Church camp has unique opportunities to influence young lives. After seven summers as a camp counselor (following nine summers as a camper), I appreciate the camp experience firsthand. Starting with the camp counselors and continuing to the setting and atmosphere, church camp is a special place.
Without a doubt, misconceptions exist about what makes a great camp counselor. Some of the best counselors I ever had did not fit the traditional mold. Camp is a physical experience, but almost all my favorite counselors were not athletically gifted. Good news for all uncoordinated people such as myself!
While camp can feel like a constant 100-degree nature walk in high humidity during the hot summer months, the kids appreciate the efforts of those organizing the games/activities. In many cases, campers do not have an adult in their lives with the time or desire to spend a day outside with them in the heat index camp can reach. A good counselor is not required to do a backflip, a push-up, or even know how to throw a football. Sure, a few people on the camp staff may enjoy physical activities and feel it their calling to lead kids in them, but athletic prowess is not a counselor requirement.
Camp is a young person’s arena, since campers are children or young adults, and counselors are usually young adults or college students. However, some of the counselors who impacted me most were much older than the average counselor. In fact, counselors who had the biggest effect on me spiritually were old enough to be my father or even grandfather.
I spent multiple weeks of my camp experience with a counselor named Bob Baggett. His grandson was one of my friends, so we stayed in his cabin. Brother Bob was a decorated war veteran with a heart for helping with camp. His presence had a profound effect on me because it illustrated dedication to the cause of Christ through camp work and lifelong commitment to it. The loyalty and sacrifice of Brother Bob, who was a part of that camp for all 16 years I was there (and years before and after), made a huge difference in the way I view Scripture passages that talk about being “resolute and steadfast.”
While church camp can seem to be a “forced worship” situation, the lasting spiritual impact often comes through the love counselors demonstrate beyond the worship setting. As the son of a Free Will Baptist pastor, I think I am qualified to say camp has a lot of church to it. After all, it is “church camp” not “camp church.”
While I can’t remember a single sermon I heard during the many camp services I attended, I can repeat word-for-word conversations I had with people I admire spiritually. I can’t tell you exactly when I met Len Scott, who eventually became my pastor for close to a decade, but I can tell you it was because of Cumberland Camp and the conversations on those grounds I decided to drive an extra half hour to attend his church, passing many other churches. Because of that decision,
I met my wife in the church choir. We have been happily married for more than a decade and have two beautiful daughters.
Camp is a wonderful experience that has an almost magical quality for a child. It’s an adventure outdoors in nature that allows room for imagination and exploration in a way unavailable to most kids in today’s world. As technology has led to a decrease in children playing outside and interacting with other kids, camp has taken on an even more unique feeling.
When I was young, high-speed Internet did not exist, none of my friends owned a cell phone, and the TV in my house had only 30 channels. So, while camp had a strange disconnected-
from-the-world feeling in 1996, it has more of that quality now that we are all digitally connected to each other. Camp provides space for deep spiritual growth to happen in a short period of time because of this disconnection from phones and social media. Untethering kids from the shallow and often toxic influence of social media allows them to interact with people face-to-face and encounter both kids and adults who love Christ. They have a great week without looking at Tik-Tok or Instagram a single time.
Camp also provides a chance to change lives. At one time, I was a correctional officer at Deberry Special Needs Prison in Nashville, Tennessee. The differences between that job and being a camp counselor are many, but one striking similarity is those you are charged to watch are also watching you. If you are consistent in your actions and your character, you will gain their respect. This makes the job in both places easier. Kids sense authenticity. The camp counselor’s job is to show Christ's love through interacting with campers, and the Holy Spirit will do the rest. If a counselor’s heart is in the right place, God will do great things.
One of my jobs at camp was to rescue children afraid to come down from the top of the climbing wall. I either talked them into coming down via the correct method or just picked them up and carried them back down with me. One day, while I was demonstrating to a camper all he had to do was sit back like there was an invisible chair, and the harness would hold him, the person on the other end of my rope wasn’t prepared for me to sit back on my invisible chair.
Though I thankfully didn’t hit the ground, I never could convince that kid to trust the “invisible chair” because he watched me flail like one of the Three Stooges down the climbing wall. That story has two camp applications. First, always have someone who knows what he or she is doing on the other end of a climbing rope! Second, if your life resembles a guy falling down a rock wall, you will find kids are not interested in joining that lifestyle. Whether intentional or not, how you represent Christ through your interactions is paramount.
Church camp had a profound impact on my life, and the camp experience is a wonderful opportunity to influence the next generation for the cause of Christ. God will reward those who have a part in this ministry.
About the Writer: Benjamin Corn is a happily married father of two girls who both attend Cumberland Camp every summer. He currently works as a manager at The Depot Grill in Springfield, Tennessee. Benjamin is a member of Pardue Memorial FWB Church in Clarksville, Tennessee.
