M-Fuge 2007 : Change Is Not Always For The Better

June 12, 2007 @ 12:48 am by Pressed

Note: This article is written from the perspective of the administration, planning, and organization of an M-Fuge trip.  I in no way want to diminish the impact that Fuge has on the lives of children and adults in the various cities. From the student perspective, M-Fuge is a quality, life changing camp. My issues fall specifically on the administration end of things. These are simply the things I deal with behind the scenes as a youth minister.

We have arrived at Nashville, TN for M-Fuge. For the first time in years (maybe even since M-Fuge started) they have decided to make some very drastic changes to the schedules and to the way Fuge works. Many of these changes have left seasoned youth leaders and many youth frustrated and confused.

I’ve been attending M-Fuge for 7 years. I’ve taken our youth to M-Fuge in Charleston, SC, Denver, CO, Nashville, TN, Mobile, AL, and we’ve even been to Riverside, CA. I’ve always said that M-Fuge was one of the greatest camps for us and I thought that would never change.  Unfortunately I started to run into problems last year. For the first time ever I had a problem with the camera guy in Mobile. You can read all about that in my article entitled : “It’s LifeWay’s Fault”

It’s our first day here and I’ve already had more problems in one day than I’ve had in the last 7 years combined. I’m not embellishing any of this at all, this is the truth.

Problem #1: Pre-Camp Registration and Fees - This year all of the money was due and a room list was due 14 days before we go to camp.  I have no problem with that.  However, if you didn’t turn it in on time LifeWay applies a $75 late fee.  This I have a problem with.  While there may be good intentions with this new rule, it turns out to be a fee that punishes churches who are trying to deal with the most fickle people group in the world - teens. They make the job of the Youth Minister harder, and then punish him for it when he can’t get the cooperation he needs.  Not every church can afford to send a $12,000 check when they are still collecting funds or when people may drop.  What happens if they don’t get it on time?  The church that already can’t afford the full amount gets stuck with an additional fee of $75.  I have kids dropping and adding all the way up to three days before we leave, so I can’t possibly collect all the money by 14 days in advance.

This year I added a few more students and waited for a confirmation letter in the mail to tell me how much we had left to pay.  I was told I would get an updated confirmation letter in the mail.  I waited until the due date and never received it. I think I should be able to charge LifeWay a $75 fee for not sending me a confirmation letter on time. Instead, I don’t get a letter, I have to call them to figure out how much we owe, and then I may get stuck with a $75 late fee.

The other problem is this non-refundable deposit business. February 1st is the deadline for the first $50 and if you drop after May 1st you get charged an additional $50. I have no problem with that. The explanation from M-Fuge for the fee is that they hire staff and make plans for people to come and then when they churches drop their spots it ends up costing Fuge money. My problem comes when I drop 2 spots and get charged the $50 deposit plus the $50 drop fee for each and then another church comes along and picks up my 2 spots. They pay the full price for those two spots even after I paid the $200 worth of fees. That is wrong. Fuge should refund the money if the spots fill up. They shouldn’t make fees on reservations that they fill.

Problem #2: Camp Registration - We arrived at M-Fuge at about 3:15 p.m. In all the material it says M-Fuge registration is open until 4:00 p.m. We ended up being one of the last groups to arrive and because of this my students were not given a fair chance at getting into the groups they really wanted because the Fuge staffers had already picked most of the groups and filled them up before we even registered. No one from our group was even considered for Peer ministry because they already had 30 people signed up, they were only taking 18, and basically they had already picked them. If you are going to have a registration open for a certain time period, then everyone in that time who comes in should have a fair chance at each of the track groups. There was nothing in the material about this being a first come first served deal. It is unfortunate that many of my students were cheated out of a fair chance to get into some of the groups that they wanted.

Problem #3: Housing - This is not the fault of M-Fuge, but it has made the day more frustrating. We were thrown into the “overflow” dorms. This was actually a good thing in my mind because that means we got to go to the brand new dorms that have suites and bathrooms per two rooms. Unfortunately its in a building that is far away, none of the beds or the rooms were put together, everything is in disarray and there is no toilet paper. There is no one working downstairs in the dorms so there is no way of getting anything fixed. There is an alarm going off in our dorm floor that has been going off since 5:00 p.m. It is 1:17 a.m. right now and it is still going off. I’ve called security and they can’t get it to turn off. So all of my boys have to try to sleep tonight with this constant, high pitched alarm.

Problem #4: Overly Obsessive Control Over Video - This problem started last year, as noted above, but is worse this year. M-Fuge is no longer allowing anyone to bring video cameras or regular cameras into the theater during worship or celebration times. The explanation is that the movies they show and the things on the stage are copyrighted. By who you ask? None other than LifeWay “The Cooperation”. When it used to be LifeWay “The Ministry” we were able to make videos for our church to see. We do a presentation for our church because they provide the funding for these trips and therefore they deserve to see what we do at Fuge. I don’t have a problem with not taping copyrighted stuff. If they don’t want the movies or the stage to be video taped, then fine. But now I can’t even tape our own kids. The church can’t see the faces of our students as they enjoy celebration times and as they worship. One of the most significant times during our Fuge experience can’t even be seen by the people who sent us here. It could be argued that we could just buy the Fuge DVD (which we do every year anyway), however the church is not interested in seeing a bunch of kids they don’t know. They want to see our kids, the kids they supported. As I’ve argued before, we are an SBC church who has always supported LifeWay which is an SBC agency meant to support and equip SBC churches. Now it seems that LifeWay is going to tighten the reigns, limit what the churches can do and in a sense punish the very people they were created to equip. This is wrong on so many different levels. It forces the staffers to be strict, which always comes across as arrogant and rude. It also makes LifeWay look like an organization that is more concerned about money than ministry… which as I’ve also pointed out, is becoming increasingly obvious in many of the things they have done.

Problem #5 : T-Shirts - Every year M-Fuge gives out shirts. They don’t give them away, we pay for them in our camp fees. You write down the shirt sizes you need and they give you the shirts. Every single year I’ve written down the shirt sizes we need and every year since I started M-Fuge 7 years ago we’ve had to exchange shirts because we received the wrong sizes. This happened again this year. We got an extra XL and not an XXL like we needed. I went to ask to exchange a shirt and guess what? The new policy this year is they can’t exchange shirts. Due to the way they do inventory, you get what you get. Doesn’t matter if they mess it up or if you mess it up… your stuck. So I asked the question, “If everyone in our group is supposed to wear these shirts and I have one student who can’t fit in the shirt because they have the wrong size, you are telling me that they just have to stick out and feel out of place because you can’t exchange the shirt?” The answer was, yes. So now M-Fuge is a camp that cares more about inventory than about the heart of a student. A student who had to pay $295 to come to camp and to get a shirt now has to feel bad about themselves because they can’t wear the shirt that everyone else has on.   It makes me sad that LifeWay is making changes that force staffers to be more concerned about product rather than people.

The first mistake LifeWay made this year was implementing too much change at once. Instead of gradual change they just piled it all on at one time. The second problem is that they didn’t communicate the changes to the leaders of church groups before we came to camp. The third thing is I believe that LifeWay is starting to alienate and distance itself from its own SBC churches. Three, Four, or Five years ago we never would have had problems like this. These changes seem to me to be less about making M-Fuge better for the people and more about making it better for the product and profit. That is the image they are making for themselves.

This very well could be the last M-Fuge I attend.

**UPDATE** It’s 6:10 a.m. the next morning. The fire alarm is still going off in our hall way. I have had about 2 and 1/2 hours of sleep.

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