Leading to Camp: Part 1 - The Burden of Camp

The Burden of Camp

Logistical Liabilities

Who doesn’t love summer camp! Some of the very best memories in life are made there. It’s no wonder that there are so many young adults who work as virtual slave labor every summer at camp and conference centers around the country. It’s also no wonder that there are people who continue to throw themselves so willingly into student ministry. But how many people actually understand what they’re getting into when they sign up to serve young people in the church? And who really knows what they’re taking on when they say, “Sure, I’ll take them to camp!” The fun you remember as a young person becomes a sizable weight to carry as an adult.

Camp is a lot. If you’ve been on the inside of summer camp you know its realities: budgets and expenses, church coordination, registration forms, volunteer recruitment, liability releases, bed assignments, t-shirt sizes, transportation, trails, first aid, studies, printing, gear, clothes, tools, props, musicians, A/V, and more…all to be moved and managed and massaged into a workable, survivable, and accountable event. You need to get everyone there and also get them back safely. That is a lot. And that’s ministry.

Apostolic Ministry

I personally didn’t go to seminary or sign on to youth work because I loved administration. I was at that time looking forward to a more apostolic kind of ministry. Unfortunately I was not well acquainted with apostolic ministry! If I had paid any attention at all to what the Apostle Paul indicated he spent his time doing I might have been a tad more realistic. There’s not so much one text that says it all but tell me if these aspects of Paul’s ministry aren’t familiar to you: preaching (Acts 17:2-3), teaching (Acts 18:11), letter writing (Romans 1:1, 7), mediation (Philippians 4:2-3), counseling (1 Thessalonians 5:14), travel (Acts 16:9-10), public debate (Acts 17:17), financial administration (2 Corinthians 8:1-5), trip organization (Acts 15:36), church planting (Acts 14:23), church administration (Titus 1:5), worship preparation (1 Corinthians 14:26), training new employees (Acts 16:1-4), working a second job (Acts 18:3-4), preparing reports for supervisors (Acts 15:2-4), appearing in court (Acts 25:10-11), healing the sick (Acts 28:8-9), attending prayer meeting (Acts 16:13)… we could go on and on. The combination of the volume, complexity, and disjointed nature of his work would probably reduce many of us to a fetal position.

What’s more, the circumstances in which he operated were hardly ideal. It wasn’t just the volume of work, but the complications and difficulty in which he was asked to do it. He faced false accusations, oppositions, defectors, muckrakers, usurpers, abandoners, imprisonment, shackling, shipwrecks, near drowning, beatings, robbings, sleep loss, hunger, cold, thirst, nakedness, you name it… And with all these he had a deep concern for ALL the church (2 Cor 11:22-33).

The Goal of Camp Administration

The point is this: Ministry is hard. But we do the hard work because we love the Kingdom of God and because we serve a Great King. Don’t forget it.

When you’re first leading a group to a camp, it seems a miracle to even get out of the church parking lot with most of the kids. After a few similar trips, the whole thing calms down and becomes more intuitive. Veteran experience is hard won and invaluable. Familiarity, administrative competence and predictable routines in the annual calendar make getting everyone there easier. But there’s one thing a youth leader has to fight to remember: summer camp must always be more than an administrative project. Though circumstances may suggest otherwise, you weren’t called as a travel agent or tour guide. The goal of summer camp can never be allowed to become something less than tending and feeding the sheep. When you drift from that purpose, it’s the shepherd who has lost his own way.

Serving the families of your church through summer camp demands that you discipline yourself to serve each individual as well as the whole. And that starts well before the trip. How ought a shepherd lead in leading up to camp? In the next post I’m going to suggest three elements of preparation that will posture expectations, comfort parents, and bless your groups as a whole.  In the mean time, check out this administrative guide getting to camp.