Leadership 2: DIRECT MINISTRY- CAMPING

INTRODUCTION

“Camp wakes young people up to see Christ in a way they might not see him back at home. And we believe if our friends see Christ clearly, they will find him hard to resist.”

Camps are one tool we use to help us fulfill our mission of introducing young people to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith. Camps are effective because they build on the relationships leaders have with students already. Summer camps especially provide momentum for the upcoming school year and help leaders and students have deeper conversations about Jesus and faith.

As a staff person you are asked to plan and execute an engaging camp ministry in various forms for the ministry and area where you work.

Evidence of staff demonstrating this objective looks like:

Understand the “Why’s” of Young Life camp
Work with a team to plan, budget and execute YL camp
Has a camp promotion plan for the area
Has a school year camp strategy that involves the ministry and/or area team.
Has a camp-follow up plan for discipleship after weekend and summer camps.
Understands the roles of Young Life camp
Serves as a cabin leader for their ministry camp
Serves in an Assignment Team role at another camp in the summer
Uses Kids Known By Name list and Matthew 9:38 Lists to pray for and invite campers, leaders, work crew, assignment team and adult guests to camp.

The WHY's OF CAMPING

Why do camp? - Sometimes it's hard for kids to find focus in the chaos of daily living. Teachers, parents, friends, advertisers, and media demand their attention. We believe it's good for young people to get away from their routine so they can hear the good news about Jesus Christ in an environment removed from distractions, where every element is strategically planned to reflect and proclaim, verbally and non-verbally, the Good News. Camp is intentionally focused on leaders’ sharing the experience alongside kids, and a week of camp can create stronger bonds than a year of regular YL Clubs. A week of camp provides momentum and excitement for the school year to come.

Leader-driven camping - Leaders bring students to camp from their local areas and lead them through the fun, adventure and deeper conversations about Jesus through the week. The camp week sets leaders up to continue these friendships with students in the year to come. Everything at camp is planned with the question of how this sets the leader up to drive the energy level and lead their cabin through the week. Leaders serve the campers in their cabins and participate alongside the campers in all activities of the week. Shared experiences help create great discussion times and build friendships. A leader’s focus at camp is serving their campers, the A-Team at camp is focused on serving leaders to help them best serve campers.

Why the talk sequence? Following a message sequence provides a sense of direction as we present the Gospel to young people and gives campers a chance to process each talk in a way that is relevant to their lives. The message sequence helps ensure the entire Gospel will be communicated over a fixed period of time, but in individual talks that give campers a chance to digest each aspect. We introduce campers to the person of Jesus, and talks focus on Jesus and the good news He brings to each of our lives. We believe that before anyone is willing to change, they must see a need to change. We discuss sin in a way that students understand and connect, and connect sin with the needs they recognize in their lives. We ask them to make a decision about what they have heard throughout the week.

Why do we do surprises? By surprising kids, we show them we are thinking of them in extra special ways and hopefully, that will encourage trust to better process the Gospel. A ‘wow’ to something external can lead to a ‘wow’ internally.

Why do we not share the schedule with campers? When kids don’t know the schedule, they look to their leader for guidance. Not knowing the schedule encourages letting go of control, trusting someone who cares for them and allows for the element of surprise during the week. We hope this transfers to trusting God who knows and cares for them.

Camp Activity Level - We do a high level of activity at the beginning of the week to build relationships and have kids follow leaders, as the gospel message deepens we have more time for one-on-one conversation and contemplation. This graph shows how that might look at a typical Young Life camp. WyldLife camp graphs would look different for the activity line. For WyldLife, activities are planned to engage all kids and not leave much free time. Calmer activities help kids re-energize, but group activities help them stay connected.

The ROLES OF CAMP

Assigned Team

To plan, organize and run a great week of camp that allows Cabin Leaders to experience camp with their cabins and go deeper in relationships and conversations with kids about Jesus.

Country director

Works in the camp planning stages with the Camp Director to ensure that the camp meets the needs of the local ministries. Approves the Camp Speaker and schedule for camp. During camp meets daily with the Camp Director. Evaluates camp with the field ministry team after camp.

CAMP director

Coordinates planning of camp with the A-Team and other logistics and activities prior to camp. During camp runs the A-Team meetings, checks in daily with key A-Team members and provides any needed support during camp.

PROGRAM TEAM

To create fun, adventure and laughter for students that helps break down barriers to hear the gospel. Activities are closely matched with the speaker’s message for the day to subtly reinforce the message of the talks. They control the energy of camp. They bring the energy up or lower the level of energy depending on the moment.

Head LEader

To serve and support leaders in their ministry to kids; coordinate details related to the administrative aspects of the camp week; and facilitate secondary events related to Gospel Proclamation.

Speaker

The Camp Speaker will prepare and deliver club talks that clearly and effectively proclaim the Gospel. Their primary goal is to do it in such a way that they set up leaders to go deep with kids, they are not the primary, but the secondary source of explaining the Gospel to kids.

SUMMER STAFF/ work crew boss

Leads the team of volunteers serving at camp. Disciples and helps volunteers grow spiritually through this week of serving together. This person (team) works to bring fun, laughter, hard work and spiritual challenge to the team serving for the week.

Cabin leader

To lead their young friends through an incredible week of camp and fun as they experience the week together, live and eat together, and the leader can walk them deeper into conversations processing what the talks are about.

Summer Staff/Work Crew

A discipleship opportunity for students who’ve already been to camp a number of times, area leaders who don’t have kids at camp or potential leaders. This crew helps set up and clean up and run activities at camp that again allows leaders to lead their cabins through camp.

OUtreach CAMPING and Discipleship Camping

When we talk about camp we are generally talking about an “outreach” camp, meaning that we plan our activities and talks for the camper who is spiritually unconvinced, or even uninterested. What will help us break down the walls of that student’s heart to help them hear and experience Jesus’ love at camp? There is always a place for our students who are spiritually convinced at camp as well. We want them to participate in camp as campers at least once, and encourage them to come as campers a second or third time when they can bring some of their spiritually unconvinced friends. Camp can be a great place for discipleship when we have work crew serving at camp. Our discipleship students can serve on the work crew and have special devotional times and conversations with their work crew boss about how Jesus has called us to serve others and give our lives away.

Creating special discipleship camping experiences for students who are part of our campaigners groups can be a great opportunity for growth as well. These can be weekend camps during the school year and camps during the summer. This could even be taking discipleship students from your area to serve together on work crew at another camp someplace else. What are the next steps in faith you want to help your discipleship students take? Where are they now and what can we do to help them think about how they live their faith each day?

REgional Camping Expectations

Because we know camp is such a powerful tool to help introduce students to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith, we expect each ministry to use this tool during the school year and in the summer.

As a staff person you are expected to serve at summer camp as a cabin leader with the students you lead in your local ministry. You are also expected to serve at one or two other camps during the summer as part of the Assignment Team. These assignments will come through your Area Director and Country Director.

Each ministry is also encouraged to have one outreach weekend camp during the school year and one discipleship weekend camp. These weekends can be done locally with just a small group of 15 students. They can be done by area or even an all-country weekend for your ministry age group. How can you get students and leaders away for a weekend to have fun, deepen relationships and help them learn more about who Jesus is?

WHO TO INVITE TO CAMP AND HOW

It takes a lot of intentional thought and work by you and your team to get everyone to camp. Camp costs money, families need to plan for the cost of camp. Leaders may need to take time off of work to participate. We often want pastors and other key adults in our communities to “come and see” what camp looks like. Just like we intentionally plan each day and activity at camp, we want to intentionally pray about and think through who we should invite to camp.

Here is where your Kids Known By Name list and Matthew 9:38 List come in handy. Stop for a minute and pull out your lists!

Who are the students you know who you would like to invite to camp this summer? Pause and make a list of all of those students. Make sure that you are thinking specifically about new kids and kids who have not yet been to camp.
Who are your discipleship students who could serve as part of Work Crew or Summer Staff this year? Maybe you have some possible future-leaders who you would like to introduce to Young Life Camp. Work Crew and Summer Staff are great ways for them to get to know Young Life and for you to get to know them more. Who is on your Matthew 9:38 List? Which Campaigner kids could come and serve this year?
Who could serve as a leader this summer at camp? Maybe you have some young leaders and you can invite someone to be a junior leader and partner with you or another experienced cabin leader?
Which adults in your community should come to camp to understand Young Life more? Maybe your pastor or priest? Maybe a donor? Maybe some Christian parents who could become Action Team Members for you? When people get to experience Young Life and see how it is impacting kids’ lives, they often get even more excited about being involved. Who do you need to invite this year?

The first step is making your list and thinking through this. The second step is doing this same exercise with your ministry team. Make a list of everyone’s names for each category. Pray for those names – commit as a team to pray weekly for these names. Identify which leader is going to invite each person to camp. Remember, it takes multiple invitations to get a commitment! Work on a plan with your leaders to personally and individually invite each person on the list. Make sure to schedule in time during your team meetings to check in with everyone on how they are doing inviting people. Team accountability helps us all! If you’re inviting kids to WyldLife camp, be sure to include contacting the parents as part of the invitation process.

When should you start this process? As soon as we have the camp dates and costs is a great rule – but definitely by December or January we want to be actively working on our lists of people and starting to invite them.

CAMP FOLLOW UP: DIscipleship starts right away

We prepare a lot and pray a lot for camp and spend months getting all the details ready for an incredible week. We pray this week will have an eternal impact on kids’ lives – and because we pray with expectation, we need to have a plan ready for how we will follow up with kids who take steps of faith at camp.

Camp follow up activities are fun and important, but they are not the MOST important follow up to plan before we go to camp. We know that the first month to six weeks after a camper takes a step of faith are really important to help them grow in their new faith. How will you and your team follow up with kids who make decisions right after camp?

The first step is that every leader should know at camp (thanks to one-on-ones on the last day!) which kids in their cabin have taken steps of faith. We have “next step” walks and ways for kids to process that at camp. Make sure you as a team leader know who has taken steps of faith so that leaders and the area team can follow up with those kids.

Do you have resources you can give kids to walk through with their leaders for individual or small group discipleship times?
Can you and your team rotate who will run a weekly discipleship group for the rest of the summer? Can you encourage kids to read through Mark and each week look at a short passage from Mark together as a group?

We know summer is a busy time and it is important for you to have some time off as well. Planning for discipleship to start right after camp does not mean you can’t have a holiday – it just means we plan better in advance so each leader and team member has some time off, and kids who are new believers have the support they need in this critical time.

You can check out some of Young Life’s Discipleship Resources here:

Young Life's Discipleship Resources

ACCOUNTABILITY

Do you have a list of students you want to invite to camp this summer? Do you have a list of adults you want to invite to be adult guests at camp this summer? Do you have discipleship students who you want to invite to be on work crew/summer staff this summer? HAVE
Are you actively praying over your lists of names and personally talking with each person individually to invite them to join you at camp this summer? ACTIVE
Are you sharing your lists with everyone on your ministry team? Are you all sharing who is on your list and who you are inviting to camp? Does everyone on your team feel the responsibility to be inviting campers, work crew and adult guests to camp? SHARED
Are more first-time campers signing up for camp? Are more students signing up to be on work crew or adult guests agreeing to visit camp? GROWING

ACTION STEPS

Make your lists of campers, leaders, work crew/summer staff and adult guests who you want to invite to camp this summer and come prepared to discuss them with your trainer and AD.
Plan a time to create these lists with your team and discuss who will follow up, how we will pray and when we will check in on this.
Come prepared to your training time to discuss what you currently do in your ministry for school-year camping. Do you have a discipleship weekend? An outreach weekend camp? What are the obstacles you face? Brainstorm with your trainer and then AD what is one step you can take this next year to improve your school-year camping.
Come ready to discuss:

What did you do last year for discipleship follow up after summer camp last year?
What did you do for discipleship follow up after your last outreach weekend camp?

Create a plan for discipleship follow up right after camp that you and your team could implement. Bring your plan to your next training and you will discuss it with your trainer.

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