I’m back from a 4 day youth camp and boy was this week weird. Yes, I know, camp and teenagers is supposed to be weird but this was weirder than usual. I’ll get to why that was in just a moment.
I think all youth pastors have a way of processing youth camp and today I’d like to share mine. If you’re a new youth pastor, I hope this will be helpful and if you’re a veteran youth pastor I hope I can encourage you.
My processing begins on day one of camp, with prayer.
When it comes to praying, for camp, I start with me first. My mood, my attitude and my energy sets the pace for my students. I often pray Psalm 19:14
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
My prayer life before, and during, camp makes my post camp process much easier because it reveals my intent of who I wanted to be/needed to be for my students. They also inform my post camp prayers as I seek to disciple students by their responses to the gospel messages during the week.
These are the four questions I ask after camp to help me grasp what God was up to during camp
What was God doing in me?
What was God doing in my students?
How did I handle camp drama?
You may think this questions is only about teen drama, but Youth Pastors can bring their own drama to camp, as well. I have gone to camp wondering if I still had a job went I got back from camp. Most of the time I did, but I’ve also brought things like family issues and general personal problems.
Once again, I start with my own issues before I focus on student issues.
What’s next?
Youth room re-design.