Boot Camp

Well, a week from today I'll be helping prepare Frontier Ranch to host another Ransomed Heart Wild At Heart Boot Camp.

For those unaware of what a Boot Camp is, I believe the best selling Christian book title this century outside of some Bible translations and Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life is probably John Eldredge's Wild At Heart. Years ago, John and his ministry, Ransomed Heart, started offering men's retreats in the mountains of Colorado to help men explore more deeply what it means to be a man and to become fully what God intended. These have helped hundreds if not thousands of men, and the impact of these men have improved the lives of thousands more. For example, if you read Donald Miller's To Own a Dragon (Miller's more famous books are Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What, and one of my favorites Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance), you see his journey in dealing with an absent father and realizing the impact of the lack of a male influence had on him. He specifically mentions Wild At Heart and his trip to a boot camp in that book and the impact it had in sorting out his journey.

I first made a boot camp in May 2004. Great time of listening to God, and unpacking who I am and how the events of life have shaped me. I went back in January 2005 and volunteered in a role for the October 2006 event, and a few weeks back got recruited to return as part of the work crew (the manual labor for the event).

The power of the event seems to vary for each man. I think the honesty of each man who speaks (John, Craig McConnell, Bart Hansen, and in the past Gary Barkalow) in their journey holds the greatest power to me. I've gained from each time I've gone, first with the teaching and stories, then as a volunteer with the interactions of others and their stories. This is a weekend into what the movement of Christ should be.