With the warming of temperatures, the ending of the school year and the beginning of summer, youth pastors enter the busiest time of year for their ministries. This season contains one of our biggest and most important events of the year: camp! Whether you attend YMLink on Mission, Fuge, Generate, Super Summer, Student Life or even your own, there are some important details to take care of to make the most of the week with your students.
FIRST, PREPARE
This step starts yesterday! At this point, many of you have already had signup deadlines. During the month of May, focus on completing all of the logistics for your camp. Research to see what is needed from your particular camp. Many will require specific transportation requirements for your students, child safety training for your chaperones and forms from all participants. Plan out the schedule for the week including departure and arrival times, travel stops and meals. Develop your Bible studies and church group devotions that you’re responsible for. If your camp offers a “free night,” make sure to have a plan for your students. Then, have a meeting for parents and participants. Go over the week, detail what will happen, pass out a packing list, lay out expectations, address concerns and specify rules. The meeting is also a great time to collect forms and final payments. In addition, set up a way to communicate to parents at camp. Send daily summaries, announcements, arrival times and updates. This will keep them in the loop.
NEXT, UTILIZE CHAPERONES
If you’re anything like me, your tendency is to try to do it all. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible with the busyness of camp. We need to rely on volunteers. So, recruit trustworthy and reliable adults. Have adults you know you can depend on to do what needs to be done. But also, assemble a team that relates well with students. Your chaperones will need to engage students throughout the week. Having people that connect well will be very beneficial. Then, assign particular tasks to your chaperones. For example, designate some for driving responsibilities, let the medical field chaperone handle medicines and first aid, have someone be the photographer. Additionally, something that has worked well for our ministry is assigning students to adults. These adults will make sure their group is present for everything, checks on them throughout the week, and prays for them. Then, you don’t have to keep up with every individual student.
FINALLY, SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY
Camp is an excellent time for you to connect with your students and get to know them better. As youth pastors, we see our students for a couple of hours a week at most. At camp, we get to see our students all day for an entire week, with limited distractions – for better or worse! Take advantage of that time. In order to do that, you cannot go into the week on an empty tank. Rest well in the days leading up to camp. You won’t sleep much at camp, so try to sleep well going into it. At camp, sit with students at meals, play cards with them at night, ask engaging questions, have fun with them, challenge them and go all out. Be present. Build community. Invest. Remember that attitude reflects leadership, so be positive and don’t complain. Everything is not going to go right or go the way you feel it should, but remain positive.
Life change truly happens at camp. And for us student pastors, it has the potential to be the best week of the year for our ministries. Let this summer’s camp be a catalyst for your ministry. May it stir a revival in our ministries and from our ministries. Build moments into movements.
Jon LaMarque serves as student pastor at Coosada Baptist Church, Coosada, Alabama.
