I started teaching a new Certificate class yesterday. It is called “How to Organize Youth Camps.” It’s a fun class that has a final project where the students have to organize a retreat for the class. It’s a fun way to spend time together and learn some skills. Some of our students have never been to a camp!
This week we started off by talking about the Biblical reasons for camps. We started by talking about how connected our young people are. They have notifications flying at them all day, and they never really get a chance to be still.
In contrast, there is a clear Biblical mandate to “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Our purpose for using camps and retreats is to allow people to be still and know that He is God. Unfortunately, even much of what we do in church is a stark contrast to being able to be still. We keep ourselves busy with activities thinking that they will bring us closer to God (and many of them will) at the expense of taking time to be still. I hope to convey this to the class during the camps course. I think they got it today.
