You've got raisins on your knees!!

So we are one week into the whole Massanetta Conference experience, and one conference is over and done. It was a real learning experience, and I made a lot of weird turns along the way, but on the whole I'd say it was a good time had by all. I planned way too many songs the first couple days, and didn't do a good job teaching them to the crowd (I just sort of jumped right in), so some folks felt a little lost on the whole singing-along part. Such is my learning curve.

By midweek, however, we all seemed to have gotten our stride. Things ran a lot more smoothly from about last Friday on. On the last day there were Many Enthusiastic Folks who came up and talked to me and said I did a good job (I even got a half-serious offer for a pastor position, which I appreciated very much, but politely declined. Small matter of the dissertation to finish).

The next day, however, the co-director and I sat down with the evaluations, and darker clouds returned. So there was a stack of pages, each a distillation of a given groups comments. It was about half-way through that one page read, and I quote: "Play less songs" followed immediately by "Play more songs" as part of the comment stream.

I had not been aware that Franz Kafka was a conference participant, but apparently both he and Joseph Heller were in attendance, masquerading as 6th graders.

I am not complaining. The co-director and my fellow staff have been nothing but supportive of me during this, my first time as a music leader. I am just hard on myself. I want to get it right, y'know?

But let me tell you this (it's my favorite part). In additon to the 'middlers' (a polite name for middle schoolers) and the adult leadership (a group I nominally belong to, given my mentality and general hyperactivity) there is a group of twenty high school kids here, the 'Enablers' (yes - an unfortunate name for those of us still in twelve-step, but still).

These guys are just amazing. I am used to Montreat, where the youth from all over are cool and all, but this is just another level. These young folks remind me entirely wonderfully of the youth group I used to work with back in Decatur that made such a tremendous impact on me. The first day of the first conference I watched as they leaned out the windows of the conference center, calling to the middlers who were waiting outside to come in for the first event. There was this great sense of welcome and anticipation, and I loved watching it. The Enablers were bridge-building, making a space for these gawking and gangly about-to-be teenagers and allowing them to feel wanted and appreciated - a set of feelings not often conveyed to this age group by adults, let along by high school kids. Watching that happen - without an adult suggesting it or anyone being forced to - watching it happen naturally - has done more for my knee-jerk cynicism this past week than anything I have seen in the past year. It is a warm memory I will take with me and treasure for a long time.

I think we - the adults and the Enablers - have become a solid team. We work well together, and there is a lot of respect running both ways across the age divide. I've had several of the teens help me out with songs and I've pitched in to help with clean-ups and other responsibilities that normally fall on their shoulders. Their energy is infectious, and the adults I work with are stellar, as well. A good cross-section of recent seminary grads, seasoned pastors, and outdoors-y types. I feel like I am making friendships that will last a long, long time. I hope so.

Here's the last bit. So part of my task in preparing for this gig was to write the conference theme song, and I did. It ends with the proclamation, "Massanetta, you've got reasons to believe!" which is greeted by an enthusiastic cheer by the Enablers (again, very supportive). But the other morning, between conferences, I walked through the lobby of the lodge where I'm staying and was serenaded by Enablers and staff, singing (to the tune of the theme song), "Massanetta, you've got raisins on your knees!" (This was apparently composed by one of the Enablers while she was in the shower a couple mornings ago, and it has spread like any good meme does)

Tonight, at the kick-off of the new conference, as I reached the end of the theme song the first time through, I couldn't be completely sure... but I think I heard that being sung at me from both sides of the hall, where the Enablers stand. And from the back, where the adult leadeship sits.

It was hard to finish the song, because I was laughing pretty hard at that moment.

I am very glad I came here.