I’m teaching a seminary class on camps this January in Cuba, and part of the pre-class assignments for the students is to talk about their personal experiences as well as the experiences of others with camping as it relates to their spiritual life, their calling, and the commitment.
I’d love it if you could post a comment here or a post on your own blog that talks about this. I’ll be thinking about it a lot in the near future, and I’ll share with you my experiences as well. Here are a few questions that might get you thinking and posting:
- What was your experience as a camper like and how did that impact your life?
- What has been your experience as a leader with camps or retreats in youth ministry? Do you think they are a valuable experience for your students? Why or why not?
- Do you have a specific testimony of how God has worked in your life at a camp or retreat? Do you believe that the fact that it was at a camp or retreat influenced the experience that you had?
Some random thoughts…
- I spent my first summers as a Christian high school guy working on junior staff at a Christian camp. And coming from a nonChristian home, the sense of community with those other Christian guys was a huge deal for me, learning specifically about serving and Christian growth.
- One of our working principles was that you have more impact in a week of summer camp than a year of church. I don’t know where we got that though.
- Lately, I’m a bit concerned that some of us take the camp/retreat experience and build too much inclusion into it. But there are still so many great elements about camps and retreats.
Hey Tony…can you elaborate about your comment on “inclusion” in camps? Thanks for the comments.
I think sometimes our mentality as youthworkers about retreats is too weighted on the ‘this retreat is for you to: relax, introspect, hang with your friends, build deep relationshps, etc.’ - which are all definitely good things. My perspective is that retreats and camps should be providing experiences of rest, relationships, introspection, etc. with a definite focus on sending them back into the world to reach out, shape and impact a world that needs them. My concern is that perhaps a lot of retreats miss that final piece.
It would be a fun experiment to see what kinds of different service projects could get done on retreats - giving students experiences of going outside themselves.
Hope that makes more sense.
Tony…have you seen MFuge? It’s sort of a hybrid between a camp and a mission trip. I definitely think that in the overall scheme of the youth ministry program/calendar, we need to have both.
I also believe that at times, it’s okay to have a retreat for you. It is for sure that in our youth programs we do a lot only for us, but also, sometimes, “us time” is necessary.
I say that from a missionary’s perspective. As a person that is constantly thinking about how to minister more effectively, etc, I believe that time away from that type of thinking is beneficial. I don’t know. Maybe I’m letting my personal feelings get in the way.
Anyone else out there want to add to the discussion?
I haven’t seen MFuge, I will have to check that out.
That is some good feedback too from your perspective. Definitely important to keep context - like you and other people that are in another culture - in mind.
Fun discussion!
Here’s the site: http://www.lifeway.com/fuge/mfuge/index.asp