We planned interviews for summer staff positions up and down California as students applied from
different cities. Generally, the
students from out of State colleges would make arrangements for interviews when
they were home for the holidays. The
job application was a form including different kinds of questions about
relationships, faith experiences and attitudes.
The interviews were very interesting
and helpful in getting to know the applicants. When I would ask what are some reasons they
wanted to serve at camp, their response would often be, “because the Lord has
called me to this service.” I
would quip back with something like, “Pray that the Lord clues me in on that
information as I choose who to hire.”
Another
question I would ask was what they thought “serving the Lord” would be like
during the summer. They would
respond very earnestly and sincerely that they wanted to serve the Lord in
anyway they could. We would talk about
what it means to be of service to others.
It isn’t all sugar and spice and everything’s nice. There will be days they would be so tired,
they would not feel like doing what was expected of them. They would be tired of the behavior of the campers,
or the food, or relationships among the staff. I used
to alert the applicants that we found out through the years that we hired people
because of their skills, and if called for, had to let them go because of their
attitudes. Most of us are open to serving God until we
think we’re being treated like a servant.
Fortunately, there were very few we had to ask to leave through
the years.
I’ll never forget my
first interview with a college student. It was at the First Presbyterian Church
in Fresno. As I was parking
my car, I saw this scrawny young man waiting at the door of the church. I remember thinking is this “kid” going to be
able to be responsible for young campers?
This young man, after working for us for several years, went on to seminary. While he was serving as a Pastor in the
Presbyterian Church, he was influential in recruiting quite a number of
students who we hired on camp staff.
This is how we multiply the experiences of faith.
One of the questions asked on the application form was something like, Who do you
say Jesus is? or What do you think of Jesus? The response on the form of a young applicant
was three words, “I don’t know.” During
the interview I asked him, “Would you like to know?” He agreed and we proceeded to talk about
faith and life. He accepted Christ as Lord and Savior that
afternoon. He worked with us at Westminster Woods for many years and was a very valuable and effective employee.
Through the years
several of the staff went on to seminary. It was such a humbling and yet gratifying
experience to be a part of young men and women making decisions to serve God. So
many became ordained pastors and missionaries as well as serving as volunteers
in the local churches. I came up with a phrase for me as being “humbly
proud.” Thank you Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment