Leadership Weekend
Sept 3rd - 6th
Saranac Leadership Program - July 16th Deadlines
Program Theology/Philosophy - Aswan
Saturday Morning Event - Todd
Saturday Night Event - Aswan & McGee
Recruit 2 techs - McGee - (Sean Conlon - West Milford, NJ)
Program Budget with Reaume - McGee - $400 (room for $500 if needed).
Program Development during Seminars - McGee
Program Philosophy
How we will conduct ourselves as Program Directors: This portion of our philosophy describes how we conduct
ourselves as program directors. These three principles guide our time of preparation, our time with each other, and
our time up front. Through these guiding principles we pray we can achieve our mission:
Program Mission Statement
“To glorify God, with a spirit of excellence, while empowering leaders, and entertaining,
feeding, and equipping our guest via program characters”.
Program Philosophy
1. Taking the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5-11) (Gal 6:3)
It is important that we honor God in what we do. It is equally important to honor God with how we do it. We don’t just
want to get things done; we want to serve with a humble attitude. Christ didn’t cling to His high position as the
incarnate God, but He humbled Himself and put skin on. As a result, we want to have that same humble nature as we
serve God, leaders, and our guests.
2. Work as we are working for the Lord (Eph 6:7)
Now that we covered our heart, we do want to make sure what we do we do with excellence and precision. We want to
be well prepared, fully equipped, and precise in what we do as program directors. We want to make sure we are
working with a spirit of excellence whether people are watching or not; whether we are tired or full awake, whether we
receive accolades or not; we want to work as if we are working to please God. Knowing that He will reward us for the
spirit of excellence we put forth.
3. Serve and empower leaders (Mark 10:45)
In addition to taking the mind of Christ, and working unto the Lord and not to our supervisors, we want to empower
and serve our fellow leaders and guests. We expect to satisfy their needs. Not just their physical needs, but their
emotional and spiritual needs. Similar to Christ, we want to give our life as a ransom; we came to serve not to be
served.
4. Maintain a Kingdom Mindset
Interwoven into all we do as program leaders, we are challenging ourselves to be kingdom minded. We don’t want to
use language that is segmented, we don’t want to just touch themes that are appealing to any one group, and
instead, we desire to present Christ through program. As we do that, our prayer is that we think of the Gospel and the
body of Christ holistically. This will allow us to remove any of our individual biases and achieve our three
aforementioned principles. We believe it is in and through a Kingdom mindset that we will be effective.
The Foundation of our Characters: This portion of our philosophy describes the heart from which we created our
characters. Within our character formation these three essential themes are interwoven. In addition, we pray that
these are themes that help leaders understand the importance of what we do as leaders. We pray we shed light on the
“cost” of leadership, as seen in the life of Christ, as well as the logistical elements of excellent leadership.
1. Capture what it means to be a servant leader
Being a servant leader is the key for any good leader. Our characters are discovering that being a servant who has
opportunity to lead is true leadership. It works. Our hope is through our dialogue and our character interactions our
guests clearly see the benefits of servant leadership
2. Highlight what it means to give yourself away
Similar to being a servant leader, true leadership comes when one is willing to let go of everything they deem to be
comfortable. When Christ was conversing with the rich young ruler he expressed to him that he had to give up his
possessions, but the man was unable to do so. Of course we know that Christ was highlighting the fact that he was
more connected to his riches then he was his relationship with God. It was basically idolatry. That is why he was
unable to receive Jesus. Conversely, we want to show our guest that God desires for us to be available for Him, so that
we can make Him available to others.
3. Think Kingdom minded
Prayerfully we are precise with our lines and communication. Our hope is to show what it means to be kingdom
minded. Through our character formation, through our lines, through the story plot, we pray we show our guests that it
is a kingdom mindset that ultimately achieves the goal of adolescents knowing Jesus. Without a Kingdom mindset we
are only sharing the Gospel in part.
Program Notes
Appearances
1 - Friday Night - Session 1 - Introduction of Characters
2 - Saturday Morning - After Seminar Block - Characters or PD’s explain field games
3 - Saturday Evening - Session 2 - Problem Climax
4 - Saturday Night - Session 2 End to End of Night - Sell and Conduct 90’s Night
5 - Sunday Night - Session 3 - Character Resolve
6 - Monday Morning - Session 4 - Character Completion
Program Ideas
Aswan and McGee are some type of remedial salesmen flunkies who are on a search for somehting meaningful.
Imagine a cross between Dumb and Dumber and Tommy Boy. Aswan is a bit more like Jeff Bridge’s/David Spades’
Character, McGee is more like Jim Carey’s/Chris Farley’s Character. McGee doesn’t believe in himself. Aswan is over
confident but reluctant to take risks. McGee’s always putting himself down, Aswan does encourage McGee, but is a
bit more realistic.
Todd is an infomercial sales man, who hits the stage with a quick minute long pitch for this wonderful product. “Young
Life - You were made for this” It is a shiny briefcase with the logo and tag line on it. There will be a video intro and
music, at the end of the pitch, Todd exits, lights go out, and Aswan and McGee stumble onto the stage and discover
that the briefcase was left behind. They squabble over who should take it, and then they realize that it is all designed
for them to discover for the first time what they were made for. Thus begins their decision to find out if they can sell
this product, but more importantly, if they can sell it to themselves.
They attempt to compete in an all camp event to see if achievement and winning helps them realize what they were
made for, but that fails. They attempt to journey back into their childhood of the early 90’s and discover what they first
wanted to be when they grew up and see if that is what they were made for, but that fails.
Ultimately, they get frustrated and Todd reappears to show them, that they must first open up the box to discover
what they are made for. Next they have to think outside of the box. and finally, face up to the fact that the box itself is
simply a mirror for them to see themselves through a different perspective. The box was a journey to grow them into
who they were always made to be.
There is an opportunity of introducing a bad guy character who is also played by Todd, someone who is trying to steal
the box. It would have a scooby doo ending where Todd comes out to discover who it was who was trying to steal his
product, the villain will be under a hood, with everyone expecting it to be Todd as well, but it will be Eric dressed as
Todd’s villain character. That would make for a funny ending and a more comical character development. But this
inclusion might also elongate the program, require too much detail explanation, and take too long.
90’s Night ideas
If Ty is comfortable with Tableau at the end of session 2, we will do a behind the stage “Kris Kross” 90’s sell. We will
explain that at some point we gave up on our childhood dreams so we will go back to our childhood environment to
rediscover what it was.
Some of the Elements will be Seattle Grunge Rock, Boy Band, East Coast vs West Coast Rap Battle, William Wallace
will be there, maybe he’ll be fighting Gorbichavf?
We can do a Trivia Contest, Poetry Slam Rap Battle, Choreographed Dance Off, or combine all of these elements into
some sort of Nickelodeon Game Show.
Saturday Morning
All Star Sports Championship - Camp Decathlon - Human Chess Game - Camp Experience in 20 minutes - Treasure
Hunt - Etc.