It is the season of summer camps at the moment, and there are loads that you can choose from.
There are lots of ways that you could distinguish between them, but one way it is worth thinking about is: what is the main purpose of the camp?
I think if you take this question really broadly you can narrow it down to three different answers - I'm going to explore each of those and consider what the strengths and weaknesses of each one might be.
- Purpose: Evangelism
The first audience lots of camps have in mind (and have done historically) is non-Christians and the summer camp is therefore primarily evangelistic. Whilst inevitably lots of the young people who attend the camp will be Christians, the main purpose is to get lots of non-Christians on the camp and run a great evangelistic camp.
The strengths of this are that you can use the talks to go through the gospel really clearly and take your time doing so, addressing questions as and when they come up. In addition, doing this on a camp gives space for it to take place in a clear Christian community, adding strength to the witness as the gospel is seen clearly lived out.
Potential weaknesses of this model might be that there is less on offer for those young people that are Christians and want to go deeper in their faith. - Purpose: Discipleship
The second audience that camps might look to instead is to Christians and make the holiday a discipleship week where young people can go deep into the Bible and have lots of opportunities to grow in their faith. There's lots of space for worship and prayer, and to be able to have chats with leaders where they can ask questions and discuss what they are learning.
For lots of people these sorts of camps have been immensely valuable for growing in their faith, and a huge strength of this approach is that it allows the camp to focus on great teaching and fantastic gatherings without being overly concerned on how non-Christians might find them.
A potential weakness could be that if church youth groups attended camps like these they wouldn't be ideal for non-churched people to come along to. - Purpose: Evangelism and discipleship
Which brings us to the third audience, that is the camps that try and aim for both.
This might look like a camp with lots of games and activities but have a bit more of a focus on the gatherings and the Bible teaching. When considering what to teach there will be a desire to have a clear gospel overview but with other teaching on Christian living and perhaps extra optional seminars on particular topics.
The strength ideally on this model is that it caters to everyone - someone with very little church background could attend and not find it too overwhelming and hear the gospel proclaimed clearly and simply. But a Christian could go and be reminded of the gospel and challenged to grow in their faith.
Potential weaknesses could be the extent to which this can be done effectively! It reminds me of the West Ham stadium - designed to be a stadium that can host football and athletics, it inevitably means it does each less well than a stadium that just does one. Often when aiming at multiple audiences, it is hard to reach each as well as when you just aim at one.
I've had the joy and privilege to do camps that I think would fit into all three of these groups and have loved every single one and think all have their place.
I'm constantly changing my mind about which I think is the best model and I reckon that's okay. But I still think it's worth - if we are involved in a camp - to think about what we are trying to do, recognising its strengths and then reflecting on whether the weaknesses are true or not!
This will then hopefully lead us to know how to tailor our camp to the audience we are aiming it at, and therefore giving our young people the best time possible, including helping them to encounter Jesus for themselves.
