[the team gathered around a campfire at the Walrod’s house]

Almost every night we had a debriefing time.  I think we called it team time.  I had realized the week before on a camping trip in Hawaii that I could buy a small charcoal grill and use it as a fire pit.  So when we got to Jamestown I bought a grill.

I’m not sure what it is about campfires but they’re pretty magical.  You can just sit and stare at the fire and people start opening up.  Maybe its the darkness and the lack of eye contact because everyone is looking at the fire, you feel less vulnerable.

But each day, we had an intentional debrief time.  Sometimes we just talked about what God was showing us through the day.  The impact that serving at certain ministries were having.  Sometimes we would have a topic and discuss it.

Two topics came up through conversation throughout the trip that we decided to talk about more during our debriefing time.

One was cynicism.  The other was our fear of confrontation.

Both things that we all struggled with.  It was good to talk openly with the group, about the hurts and disappointments they’ve received from people and the church, and how that had led to cynicism, and then led to bitterness, that then robbed us from what God has for us.

The other thing was fear of man, and fear of confrontation.  Never wanting to impose ourselves on anyone else.  Is this a product of growing up in Howard County Maryland where the county slogan is “Choose Civility?”

Obviously none of us wanted to be jerks, but operating out of fear isn’t what God wants for our lives either.

We looked to Matt 18 which showed us the biblical model for dealing with confrontation.  But even that was a bit severe for us.

I mused that if Jesus or Paul were around we probably wouldn’t like them very much because they weren’t gracious enough and didn’t take into consideration our feelings.

Anyway, I truly enjoyed our campfire chats.  Being open and having productive and insightful conversations with people was beautiful.  Those types of conversations are a rarity.

Engage:  Do you struggle with cynicism and fear of man and confrontation?  When was the last good conversation you had?  What was it about?  Comment and let us know.