Dig That Trench

When I joined the staff of Grace Chapel one of the first things I was told was that I would be leading a summer mission trip for the youth of the church. This was not a very exciting prospect for me. I don't really like mission trips. Especially not the kind of mission trips that youth ministries typically participate in, like building stuff or cleaning stuff. Nevertheless, we put together a trip to the Appalachia region in Kentucky and we worked on houses and stuff.

The next year we changed the scope. We asked the whole church to be involved. Then we asked whole families to come. As we did, something happened (and we weren't just building houses anymore, we had started an educational camp too). High School kids were hanging out with adults. Elementary school kids were hanging out with High School kids. All these different age groups interacting with one another.

One image has lasted in my mind. My son, Ethan, was working at a site where he was digging a trench with a high school student. They worked their tails off as Ethan said, "It was turrible, just turrible." But, every once in a while he will tell me something about they talked about while digging that trench together. Nothing profound but some little thing that an older boy said to him that made an impact.

I have had the privilege over the years to disciple a number of folks. And I'm realizing that discipleship is like digging that trench. It's slow, painful, and in many ways "turrible". It requires sweat, blood, and effort. It's the little comments and the little things said that accumulate over years which end up making the biggest impact.

I think this is why leaders in the church are uninterested in real discipleship. It doesn't produce nickels and noses fast enough. It doesn't pay the bills. Yet, it is what we are called to do.

I really want to dig the trench. Are you in?