groundZero's blog

We knew this was going to happen- it happens every summer. It seems as the good weather comes- the teenagers go, and as the warm weather leaves- the teenagers arrive. When speaking to the core about the upcoming summer sludge we were about to hit, I used the illustration of arriving at Narraganset beach on a hot summer day in July. Although the day is hot and it has been summer for some time any good Rhode Islander knows that the ocean is as cold as the arctic circle.

Here we are faced with a choice:

Do we enter the water slowly and let our body adjust to the water little by little or do we run headlong into the waves accepting the frigid waters all at once?  I cannot speak for the female species for their ways are strange to me, but as for any man the choice is an obvious full sprint towards the ocean gaining as much speed as possible until the weight of the water makes it no longer possible to continue running.

Through the past two series (SWITCH & Summer Love) we have purposefully been running towards the summer at full speed knowing that as soon as we hit it our advancing would begin to slow for a season. So here we are, waste deep in summer, beginning to slow, this is an unavoidable aspect of youth ministry it seems. As I was thinking about how to overcome Summer Sludge I realized that anyone who would try to walk while being waste deep in the ocean obviously isn’t taking advantage of their surroundings- why would you walk when you could much more easily swim?

Here’s what I’m trying to say: groundZero is in danger of slowing down or letting up just because the environment has changed for the short season of summer. Trying to do groundZero as usual during the summer would be as useless as someone trying to wade deeper and deeper into the ocean when they could simply begin to swim.

So that is what we are going to do, we are going to switch gZ up for the next 2 months. We are going to take advantage of the new enviornment of summer, and all it has to offer. So let’s party. Im talking Bonfires, Manhunt, A 5k Run, the return of groundZero Games? I’m up for anything- so if you’ve got any suggestions, send them over. Let’s use this summer to continue advancing, and if we can’t keep walking, well learn to swim.