Before reading this post it will be a good idea to read the book, "You Lost Me," by David Kinnaman or listen to our book review via podcast.
Most of my ministry training has been through working at Youth Camps. The one question that has plagued my mind the last few years is, "Why do students have a hard time staying with there commitment to Christ?" I generally, lead towards the conclusion that the church was not doing a great job discipling these students who committed there life to Christ during a camp or convention program. Now I am thinking, "what if the camps/conventions are the culprit?"
The typical outline for camp/conventions when it comes to the message is: 1.) Sin, bondage, hell 2.) Jesus, freedom, salvation 3.) Growth, discipleship. In a way, most youth camps and/or conventions follow a subtle pattern to the preaching during the Great Awakenings. You start heavy with the sin. hell preaching then towards the end talk about salvation and people will flock with tears to the alter and repent from there sinful life. Conventions and camps do the same thing, some camps are identical to the Great Awakenings pattern while others try to find a healthy balance between the sin and salvation.
The issue that all this boils down to is Guilt. Students may screw up and because of what they learn from these establishments is that they are sinners which makes them feel guilty for what they have done. Instead of asking for forgiveness and grace, they hold on to that guilt and feel like they let God down and that He is disappointed in them. They then carry this lie with them until the next camp/convention where they can finally let the guilt go. However, once they hit that ripe old age of 18, they carry the guilt with them and never have the opportunity to lay it down at the alter.
I would love to hear out readers reactions to this post or any thoughts you have about why young adults are leaving the Church.
Hey! I would say a lot of campers come with guilt. Most of them know that their situation is pretty dire. Most counselors don't find out about their situation until the 3rd or 4th day. It is usually at camp they find someone to listen. The only way I see these camps causing teens to leave the church is that they recieve intense instruction, care, and concern for one week and find that when they go home that disappears. Camp is the only place that they feel supported in their Christian walk. How do we keep discipleship going when students leave camp?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response Jillian. I agree with you about students only finding someone to listen to them is a staff member or counselor at camp. the problem I ran into is that how can a counselor and/or staff member help a student with growth? I know camp marengo always give the churches a list of all the campers who came to camp outlining the decisions they made and any other special request the campers made. Some of the problems is that some churches that only have one person on staff, does not seem to follow up with the students. For me, working at Camp Marengo's Performing Arts Camp. It is easy for me to help with discipleship since i only have 15 students to follow-up with. But it would be impossible for me to follow-up with 800+ students. What are some ideas for staff members/counselors to help with growth?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.outofur.com/archives/2011/12/did_youth_minis.html http://www.outofur.com/archives/2011/12/did_youth_minis_1.html A couple of quick reads
ReplyDeleteScott, I think that as a former counselor for Marengo and a summer staff at an organization that does adventure trips with students in my mind there has to begin with a mind shift of all staff/counselors to follow up with those students they were lead to the most. From my sister and the girls and the respect they have for you it is very apparent how much you invest in your PAC kids. It is hard to follow up with 800+ students, but then again you aren't getting to know every student every week on that personal level. I think as a staff/counselor one should follow up periodically with those kids whom they felt God pulling them to the most that particular week(s) and those who didn't seem to talk much to anyone even and while doing so also encourage that student to stay involved in church and youth group and to find a mentor in the church if possible. Maybe that is not entirely realistic but we had many conversations surrounding this exact topic this summer with my fellow staff at YD Adventures and that is the conclusion that a few of us came to. I can name so many counselors that I have seen go through the cycle of Marengo's counselors that go, counsel, and then forget about their kids and never follow up. More encouragement of following up on students by the counselors to encourage these young followers of Christ needs to be emphasized.
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