The Goat Man has Moved to the Central Texas Conference

by Rev. Kay Ash

In just a couple of weeks the Summer Camps at the Bridgeport Camp and Conference Center will open with several of our KPUMC kids. If you have not been there, the Bridgeport Camp and Conference Center is owned by the North Texas Conference and sits on over 200 acres at Lake Bridgeport, west of Decatur. Over 1500 students of all ages are served during summer camping. Kids get to enjoy the usual activities such as archery, fishing, swimming and getting sunburned. However, there is so much more to Camp Bridgeport than the usual.

To begin with, Camp Bridgeport is absolutely beautiful. The hills, the woods, and the cross – everywhere you look, God’s creation will take your breath away. Further, we get to do things at camp that we do not get to do anywhere else: shaving cream wars, giant slip-and-slide down the hill, lip sync battles and, importantly, sharing the Word of God with each other all day, every day. The focus of our curriculum this year is the church; in each lesson we walk through the different areas of a church and discuss how the church works plus how to take the love of God outside of the church. Every lesson contains stories, games, activities and deep, deep questions to spark conversation. Our days are absolutely full to the brim, and hopefully, the campers collapse exhausted into their cabins each evening.

Despite all of our scheduled activities, Camp Bridgeport is also consistently a place of transformation. I have had the privilege of witnessing children dancing in the starlight, kneeling in prayer at the cross, showering each other with gifts, sobbing and clinging to each other during closing worship. Something about getting away, being surrounded by beauty, and being very intentional about loving words and behavior reminds all of us of what the Kingdom of God is supposed to be like. Camp Bridgeport is a place of love, sharing, equality, and deep caring without any judgment or conditions. Camp Bridgeport is a miraculous place.

Last year it was the first night of camp, and we had tried our best to wear out the kids so that going to sleep in their cabins would flow smoothly without too much of a struggle for the adult cabin counselors. However, sometimes the first night is harder than the others. After all the kids and adults were back in their cabins, our directing team visited each cabin to check on every child. It was very clear when we walked into the boys’ cabin that things were not going well; the level of chaos was pretty high. We tried our best strategies to get the kids to brush teeth and settle down, and when we finally left we had hope that sleep would come soon.

In the wee hours of the night, the directors got a text from one of the adult counselors in the boys’ cabin. There was one camper, a young 3rd grader, who had never been to camp before that just could not go to sleep. His adult counselors were getting worn out and running out of ideas. The directors offered prayers and some further ideas to help the young man get to sleep but stopped short of calling the young man’s parents in the middle of the night. (Experience has taught us that frantic parents driving in the country to Bridgeport in the middle of night is not good.) Ultimately, the camper fell into a deep and restful sleep.

The next morning, that very same camper ran up to me and said ,“I made it; I stayed all through the night!” He was beaming so proudly and he told everybody; it was truly a moment of transformation, a moment that child will likely never forget. Moments later, the adult cabin counselors ran up to me and said the same thing; they were so proud they had made it through the night with that young man. It was clear that they were transformed too. The sometimes hard work of loving each other without judgment, of never giving up, of holding one child’s hand until they fall asleep brings us so close to God that we are inevitably changed for good.

I invite all of you to come to Camp Bridgeport, I’m happy to show you around and share those moments of transformation first hand. I promise you will be absolutely surrounded with love and joy. This is why, in case anybody asks you, that the goat man has moved to the Central Texas Conference campsite! The goat man legend at Camp Bridgeport has been around for decades. Parents have told their children, who have then told their children, to watch out for the goat man while at camp. Unfortunately, the goat man antics and attempts to scare campers have gotten out of hand; so the story is, the goat man has moved. With this legend put to rest, campers are free to rest well and love each other boldly. We have got to rest, right? We have to have plenty of energy for shaving cream!

Still Waiting

I’ll be blunt — very few of you have responded to my challenge to write out your call story and submit it to me.

Don’t think you’re hiding from me — I see you out there! I know you might think this is too challenging, but I want to persuade you to try anyway!

Come on, it’s fun!

Perhaps the reluctance to answer “The Call Project” comes from a sense that you haven’t actually been called by God. One person wrote me to say this very thing: “This is very difficult for me, because I don't think I have had a call to tell you about.”

Maybe, because you haven’t been knocked to the ground by a blinding light like Saul, or heard an audible voice from a burning bush like Moses, that you haven’t been called.

But I will restate what I said in the sermon two weeks ago — every Christian has a call. That is, in fact, what it means to be a Christian! It means to have received a mission from God, to be included in the story of what God is doing in the world. When you decide to follow Jesus, you are necessarily charting a different journey for yourself than you would have walked otherwise.

The life of faith is a journey into the heart of God, and the heart of God is full of love and compassion for the whole world. Or to put it in the words of Paul, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

If you have the heart of God and the mind of Christ, then you will be full of a love that breaks for the pain and anguish of the world. When you have that kind of love, you will be unable to carry on with business-as-usual, because business-as-usual for most of us is a life of wealth accumulation, personal and family security, and the pursuit of leisure. You will be unable to walk the streets of the city without seeing people through God’s eyes, and you will suddenly be able to see through the illusions and fantasies of modern life. You will be attuned to injustice and inequality. You will ache for people who have no hope.

And you will want to do something about it.

The whole point of the church is to gather folks who want to do something about the world’s condition in the name of Jesus Christ. That’s why Kessler Park UMC exists, that’s why the United Methodist Church exists, that’s why Christianity in its myriad forms and permutations exists.

I will repeat: every. single. one. of. you. has. a. call.

It may sound like a whisper to befriend unlovable people. It may be merely a hint of interest in a child with learning disabilities. It may be a vocational draw toward a job in the non-profit sector. It may even be to pursue theological studies for the sake of becoming a pastor.

If you haven’t heard the call yet, then all you have to do is get quiet enough to listen. If everyone is called, as I believe, then everyone has access to that call. God speaks. We have to learn to listen; we must develop the capacity to hear God.

Let me reissue my challenge — please write down your call story and send it to me so that I can share it with Eric. If you struggle with putting it into words, here’s a simple template to use, based on my sermon on May 12th:

“I was __________________________________________ (your situation before the call), when suddenly _________________________ (the call arrives), and now I ________________________ (your response).”

Give it a try — I know you can do it!

The Call Project

In Sunday’s sermon, I announced what I’m calling “The Call Project,” in which I’m asking each of you to write down and submit a brief version of your “call story.”

What’s a call story?

I explained in my sermon that a call story is a personal story about when and how God called you to fulfill your own particular shape of ministry, whatever that might be. (This is different from what people used to call their “conversion story,” which narrates how and when someone became a Christian in the first place.)

I believe that every Christian has received a unique and personal directive, or “call,” from God which should determine and shape one’s life choices. For a few of us, God’s call is to full-time, specialized ministry within the church, which we call ordination. But for most of us, the call is to embody the love of Christ in our vocations, whatever they might be, and to embrace our spiritual gifts. 

While I believe that every person has been called to some kind of ministry by God, I also believe that not every Christian has actually responded to the call. That means not everyone has a call story … at least not yet.

That’s partly the role of a pastor — to help lead people into hearing and accepting the call of God on their lives. I know I’m doing my job well only when I see you responding to God’s call to mission, service, or compassion. 

That’s why “The Call Project” is important to me, especially at this moment in time. Before I leave, I would like to know from each of you how you are responding to God. I would love to celebrate your call story with you, as well as to pass the story on to the next pastor, Eric Folkerth. 

In my sermon, I argued that every call story has the same basic three-part structure. That story usually goes like this: first, you are making your way through normal, everyday life when, second, a crisis occurs. This disruption or interruption leads to a sudden recognition of your call from God. If you accept the call, then the third stage takes place, in which you begin to live into a new reality, open to God’s guidance.

When you are ready to write your story, try using the following sentence prompts: “I was ____________ (part one: status quo) when ________________ (part two: crisis/disruption), and I realized that God was calling me to ___________________ (your call), and I responded by ________________ (part three: new reality).”

Using that structure, here is how my story of how I was called into the ministry: “I was studying filmmaking in college when, one night as I was praying before bed, I clearly heard God call me to be a preacher, and after I had graduated with my film degree, I responded by enrolling in Perkins School of Theology and beginning the path toward ordination in the United Methodist Church.”

Using the same structure for Saul in the New Testament, here is his story: “I was going to Damascus to arrest Christians when I was blinded by a bright light on the road and heard a voice from heaven which told me that I was to be an ambassador for Christ, and after being healed of my blindness by the kindness of Ananias, I responded by becoming an apostle to the Gentiles.”

See? Your story doesn’t have to be long and complicated, but short and to the point. You’re welcome to use the prompts I’ve given above, or to write something free style.

Please take a few minutes to write out your call story and send to me at wes@kpumc.org. It will bring joy to my heart, and I’ll make sure Eric sees it. Even more important, you’ll see it written down for yourself, a reminder of the divine purpose for your own life.

Oh, one more thing — if you haven’t yet, please take the time to upload a picture of yourself to the church directory on Breeze. If you don’t think you can manage it yourself, we’ll have volunteers take pictures of you after worship over the coming weeks and help you do it! This will also be extremely useful for Eric to get to know all of you.