Why Camp?
We do so many things as a church and I think it is important to answer a single question with everything we do. Why? Why this or that program? Why that… fill in the blank. Camp is a huge investment for our church, like VBS it pulls a lot of resources from our church, finite resources. So here is why I continue to encourage and invest in camp. Here is why I will sit on a bus for hours with students:
Reason 1: Rest. Even Jesus and the disciples needed it. Jesus instructs his disciples to get away and rest in Mark 6:30-33, “30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.” (ESV)
The heart and soul of our students are under near constant assault in the world. This isn’t really a new thing; it has taken new forms and we have invited the assault into our homes in ways that are new. But God’s people have always been under attack, just go back to Genesis 3. Our kids and students will have to withstand a great many forms of attack from the enemy. Camp gives them isolation and spiritual protection to truly rest spiritually.
This is part of why I have always taken phones for at least part of camp. It prevents students from bring the onslaught of the enemy into camp with them. It is why more and more Christian camps are barring phones for students completely. You should see the change when students are resting in the grace and peace of God at camp. It is crazy. It is something we should all carve out for ourselves, and I certainly believe that the opportunity for peace and rest for our students is worth the cost we pay and that families give up.
Reason 2: Witness. Acts 2 shares an excellent picture of the ideal for every church. The chapter ends, “46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (ESV) There is something very powerful about daily worshipping together, sharing meals, and fellowshipping with glad and generous hearts. This is something else that happens at camp.
Students slow down, they share meals together, the fellowship and have real and intense conversations. They take care of one another, they cry together, and most of all they worship together. It is great for our students who are already believers, it is a supernatural experience. It is also great for students who are not believers. Part of the reason so many have given their lives to Christ at camps in the last 50+ years is because at camps the church acts like the church. Students who are lost can witness the ideal and truly see Christ in the church.
Reason 3: Fellowship. I’ve alluded to this already, but one of the most powerful aspects of camp is the fellowship. Students experience community in a way that is difficult at home. They live daily with the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. John 17:22-23 says, “22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (ESV) This is a picture of true fellowship. Fellowship must first and foremost be centered on Christ. It is something that we are brought into by Christ not something we do with Christ. We can only have true fellowship with each other through our fellowship with God which comes through Jesus.
While we are away, students are better about focusing on their fellowship with Christ and in doing so they also have true fellowship with one another. They end up growing closer to Christ and to each other because there is space for fellowship with Christ.
Often people will speak of the camp high as a weakness of camp, but I don’t see it that way. I see our discipleship at home as the weakness. Students, parents, and our student ministry must choose the same fellowship at home. They, we… I… I must choose rest when I can, I must choose, witness, and I have to choose fellowship. Only when we make the choice to be fully surrendered, to live daily as disciples and disciple-makers can the camp high problem be solved. Camp high is not a camp problem, it is a home problem.
Pray for our students this week at camp and join with me in choosing to live in fellowship at home.
