What a great first day! Rush of Fools has done a really good job of bringing us before the throne of God in worship and the speakers have been both challenging and edifying. Chip Luter spoke in the morning from John 15 about our need to “Grow Up.”

1. Know your role. (He is the vine, you aren’t. Pruning might be painful, but it is necessary.)
2. Know your reality. (Apart from him you can do nothing.) “A good friend, you catch up with. A great friend, you keep up with. Which one is Jesus to you?”
3. Know your resources. (God isn’t a cosmic vending machine. As you abide in Him, your desires increasingly reflect His; your asks become His delight to fulfill.)
4. Know your responsibility. (Bearing fruit. Not programs or buildings, but fruit. A measure of fruitfulness is this: First that we benefit the lives of others, and second, that we advance the work of God.)

Great stuff, right?!

In the breakout sessions students learned about a variety of topics ranging from ‘Dealing with Doubt’ to ‘The Danger of Sexual Atheism Among Christians’ to ‘Can I Trust a God Who Would Command Genocide?’ Pretty heady stuff. Certainly stuff that touches the hearts and minds of a generation that is saturated with mixed messages about these and other theological topics.

The afternoon, of course, was reserved for fun; hiking, disc golf, volleyball, a barn swing… The options were plentiful. Of course, sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is sleep, so a few just took time to catch up on badly needed rest.

In the evening session Chip Luter again brought the message. This time he spoke from 2 Corinthians 5, driving home the point that “Reconciliation is the demonstration of what Christ has done for salvation,” and our one shared purpose is to share and model that before others.

Then, of course, we tried to break a few world records at Late Nite. What else is new?!