Do men really give a rip about Jesus?

 

Men coming to the Cross in Hershey, PA. 

Do men care about Jesus? Of people attending church services today 61% are women and 39% are men. [http://www.uscongregations.org/key.htm] Does that statistic answer the question? I hope not. Maybe as you looked around the sanctuary this past Sunday you saw those same kinds of numbers and asked yourself what is wrong.

Let me give you some encouragement. While we might not being going to church we are realizing that we need to take a more active roll in the spiritual lives of our families. Men are seeing the need to be authentic and to share our struggles. Men are learning that they need to make their family their priority. Men are learning that they can't defeat temptation without a daily relationship with Jesus Christ and God's Word.

This past weekend I was in Hershey, PA [yes, I went to Chocolate World] and worked at the Men at the Cross event held at the Giant Center right next door to Hershey Park. Around 2000 men were there caring about Jesus. The event was also webcast so people all over the country participated too.

Stu Weber
Todd Wagner
Reggie Dabbs
Rick Rigsby
Joe White
Gary Smalley

These close. "I Timothy 1:5" friends spoke at the Men at the Cross event in Hershey and gave a great challenge to men to find a "Timothy" in their life. Someone who they will disciple for 24 weeks so that that man can then become a Paul to someone in their life. Ultimately to reach the whole World for Christ through life-on-life ministry.

If you would like to see the event program in it's entirety it is now available as an archived webcast at www.menatthecross.org. It is available until December 22nd, 2008.

Here is just one of the testimonials received from the webcast participants:

I'm a recently dismissed worship pastor who had just about given up. I
was ready to move back into the bleachers. I realize tonight that I have
been holding back from God. I have no idea what God has in store for me
now, but I'm going to wait for Him. I want to be one who He "strengthens
whose heart is fully committed to Him" (2 Chron. 16:9). I pray that God
will show me my Timothy so that I may do my part in fulfilling the
Commission. Thank you for making this webcast available. And to think
that this is only the first hour of the event. Praise God for bringing
me back!!

In Christ,
Dave, Indiana

Tell us about men that care about Jesus. Leave a comment.

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Fall projects list in the Kanakuk marketing department

Here is a partial list of projects that we are working on in the Marketing Department at Kanakuk Kamps.

1. 2009 Staff Recruitment video
2. 2009 Staff promo commercials 
3. 2008-09 KanakukLive! Movie (A Tim Oliphant video experience)
4. The new kanakuk.com rollout (leave a comment if you are willing to beta test the new site for us sometime in the next several days)
5. Coffee
6. KanakukLive! event print and digital materials
7. Hershey, PA Men at the Cross Stage Management
8. Hershey, PA Kanakuk Kamps booth (Any Lancaster County Kanakukers out there? We could use a local volunteer to help with the booth.)
9. 2010 concept research
10. Director blogs (see sidebar)
11. 25 Days of Christmas mailing
12. Kanakuk Kamps Term Videos (out in early January)
13. Tons of other small stuff 

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Hang with me!

 

 

Sam Hoover doing and then not doing his video thing.

I'm buried at work! I'll be back to blogging soon.

I have serious news about enrollment and how it was affected by the Bunk With a Friend feature announced on Monday.

I'm dying to give Sam Hoover a huge shout out on here about his performance as the video guru at the MATC events too but I've been too busy. Oh, I guess I just got that one done :-) Seriously Sam does awesome and is a critical player in making it all run smooth! Train robbing skills!


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Big Change Coming on Monday

You've never been able to do this at Kanakuk!

For over 85 years Kanakuk Kamps has provided an "Exciting Adventure in Christian Athletics". Over 85 years of impacting kids in a way that shows them the love of Christ. For all those years Kanakuk has lovingly and caringly placed kids of the same age in cabins together with 2 or 3 of the best counselors we could find in the world. It's worked great and kids always leave with friendships that can and often do last a lifetime. More choice is coming!

On Monday we are launching Bunk with a Friend!  Parents and kids will have the opportunity to choose one friend that has a birthday within one year of the Kamper to stay in the same cabin with them. All of this will be done online through Parent's Place. You can make a request and approve a request online. Then manage the request as needed.

This new feature is a great opportunity to invite your friends to Kanakuk or just make sure you stay with that Kamp friend you made last year.

We'll be sending out an e-mail on Monday (unless there's a glitch:-)) that will explain it all in detail.

I'm in Omaha, NE and I'll be back in Branson on Sunday. Joe White has begun a new ministry this year called Men at the Cross that seeks to reach men with the vision of the Paul/Timothy Discipleship model given us in the Word of God. It's a message that men are hungry for; God is blessing these events. You'll see me sharing more about it in the weeks to come. Next week is Forth Worth and then Hersey, PA the following week.

Heather Headley sang this morning and it was just amazing! I've never felt someone sing with that much emotion in my entire life. She has an amazing talent and heart for worshiping God. I can't begin to describe it but I'm glad I'll hear her again in Hershey.

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8 Fish on the Back of Your Pinto

Rick Rigsby, from Texas A&M on stage at Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs 

The first night of the Omaha Men at the Cross is done. It was awesome!

Sitting in the Speakers prayer meeting just before the event, I was struck by the power of God to orchestrate so many things together in a perfect way. There were some great guys in that meeting; Michael W. Smith, Brian Daniel, Gary Rosberg, Joe White, Rick Rigsby, Reggie Dabbs, Steve Farrar, Greg O'Dell, and t heir are others I'm forgetting. The thing I noticed though about that meeting was the unity of Spirit. Just humble guys wanting men to be closer to Jesus.

Rick Rigsby, was one of the speakers Friday night and brought a great challenge to men to be authentic Christians. One of my favorite lines from Rick was "ego is the anesthetic of stupidity". He is also waaay funny. At one point he told the crowd that "To be a good Christian you don't have to have 8 fish on the back of your Pinto." And, any speaker that can reference 8 track tapes and make you laugh, has it going on. Rick really is a great speaker, but more importantly he is a broken man of God who gives Him the glory.

I'll try and post more from the event later today. Greg is ready to go to breakfast.

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Kanakuk Kampers at Men at the Cross

There was more than one Kanakuk Kamper at the Houston Men at the Cross event. Lots of Kanakuk parents too. This is a picture of Joe White with Cody Reeter and his friend Stephen Snow. Thanks you guys for coming to the event!

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Brian Keith Daniel Men at the Cross featured painter

Brian Daniel signs his original artwork from the Houston Men at the Cross event performance

Joe White has found a really talented painter to share the stage with Heather Headley at the Omaha Men at the Cross event. Brian has done all the Men at the Cross events and I believe is scheduled to do the rest of them this year. In Omaha Brian Daniel will paint a picture of Christ on the Cross while Heather Headley sings. I've seen Brian paint and heard Heather sing. It will no doubt be a highlight of the event!

More about Heather after the next event.

You can learn more about Brian and his artwork at www.seraphimonline.com. On the website you can see video of Brian's performances, see where he'll be next, order prints, and learn how you can have him come to your church or event. Brian is a great guy, down to earth and just ready to serve God through his gifts as an artist. He and I have some similar job background and I look forward to seeing him again in Omaha.

Hey Brian--I'll see you in a few days!

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I'm Headed to Omaha for a Men at the Cross Event

I'm going to rapid fire some posts today and tomorrow to catch up from the Houston Men at the Cross event. I leave on Friday for the Omaha Men at the Cross event and will no doubt have some posts after that to share. Greg O'Dell and I will be tag teaming the stage management duties the rest of the year. Mollye is going to run the Kanakuk Kamps booth for Omaha and beyond? She's also helping us with the  stage management preparation.

Scheduled for the Omaha event is Heather Headley, Michael W. Smith, Reggie Dabbs, Rick Rigsby, Joe White, Christopher Julian, Rick Cua and others.

Joe is also going to speak at First Family Church in Overland Park, KS on Sunday morning. If you are in the are I'm sure they would love to have you join them.

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Brandon Heath Song Writer Backstage Photo

Brandon Health put on a concert at the Houston Men at the Cross event. I was busy during the concert and only got this photo of Brandon and the band backstage right before they went on. (Adam Martin fans check out the dark shirted figure lurking in the background.) From what I heard Heath is a talented song writer who really gets the emergent church and it's desire for community. Check out his music video.



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The Joe White Kanakuk Kamps Booth at Men at the Cross

 

Kanakuk Kamps just purchased this new display booth for the Men at the Cross conferences. We also purchased the TV, DVD player and the stand for the TV. You might notice in the picture that the TV is not on the stand. Well, we shipped all the parts for the booth to Houston and one of the boxes, the one with the bracket for the TV, got lost in the Toyota Center. The Toyota Center is where the Houston Rockets Play. I finally found the stray box late the second day and had no time to put it together. The Omaha, NE, Men at the Cross event will go smoother in that department. The TV made a huge difference in the number of people who stopped at the booth.

As proof I looked at the web stats for the weekend and Monday before and the weekend and Monday after the St. Louis Men at the Cross event and the number of page views in the St. Louis metro area were exactly the same. We had no decent booth, no TV, etc. at that event. Then I looked at the page views for the same time scenarios in Houston and the page views for the weekend of the event were almost exactly double. I also so an increase here at Inside Kanakuk. So it seems to me just looking at the surface that the booth upgrade was well worth it. It was also fun to get the word out about Kanakuk and to meet some of the Kamp Dads that came to the event.

We had some great volunteers at the booth too. Meredith and her husband (I drew a blank on your name!! So, sorry.), and Kelly helped during the two day event. It was a huge help having people who know about and love Kanakuk and have experienced it. I saw them sharing the Kanakuk story with a lot of Dads. I was running in several directions that weekend so I just didn't get pictures of the volunteers. I'll do better in the future.


Mollye will go to the Omaha event to help with the booth and we'll have some more great volunteers. Special thanks to Brian Mitchell from Kids Across America for helping us newbies get the booth set-up, a couple times :-)

If any of you were in Houston and have any suggestions for the booth I'd love to hear them.

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Best Lemonade in Houston at Irma's Southwest Grill

Irma's Southwest Grill Entrance

After the Men at the Cross event in Houston we had a Victory lunch at Irma's Southwest Grill. All I can say is that it was the best Mexican food I've ever had. Shrimp tacos, enchiladas, Salsa that just makes you want to cry when you have to leave, and the absolute best lemonade in the world. Great atmosphere and just a fun time with the Leadership of MATC and the Houston regional team. Great guys and gals who truly have a heart for the men of Houston.

Irma's Southwest Grill's, now famous to me, lemonade.

Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully I'll get around to getting all the names right at some point. Feel free to jump in there and help.

 Joe White with Jeff, Bruce, and Louie Owners of Irma's Southwest Grill

 Joe White with Kampers and friends at Irma's

As a side note, all you Tim Oliphant, American Gladiator fans might like to know that Tim threw out the beginning pitch at the Springfield Cardinals baseball game last night. Then he competed against the crowd, the dominoes pizza guy, etc. in between innings. I didn't get to go because I was standing in a 3 hour line for getting one of my sons fitted and signed up for football.

The only way I made it through that ordeal was talking to Kamp Dad, Dana Barnett [hope I spell the names right] and his son Brandon. It was great to get to know them. We have such great parents at Kanakuk. Huge fans of what we are doing. It's so encouraging to hear and see from you first hand the impact Kamp has on your kids. In my position at Kanakuk I don't get a lot of time with the kids and parents. So, when God puts me in those situations I always feel blessed.

I've been very busy the last few days and appreciate your patience as I get caught up on my blogging. I love these conversations with you. Thanks for checking back.

This week and last I have had lots of conversations about connectersations that the Director's want to have with you and your kids. I haven't seen the Director's so hungry for time communicating with the kids they met this summer. They clearly miss the Kampers and want the summer to last. One of the ways they hope to share more of the year with you and your kids is through blogs. Watch for them to get started in the next month or so. It's going to fun.


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American Gladiators, Tim Oliphant on stage with Joe White and Bishop Larry Jackson

 

Tim Oliphant is entertained by questions from Joe White 

At this past weekends Houston, Texas Men at the Cross event Kanakuk's very own Tim Oliphant, winner of this year's American Gladiators show took the stage with Joe White and Bishop Larry Jackson.

It happened at 9:45 on Saturday morning. Joe and Bishop Jackson got up and did a little "Who's on first" skit and then Joe talked about it taking a lot of people to make an event like this happen. Joe then invited one of the "video guys" up on stage and it was Tim. Joe and Larry started peppering him with questions. So you do video stuff? You're not a very big guy are you? Tim tells them that he's like 5'8" and 145 pounds. (can't remember the specifics there but that's close) They ask him, "You ever get in any fights?" Tim says well kind of. this goes on for a few rounds of the big guys that Tim's been in a tussle with and ends with him saying that he beat one of of them twice and that he had three of his friends with him and he beat them too. Then they started saying "Prove it." Then Tim played a video montage of scenes from the Gladiator show.

After the video, Tim shared how the American Gladiators experience has shown him how important it is to be prepared. Using the David and Goliath story from the Bible Tim shared that David had spent a life being a shepherd, relying on God and practicing his slingshot skills. Tim commented that the show was physically, emotionally exhausting and that he spent a lot of his time during the taping of the sho on his knees. Getting strength from God. He emphasized that we can't go into life's battles not prepared to battle the evil one and that the way to do that is through a relationship with Jesus Christ through reading his Word and meditation on it.

It was a great segment of the event and I was glad Tim did it. Even though he got hassled by security everytime he showed up at the event! It didn't help that my phone went dead and he couldn't call to get any help! My bad. Sorry Tim. I hope you had a great time. It was awesome.

If you were at the Houston event and have comments or questions for Tim post them here and he'll see them. Tell us what you thought of the Houston Men at the Cross event.

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Houston Men at the Cross with Joe White

View from were I sat stage side at Men at the Cross - Houston

I got home mid afternoon today (Sunday) from an amazing weekend traveling with Joe White to the Men at the Cross event in Houston, Texas. The event was held at the Toyota Center and approximately 5000 men attended. I've spent time with my family, taken a short nap and watched some Olympics. I have pictures from back stage at the event and stories to tell from the trip. The photo above doesn't say much about the event. Call it a teaser if you will, much like this e-mail. Tomorrow I will try to post first about the things I saw God do at the event.

Other topics on the list:

American Gladiators, Tim Oliphant on stage with Joe White and Bishop Larry Jackson
Men at the Cross speakers for Houston
Meal at Irma's Southwest Grill
3 services at 2nd Baptist of Houston
Brandon Heath Concert
The Kanakuk Booth
Kampers Spotted in Houston
99 Balloons video
Coffee in a Cabinet
Views from the Omni Hotel
Notes on my trip buddy Greg O'Dell.
"Houston has the best restaurants anywhere!" - Doug Goodwin

Seriously, you have got to check in here the next few days.

I love being home with my wife and kids.

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New Web Address for Inside Kanakuk

If you attend the Houston Men at the Cross event on Aug. 22nd you might see one of these cards. I'm going to let people that I run into there know that my blog is here and active. I'm going to do my best to cover the event for my readers so that employees, kampers, parents, staff and the world can have a better picture of Joe White's ministry work.

You'll also notice that my blog now has it's own domain. Just put "insidekanakuk.com" or "www.insidekanakuk.com" in your browser's address bar and you'll get back here. Cooler - Easier. All the old links still work.

When the new website rolls out. You'll be able to easily find Inside Kanakuk there along with the other Kanakuk blogs.


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Jennifer Farley Sighted in the Director's Building

Jennifer Farley - Get's 'em ready to fly down the K-1 zipline.

Like the first flower of Spring, like the first frost of Winter, seeing a Kamp Director back in the main offices here at Kanakuk says, the end of summer is near. Jennifer Farley, K-1 Assistant Women's Director and her husband Lee brought a couple boxes back to her office this morning. She looked nice and rested, bright eyed and smiley. In some ways I wish that meant we'd have 2 more weeks of summer! I had my office windows open all day yesterday and I really enjoyed the sounds of ziplines, and kids laughing.

Here in the Marketing department we go from being busy to frantic in about 2 days. There is so much to do now that summer is over and Kanakuk Movie Tour begins.

I'll be traveling to Houston later this month (Aug 22) with Joe White to help with the Men at the Cross conference. I'll tell you more about that in the days to come. If you are in the Houston area and would like to get more information go to the Men at the Cross website.



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