I recently attended a church camp as a leader with my youth group. I grew up in this youth group, and as I have graduated and continued into college, I have stayed involved with it. As a student, I only attended church camp once. It was the summer between my junior and senior years. While I was there, I never had this huge "come to Jesus" moment; I never felt like a huge change needed to happen or anything along those lines. However, I developed relationships with the people who also went and I became much closer to those who I was in the youth group with. There is just something about camp that really brings everyone together, and I never realized what it was until this past week when I went as a leader.
Attending camp as a leader was a completely different experience than attending it as a student. For example, I had nap time—what I would have given for nap time that summer of my junior year! On a more serious note, as a leader, you lead students to each other and to God. It is a critical part of your role to pray for them, encourage them, and guide them to a solid foundation of relationships with God, friends, and leaders.
As a student, I was always intimidated by altar calls. I was hesitant to go to the front and pray when I could just as easily pray from my seat. I legitimately would not under any circumstances pray with another person. It made me uncomfortable because I did not feel confident at all in what I was doing. I was not raised in a church that did altar calls and laid hands on people or prayed over them. We stood, sat, and bowed our heads when we were told.
My sophomore year I began attending an Assemblies of God Church, which did all of these things. I quickly had to become comfortable with this environment. By that summer of my junior year, I finally understood why people go to the front for altar calls (although I still don't always feel comfortable with it). I finally understood why we pray over people and encourage them and spend this time in the altar. I learned all of these things that summer at church camp.
When I became a leader in my youth group, I was pushed out of my comfort zone when I began to pray over people. This eventually led me to the realization of why everyone is brought together as a family during youth camp.
When people gather and pray for, with, and over one another, a bond is created. A family is formed.
These are the moments that matter.
I stood at the front of the sanctuary, amazed as I watched junior sigh students pray over sigh school students and vice versa. I watched students pursuing after God and encouraging their peers to do the same. A very special bond is formed in those altars when students of all ages begin to pursue God.
So while camp is fun with the endless hours of volleyball, dodgeball, and other games, the moments that matter and bring a youth group together are those moments in the altar. The moments that matter are the ones where 900 students come together to pursue God. The moments that matter are when the 44 students from your church—some that met for the first time Monday morning—begin to pray for each other and encourage one another.
So as I stood at the front of that sanctuary, I stood amazed with the realization that God brought them all together.
As a leader at youth camp, I realized that the moments that really matter are the ones in which God's presence is working to bring together a group of people all in his name.
