Make Camping a Tool

 

When I go into the auto shop at our camp, I am always amazed at how the mechanics there can skillfully use the tools at their disposal. When it comes to doing the impossible, they smile and get all excited about their latest purchase and the chance they will have to accomplish a difficult task with relative ease. It is even more impressive if I have been working on a problem for some time, and they come in when I am bloody-knuckled and on the edge of despair; they walk to their tool box, pick up a new tool, and walk over and solve my problem.

It is equally impressive watching mechanics talk to the Snap On (Tool Company) representative. Their discussion revolves around the latest and greatest in tools that can solve a host of problems. As they talk, the adrenaline flows, the eyes widen, and the disaster stories of unsuccessful attempts to fix the problem without this tool flow like water over Niagara.

Those who understand Christian camping get excited, just like our mechanic friends do, over the tool of camping and what it can do in the body of believers at a local church. Camping is not the church, but a tool in the hand of the church. Camps make some of the jobs that the local church is working on easier to accomplish.

Camps are ideal places to hear God's voice apart from the normal distractions. Camps foster a safe, yet challenging environment that forces young people out of their normal comfort zones. Camping is conducive to building relationships, especially significant adult relationships, that yield great results in understanding and responding to both God and man.

When I was a leader of a youth group in the Chicagoland area, I always attended camp with my students. In fact, the camping experience was so powerful that I made it a requirement for all of my leaders to go to camp as a counselor, and bring the students from their small groups with them.

Here is how it worked. I would ask about five students in my group to come to camp and invite five of their non-Christian friends from school to join them. I would then go to each of their invited friends' homes and talk to the parents about camp and the experience we would have. I would invite the parents to check me out, to check out our church, and to check out the camp.

We would have contests in our club to help young people become excited about bringing kids to camp. We would begin talking about it in January and not stop until the bus left. We would arrange transportation, finances (if necessary), and prayer groups from church. We would do whatever it took to get our clubbers involved in the evangelism process.

When the time came for camp, we would go to camp together. (Usually I was the bus driver!) At camp we swam, rode horses, rafted, water-skied, laughed, cried, sat around campfires, and

heard God's Word taught. Each night I gave a wrap-up devotional and made a point to talk with each one of my boys concerning his personal salvation. As I developed a relationship with these boys, they fell in love with God and me. I had the privilege of leading them to the throne of God, taking them home, and having them begin to attend our youth club on a regular basis. I was able to follow up after camp with the families and tell them about our experience in person, while, once again, inviting them to our church or to special club nights designed to reach parents.

In all of this, I had a "sidekick," a teenage leader-in-training, by my side. I was able to infuse both the excitement of being used by God and the proper attitudes. I was able to disciple with my assistant leader. I was able to excite my clubbers about their role in evangelism, and I was able to see our club grow and reach out to parents.

It is sad to say that today the tool of Christian camping is not well used. There are few who are willing to put in the effort to use camping to its maximum potential. There is less and less involvement with adults from church, and more and more hiring of college-aged young people to do work that they are least qualified to do.

It is my hope and prayer that we can pick up, dust off, and begin to use the tool of Christian camping, once again, to its maximum. It is time for church leaders to once again include Christian camping as an integral part of their ministry instead of an afterthought. It is time for churches to "own" the camping experience, instead of farming it off to the young and willing.

Silver Birch Ranch will be hosting a special day for any pastor or youth worker who would like to come (for no charge) and discuss how to maximize the use of Christian camping in his/her church. On March 6-7, 2009, you are invited for supper and a special evening session. Then, the next morning, we will have some silent and solitude time until lunch. After lunch we will have a debriefing, and you will be welcome to return home, refreshed, renewed, and energized.

If this date does not work in your schedule, I encourage you to call me, Dave Wager, at 715.484.2742 x233, and arrange a private meeting to discuss how your church would benefit from using the tool of camping to its maximum.

The local church needs to take advantage of this powerful tool. I look forward to the dialogue.

(Comments/Questions: dave.wager@silverbirchranch.org)