A few weeks ago, several of us got together to wait on God and brainstorm for a theme for Mission Adventures in 2012. This marks the one-millionth time I’ve done this. Okay, I’m lying when I say that, but we’ve been doing themes for so long that sometimes I need to remind myself why we’re doing this.

So as part of our discussion, I asked the assembled Theme Team™, “What’s the point of having a theme, anyway? Why are we doing this?” We went around the room and threw out ideas. Here’s a partial list of what was said:

A theme is like God speaking.
A theme makes it memorable.
A theme is current—it’s relevant.
A theme can help remind people of what God did on their Mission Adventures outreach.
It’s something they can take home with them.
It’s something our teams look forward to every year. They’re always asking us what the next one is going to be.
It’s something that we can all contribute to—it reminds all of us in the Network that we’re part of something bigger.
A theme makes every year special and unique.
The theme is just part of the magic—it’s part of the high-quality experience we produce for our teams.
It’s something that unifies us, and it’s something that kids from all over the continent and the world are experiencing.

What amazed me most was that as we talked about this, all of us recalled our first experiences with Mission Adventures. All of us could remember what our first theme was, and all of us remembered what God did and why it was important to us.

We are now knee-deep in producing the materials for the 2012 theme. I can’t help but pray for those who will experience The Basics. I’m praying that this theme will have a lasting impact in their lives and that they will be challenged to live lives that please God.