AUGUST 2015 - The Summer Mountain Top

I have been doing student ministry for about 15 years now and have much less hair to show for it!!  Each summer in student ministry has involved a mission trip or a church camp, and often both.  I have seen many lives changed by a great experience at church camp and on a mission trip.   God is working among our students at VGBC this summer and I know many of them are fired up and ready to make a difference for Christ and His Kingdom. 

The mountaintop experience of a great trip is all too common in student ministry.  Students go away for a week and often experience the presence of God in a way that is uncommon for the other 51 weeks of the year.  Why do students have this mountaintop experience while away on these trips and what can be done to keep that fire burning?  I would like to answer the first question in this article.  Here is what I’ve noticed about why these experiences have such a great spiritual impact:

DISTRACTION-LESS 

Students are removed from their daily routine and environment.  For the most part, they are removed from 24/7 access to their cell phone, text messaging, Facebook overload, video games, TV, movies, internet, hours of soaking up rays at the pool, the ability to sleep for 14 out of 24 hours of a day, sports, conflict with siblings, tension and conflict with parents, friends that may be a bad influence, and the many other things that keep us busy, distracted, and from being more focused on the things of God.  I am not saying the distractions are totally absent…these are still co-ed trips with teenagers with crazy emotions…but the distractions are severely cut down.

UNITY AND THE POWER OF A GROUP

Especially on mission trips, there is a shared goal and purpose for the trip.  Everybody comes together to work and serve as a team.  Almost everything is done together and in groups.  There is a huge sense of accomplishment that comes from serving together and achieving goals together.  Serving causes you to take the focus off of yourself and place it on others. 

Additionally, there is something about being away from home and the comforts of home that causes students to bond and form relationships with other students.  Usually these bonding experiences never would have happened back at home.  The shared experience and challenges faced on a mission trip and at camp draws students closer together.  It becomes easier to do the right thing and to serve God when you are surrounded by a bunch of other people your age who are doing the same thing.

FOCUS ON CHRIST

We replace what is simply summer activity…which is fun but often lacking any kind of significant purpose…with an intentional focus on Jesus and being on mission with Him.  Each day is filled with personal time in the Word, prayer, large group worship times, the preaching of the Word, serving others in the name of Christ, sharing the Gospel, small group discussions, and one-on-one discipleship. 

We experience what it truly looks like to be a community of believers, the church, as we serve together, worship together, pray together, eat together, study the Word together, encourage one another, and bear the burdens of one another.   Life transformation can and will take place when the bulk of our focus is on Christ, the Word, and the Kingdom of God.  Our increased focus on Christ helps us to hear the voice of God more clearly and allows us to more readily discern the leading of the Holy Spirit.   

Mission trips and church camp are amazing and an opportunity to be more focused on Christ and His work in our world.  I am one youth minister that is truly thankful for all that God did and is doing in the lives of our students and in the midst of our student ministry!!