More Than a Story
|
Using biblical narratives to create life-changing summer themes
|
|
I was angry, and that's putting it mildly. We had just finished our five fall junior/senior high weekend retreats. We had nearly 3,000 campers and leaders participate in one of our biggest outreach events of the year. We had brought in two nationally known speakers, both of whom were very highly recommended, very funny, and extremely entertaining. Yet, I was furious with both of them.
|
|
Both of the speakers' styles consisted of using Scripture merely as occasional filler to bridge one humorous or thoughtful story to the next. One of the speakers didn't even bring a Bible on stage. Without a doubt our youth went away from these weekends entertained, yet with no biblical foundation to strengthen their walk. We had created a retreat spiritual-high atmosphere with absolutely no substance for the youth to fall back on when they got home.
|
|
I was perplexed at the speaker's lack of biblical content. I could only imagine that for them speaking preparation must have worked something like this. Step one: Think of a funny or emotional personal story. Step two: Open up a concordance and add a good tie-in verse. Step three: Go to the next story. While amazingly entertaining, it offered nothing to live life by, and nothing concrete to change lives. We had missed the mark with 3,000 souls in exchange for entertainment. I was crushed by the weight of that failure. I had dropped the ball.
|
Theme Connection
Weeks later, as my anger and disappointment stewed, it suddenly hit me. God's whisper pierced though my anger. My mind flashed back to racecars, movie studios, athletic events, and all the other fun themes my summer programs and retreats had focused on over the years.
|
|
We simply found something that we thought would be entertaining, made it our theme, and found biblical text to come alongside. We taught about the right things: God's grace, His love, and having the right kind of focus. We even picked great verses to memorize. But suddenly I realized that I was just as guilty as those two speakers were. My themes and the focus of our programs were a combination of entertainment and good verses, but were we teaching the Bible to these campers that so desperately need to learn of and grow to love God's Word?
|
Tell a Story
Story is so important in today's ministry; it is the key to any good message. There is a reason that the Bible is narrative. God didn't design the Scriptures with verse numbers in the text. We were teaching good things to our campers, but we were failing to tell them the stories God wanted them to hear.
|
|
My ego was shattered, but my mind was made up. We would never do themes the same way again. The theme would have to tie into a Biblical story. If we were not teaching a complete narrative as the basis of our theme, we wouldn't use it. But I faced an obstacle: How could we incorporate fun? Little did I know how easy it would be to take a complete biblical narrative and bring it to camp.
|
|
We started with David, one of my favorite biblical personalities. I knew that we couldn't just stick, "Trout Lake Camp Presents: The Life of David" on the cover of our summer brochure. We needed to develop an illusion.
|
Creative Juices
All themes are basically magic tricks at their core. It's the art of finding a way to get the audience to watch one hand while your other hand is doing something they didn't expect. We decided that our trick would be to take a safari, with events from David's life as the tour stops. We included safari hats, maps, and stories narrated by King David himself. Our "Adventure Tour" was simply a front to the life story of David that we were teaching.
|
|
Did it teach the biblical narrative? Yes. Did it entertain our campers? Indeed! But, this time we were doing things in the right order. A story from God's Word took primary importance. We taught a complete story, or at least as much as we could (we only had a week), and our campers went home excited about the Bible.
|
|
Now, we allow these themes to permeate everything we do. Every year, for instance, we use a completely different point system for our games that ties in with the biblical story. For example, David's men brought him water in 2 Samuel 23, so our points system was replaced by ounces of water in jars. At the end of the week, the campers offered their water to God, just as David had done in 2 Samuel.
|
Positive Feedback
Once we made this paradigm switch in our programming, not only have I simply felt better about what we were doing, but also I have also had the joy of talking to parents, campers, and staff who have noticed the change:
|
| • |
"Since she came home from camp, every time my daughter hears something about Paul in church or on the radio, her ears perk up; she can't get enough about him."--Parent
|
| • |
"My son came home actually interested in reading more about David." --Parent
|
| • |
"I want to live like Paul." --Camper
|
| • |
"Your biblical focus is outstanding, yet still fun." --Parent
|
| • |
"It amazes me year after year how fun you guys make the Bible." --Parent
|
| • |
"I was worried that learning about Paul for 10 weeks of chapel would get boring, but it was amazing that every speaker had a different take. I learned so much."--Counselor
|
| • |
"All of the kids that carpooled with us on the way home said that the Bible teaching times were their favorite part of camp. I don't know how you guys do it." --Parent
|
|
The Right Decision
When we first decided to make the scriptural narrative the focus of our themes, I was a bit worried. I worried that not only would this biblical focus be hard on us as programmers, but also that it might not be fun. As I look back at the last few summers, I am amazed at how far off I was. I can honestly say it has become easier to program with a "narrative" focus then it was to not have one, and it has had a profound affect on our programming.
The highlight of this change in our programming has been the realization that our campers are going home excited to pick up their Bible and read it--not because they want to look up some lone theme verse that's on their camp T-shirts, but because they want to read more about the amazing stories that are found there.
|
by James Rock
James is in his seventh year as program director at Trout Lake Camp and is active in the Minn-E-Dakotas Section leadership. A youth and CCCA events speaker and writer, he holds a master's degree in Christian education. E-mail him at jrock@tds.net.
This article first appeared in the March/April 2005 issue of InSite Magazine and is © 2005 by the Christian Camp and Conference Association (formerly CCI/USA).
|
 |