my kids have started watching some of the old shows uh on on Disney Channel that I watched growing up. Like one of those is is smart guy. They started watching. Uh you probably haven't even heard of it. I have not, but anyways, I was thinking duck tails. Ducktail? Anyways, uh that ain't Disney.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Maybe it is. I don't know. Either way, either. My point is, I oh there was a serious moment the other day that uh you know the dad's talking to the son, and I literally had the thought, not thinking about it being choppy like that, but um I'm had the thought of like, why is it why is it going back and forth from dad to son, dad to son, dad to son, and not just one shot on being two together. They're sitting at the table, like you don't you don't have to go back and forth, but I guess that's how their brain works.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

That's how their brain works. So we changed it and like we think it works well. We've got good feedback on it.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Majority, good feedback, majority.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

And then in the morning, the morning service is a little more fun. We play games, have teaching in there as well. Youth service, more of a typical youth service. There's not, I don't say there's not a lot you can do. We do still bring in object lessons, visuals, things like that, with that. I guess the change with structure of youth, not that anybody else has not done this. Last year we changed to do junior high and senior high morning service teaching parts.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Luke took the senior high. I took the junior high. Not sure why it works that way, being that I'm older than him.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

But anyway. Well, for the for the longest time, you were in children's ministry and led the junior high ministry when we were at the same church. I had youth, you had the junior high, and so it just naturally worked. And now that you're a youth pastor and I'm a children's pastor, and you're older than me. I don't know why I do the senior high and you do junior high, but it works, and I don't want to change it.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Well, there we go. With merge, we are growing, and we have grown uh to our numbers of what they are. We do want to grow larger, but we want to be able to keep the small camp feel, small camp connections. And as you come to merge, the staff have very little so far have very little staff turnover. So you're getting to know the same people who have done registration, who do services, who do recreation, you are seeing the same people over and over again. That allows you to get to know us if there was ever an issue, or you just needed advice or ministry to talk through ministry stuff. You can get myself or Luke at any time. If you did that with some of the other bigger organizations, trying to get the director, the people that oversee it, probably wouldn't be as As easy. You probably could, but probably not as easy. But we want to take the opportunity. We we like the idea that people know us, that we get to know them. And over the years, that builds um unity, that builds friendships. Uh, we do children's pastor meetings that we get to know each other and can talk about things. So as we get bigger, we still want to be able to keep that small camp connection.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Yeah, we were at uh a conference recently. We we were talking to some some of the other camps and you know, just getting ideas and you know, talk talking about camp. And you know, we always we recognize we're we're not the best at what we do in that we've arrived. Speak for yourself. In in that in that we've arrived. We've arrived, and there's nothing we can fix, nothing, no room for growth. Uh, and and one of the things that the guy had kind of shared with us, his his advice to us was was being very relational. You know, you know, at at their camp, they have the same speaker every year, uh, they got the same staff, you know, with a few different ones here and there, but for the majority uh of of the staff is is the same year after year. So, you know, you have kids go through camp, then they um come back and serve, and it's still with those same staffers, you know. And so uh that was his you know uh idea or or what he advice he shared with us was you know just being very relational. And we kind of walked away from that conversation going, well, we're doing something right, we think, you know, that that it we may not hit every single person, you know, at camp. We do have the the desire, right, you know, to to be available and to be present and to be there, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Yeah, we're we're there and and I get it too. When I was in children's ministry and we would go to CAPS, I wouldn't necessarily what do they call it? Seek that out. Well, seek it out, but network, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wasn't a big network guy, no, no politician here, which maybe goes now that I say that against the whole church playing together. You're part of the problem, dude. I need to add that out and make myself sound a little bit better. Um, no, don't do that. So some people like that's not their thing, but if that is their thing and you ever had a problem or needed to talk, or we have one guy who comes up to us and jokes with us about things that we missed or didn't do, or like if we messed up on messed up on or say something on stage and misquote something, like he comes up to us and jokes jokes with us, and like I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

As you've probably heard, I I laugh sometimes when I shouldn't. Uh and we do, we I laugh at myself, I laugh at us like that. Is a a connection that we've made with this guy who I had no idea who he was the first time he came up. I didn't know the connection, I didn't know what church he was at. And as he comes up and and says a joke about something I said, I was like, Oh, is he upset? Or like, are you good? And he's just laughing. I'm like, Oh, yeah, we good.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Like, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

It happens, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

So those are the relationships are a part of that small camp feel, but we also can do things that other camps could do that we haven't heard some of them. They haven't done like kids' camp, we do Christmas in July. Yeah, we bring snow machines, we bring Christmas decorations. The snow tastes horrible, by the way. Well, who eats fake snow snow, bro? I thought like, bro, you hungry? Yeah, always let's be for real. Uh something else we do.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Hopefully, you didn't when it's snowing, you run through with your mouth open and let it land on your tongue. You know, we said it was it's fake. We said it was Christmas in July. We got snow blowing. You that's just what you do. You you ain't never did that for fake snow, yeah. While we was out there at camp, no, I guess you you know you poured the liquid in there, so you guys.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

So hopefully you didn't try this or this one. The next thing, another thing we do at kids camp is a shaving cream fight. Hopefully, you didn't go around. Don't taste that either.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

I didn't try, it was shoved in my mouth, sir.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

It had happened. Uh, youth camp, we do a flower fight, kind of like the color run flower. We bring that stuff, and we don't really do anything with it other than just throw it on people, which is for some reason a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun, and we did realize that it stained your skin a little bit, and probably other things that we thought we would get in trouble for. But thankfully we did it. Thankfully we didn't, and then for youth last year, we did a silent disco. That was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. I got to live my DJ dreams out and get a wickle wickle wicker on the stage. Not really.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

It was it was a computer and a Spotify playlist. So I'd his all his wickle wiggle wiggle was on his own.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Wow. Then another big or difference is the way we do salvation night numbers when it comes to salvation. We do not do raise your hand, repeat after me, okay, everybody saved, and then expect kids to follow up on that. I think that's unreasonable. Ask of kids to go, hey, if you said that prayer, then we're just gonna take your word for it and hopefully you understood it enough to know what you were doing. But what we do at kids camp is we allow, we present the gospel, but it is a very clear if you want to go talk with your leader about what it means to surrender your life to Christ, and you've never done that before, raise your hand. And they raise, they do raise their hand for that, but that is so the leaders can see who they need to watch out for. Because the next part is the leaders go to the back of the room and we tell them, go find your leader, and they're gonna take you outside and have a conversation with you. The reason we do it that way is because those leaders have had conversations with the kids, they can take the time to explain the decision, what is happening, and then sometimes one of the other reasons we do that, yeah. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

What another reason that we do that is like if you, you know, you have the hand raised thing and you count all those kids, uh, it it's great, looks looks good, you know. But uh I personally had a hand go up in one of my in my kids' ministry. I was you know pumped. Been praying for this kid, I've just been praying for all the kids, but been praying for this kid specifically was like that this is it, right? Like it, this is all I'm pumped, dude. I'm telling you, I'm so excited. He starts walking back there to me. We we go outside up on the little grass hill, we sit down, and I'm like, man, tell me what's you know what's going through your mind, like what's what's what's happening? Like, what what what are we here for, you know? And uh he's like, I just really want a Dr. Pepper. Can I get can I get a Dr. Pepper? I was like, bro, we'll get a Dr. Pepper afterwards. That's part of why we don't count the hands, you know. Like my man just wanted a Dr. Pepper. We didn't uh we count him like it's not real, it's not real. Obviously, those relationships, like we want to be able to have those conversations as a children's pastor. I I want to to hear from from those kids. If you tell me, hey, so-and-so just gave their life to to Christ, like I'm not, and if you do, this is different, like if other people are different, that's fine. But I I'm not just gonna go dunk them right that next week because I I want to hear from them. And sometimes those are emotional experiences, and sometimes uh our relationship is obviously there's it's it's not void of emotion. A relationship with Jesus is not void of emotion, but it's it's also not based on them, it's not defined by that emotion. So uh want to be able to have those conversations to be able to go back and you know uh want that we as merge want those children's pastors to be able to have those conversations as as well. Because if y'all told me my man got saved and then I go home and get ready to start baptism and find out he just wanted a doctor beverage. I ain't thirsty no more. Why are we dugging him in water then?

SPEAKER_00 30:20

But and also especially with kids, there is the the parents, right? They have a part in that to be able to say this is what I've seen in my kid, or this is not, not that it's up to the parents about their kid getting saved, but the parents are there to give accountability and yeah, they do have a a voice in that.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Which part of that is why we're kind of shifting a little bit of how we've done things with youth, doing very similar to to kids. Part part of that was, you know, we're the small group leaders that we've had in the past, while uh in a one-on-one kind of setting, most of them are equipped to be able to have those conversations. In a large group setting, it's a lot different. Right, you know, those youth pastors want to know who who that was, and so that we kind of got lost in the in the shuffle of some of those things. So this year, youth will be very, you know, same as as kids in in that process, be being able to go and have those conversations with the youth. Oversight, and you know, how do we miss that? Uh not real sure how we got there, but it's a process.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Yeah, kids were 13, 14 years into this, youth that were four. So we are changing the schedule a little bit with youth to because we saw something last year and went, hey, we need to change that. So we're changing that. So, but we do eventually we'll send out a survey. We'll ask youth pastors, children's pastors, did you have those decisions made? But it'll be a couple of weeks after camp to give them time to come home because even in that, like the Bible, I don't know, the Bible verse off the top of my head. Some plant, some water, some harvest. We realize we're a part in that process.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

And we may be the ones that see that at the the end of the day or the end of camp that hey, that child was ready and made the decision. But I also understand that we may not, we may be on the front end, or we may not be in the picture because the kid's not quite there yet. So it's neat to come home and to see churches to see the pictures and to to see the lives that were impacted. But we don't, if somebody asked me, well, over the however many years, how many kids got saved at merge? I don't have an answer.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Well, we recently had that conversation with someone, somebody helping helping us out with uh some of the admin kind of things, and you know, Daniel kind of shared that with them, and they were like, Oh man, I love that. I'm glad you don't have a number, like that's great. Like that's that's awesome. So there's obviously times where you know it never does get back to us, and that is fine. First Corinthians 3 6, which you were referring to. Uh Paul said I I planted a polished water, but God gave the increase. This is exactly what you said, just different. Um, but but with that being said, like we're honored to be a part of the process. We don't have to get the credit because there's no credit that we deserve God that gave the increase. It's not uh us or the youth pastor or the children's pastor, whatever, whoever's you know doing the the planning and the watering. The the important part is God giving the increase.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah, Philippians 2, 3 and 4. Do nothing out of self-ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility, value others other than yourself. You didn't have to throw in the oh, it's first Corinthians. Just because I can think of it at the moment, don't mean that you have to go. Oh, I know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

And you didn't, sir, if you're feeling uh guilty or conviction, that's the Holy Spirit. That's not like if that's what you call it.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

All right, so um, those are a few things that makes merge different. I think one of the obvious ones, if you haven't been able to tell, is the people who are in charge. We're making the best of it. We like, I will say we enjoy having a good time. That is something I tell my the teenagers and my youth group, like, if you can't have fun and do ministry, then like what's the point? If you can't have fun and love Jesus, then who wants to be a part of that?

SPEAKER_01 34:23

I thought you was about to get sentimental and say you enjoy like spending time with me and you enjoy my company. You just saying we like to have fun, brother.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

We've been here since 9:30 trying to hook up a camera that we were trying to make it do something that it couldn't do because we didn't read the and I don't know if there were instructions, but we've been here for three hours.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

So you do enjoy spending time with me. Yeah, say it, say it on the podcast where everybody can hear it. Yeah, that ain't happening. So uh you love me, dude.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Our I guess challenge is tell your friend you love them today. Don't yes, there you go. Don't be afraid to kind of step out to do things different. We have talked about churches being one mind, one accord type thing, the staff being one mind, one accord type thing, but we all can reach different types of people. We can't fall into a mold of we're gonna do things the way everybody else does them because that don't always work for everybody. That's right. Uh, it don't that's why we do have different churches and so many around which we are in the Bible belt. But if we all look the same, then there's people that we're missing. That's right. So as merge has come along, we have seen things that we needed to change that could help us in our vision and mission to reach people that may be a different from other camps, does not mean that they are wrong or we are wrong or that we're doing everything right. It just is a different approach to reach people for the gospel. So if you're a pastor, youth pastor, children's pastor, senior pastor, sometimes we do have to break the mold a little bit, not for the sake of breaking the mold, but for the sake of, hey, there's a group of people or there's a uh avenue of people that we could reach if we change this a little bit. Yeah. Uh so if you need a takeaway, that would be my takeaway is to to pray about it, to see where God is leading you. And as long as that change falls within the biblical okainess, I just made that up.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

That was uh very uh eloquently put it, Daniel.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

Then then go for it. Go do it. Don't worry about what anybody else says, don't worry about doing something different because you never know who that person is that you're gonna reach that's gonna make the difference. Then somebody else may not. That's right. So I think we finally, maybe, hopefully, when I go to click this, it works. Maybe this is the last time we have to do this episode. If you've enjoyed the podcast, share, like, follow, comment, rate us good, not bad. Uh, even if you don't like it, share it anyway, because you know, the person you may share it to might listen.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

They might actually like us.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

But we do have a webpage, merge-ministries.com. You can find out ways to volunteer, find out ways to give, find out dates and registration information. If your group's still looking for a place to come to camp, we would love to have you. But yeah, that's that. If you need something, call Luke. He's available 24 7. 24 7. He is ready for you.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

So day area.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Thanks for joining us. We are out. I don't have anything else to say. So we'll see you next week. See you bye.