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I decided to become a youth minister when I was a camper at summer camp. The camp was a small, under-funded, very-little-to-do-there place high in the Sierras that my church’s youth group attended each year. Our cabin’s counselor that week was the camp speaker—a theology professor, of all things—who didn’t spend much time with the dozen rowdy boys in our tent / cabin thingy. He showed up late each night, and left early each morning.
I don’t know why, but I became the default counselor of our cabin. The other guys were from a different church, and boy were they, umm, carnal! I had my hands full all week trying to encourage those guys to keep out of trouble, let alone to follow Jesus. I remember praying a lot that week.
At the end of the week eight of those guys approached me—as a group. I thought maybe they were gonna pound me, but they wanted to give me their drugs, booze, cigarettes and, uh, birth control devices so I could dispose of those items. And, they wanted to give Jesus their hearts and lives. I was more than thrilled!
That last night of camp, around the fire, all of the campers were giving testimonies and generally working themselves into an emotional state. I, on the other hand, couldn’t shake the thought that I wanted to experience again and again the joy I had felt in seeing my new friends come to Christ. And so, I stood in front of that fire and verbally committed myself to a lifetime of youth ministry. That was a LONG time ago, and I’m still living out that commitment.
Summer camp is like that.
Someone once told me that summer camp is a youth minister’s payday. We work hard, day in and day out, for months and months—and then are rewarded at camp. The idea makes sense to me. I don’t get a paycheck every day; it comes only after a couple of weeks of labor. Summer camp IS a youth leader’s payday!
This issue of YLO is dedicated to helping you get the greatest paycheck you can—in the life-changing, kingdom-building sense. I hope that God does everything you hope He’ll do with your camp this summer. You might even have a kid decide to spend his or her life in ministry because of your efforts.
That’s a huge paycheck!
Godspeed,
Ken McCoy
Editor
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