• THE BEST WAY TO INTRODUCE LOST STUDENTS TO CHRIST: Camps provide a unique 5-day “window” in which unsaved young people can be exposed to the claims of Christ! Think of it! Where else can I get that amount of time in that kind of spiritual environment to “show” an unsaved student what it is like to be part of the eternal family of Christ? They are surrounded by His love, His people, His Word! Hey, they come for the friends, the girls and the sports and recreation, but they could leave with the best friend of all, Jesus Christ!

• MY BEST SHOT AT STRENGTHENING CORE STUDENTS: Camps provide the best opportunity to deepen the spiritual walk of my “core students.” Teens are so distracted today with so many things tugging at their busy schedule...my kids have palm pilots now, for crying out loud! Camp is my best shot at getting their undistracted attention for at least a week! During camp, I spend time with my campers re-enforcing their love for Christ.

• MY BEST (if not only) HOPE OF BUILDING UNITY: Camps do wonders for the unity of my student group!  Only mission trips exceed the bonding effect of camp, and it is usually more costly to get ALL my students to participate in a mission trip (plus the focus is on others’ needs, not our needs) so that leaves camp as my best opportunity to spend a week building the loyalty, togetherness, and focus of my ENTIRE youth group!

• MY BEST TIME OF THE YEAR TO PREPARE MY STUDENTS FOR THE UPCOMING SCHOOL YEAR:

Camps help me focus my students both on their commitment to Christ AND on our purpose as a youth group...to glorify Christ by reaching our unsaved friends at school. It is my best time for my group to regain focus before school begins again and we are back into the heavy school-year schedule with plays, sports, clubs, etc. It is my favorite time to ask, “Okay gang, where are we going this year? What do we want Christ to do among us?”

People want to be part of exciting things! So my job as the youth leader is to make camp IN, happening, exciting, the place to be! I already know that my students are going to have a blast at camp, so that ought to be easy, right?  Not with the ones who need it most! So, I can’t depend solely on the usual ways to communicate camp—the posters, videos, and announcements. I’m going to have to engage in “guerilla warfare” against Satan to enlist my students, because HE knows as well as I do how important this single week of the year will be for many of them. The regular promotional efforts will just not cut it—these methods are not enough to convince my “uncommitted” students to risk a week of their lives on an “iffy” thing, or convince them that camp is really that important to THEM, not just the youth group at large!

1. I personally enlist key students to pre-register for camp.

Since teens are very relationship-oriented, they will feel a lot more secure about going to some event if they know that other students are going. So, I always sit down with certain key leaders and ask them to pre-register, because—as I explain to them—they could be indirectly responsible for some other student (s) attending the camp whose lives will be forever change for the Kingdom! Only God knows how they can use their influence for Christ to impact the Kingdom. This is a “stewardship of influence” issue which I bring to their attention. If they know they are going to camp anyway, then why not use their influence for Christ by pre-registering, and thus encouraging others to do the same?

I chose to make student’s eternal destiny—not human deadlines—my foremost priority! Therefore I have never told a student he could not come to camp if I could humanly make it possible for him or her to attend, even if he missed every deadline. However, I also instituted a series of “graduated” payment deadlines that made camp less expensive for those who paid on time. I reward “responsible students” without eliminating “tardy” students!

I could tell you many stories of “last minute campers” whose lives were forever changed...and who went on to become “life changers” in God’s Kingdom. I wouldn’t trade one of those kids for even one story about how I taught some student a lesson by not letting him come to camp because of a missed deadline! Can you imagine a student saying to Jesus, “I might have been in heaven had I not missed a camp deadline.” Yikes!

6. I enlist church members to give PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIPS for campers!

Frankly, I’m not a big fan of “full scholarships” unless the need is dire. Most kids have access to some funds somewhere, even if only a nominal amount. When students invest nothing into an effort, they go into it expecting little. Or they drop out before the event even happens! Some investment on their part is good for them, for the budget, for everyone! But I also want to eliminate money as the excuse for non-participation!

The winning team members ride in style to camp in the best vehicle. The party bus riders are provided with a free lunch, along with party favors, special individually-packed “party paks” for each winning team member, etc. Over the years, the Camp Party Bus became a big deal!

Blessings on you as you labor in love!