Imagine that you have signed up for a tennis camp that says it will turn you into the next Roger Federer, Nadal or Sharapova (or at least try to). So you eagerly go there with your racquet in tow and your best tennis sneakers ready to learn how to hit scorching forehands down the lines and the intricacies of a serve-and-volley game
Now, assume that when you get there this is the schedule you get:
1) 3 hours on the badminton court..
2) A trip to the closest town to buy souveniers...
3) Loads of fun in a swimming pool, and a seminar on aqua aerobics..
4) An intense 3 hour session on how a tennis ball is made, plus a trip to a tennis ball making factory
And so on...
You would feel pretty ripped off, woudn't you? Presumably, the time spent might be fun, enjoyable and relaxing..but it's not what you're supposed to be doing.
None of those things make you a better tennis player.
The prime reason you wanted to go for this camp was to have hours of gruelling sessions hitting thousands of balls. You needed seminars on court tactics with your double's partner. And everyone wanted to attend those talks on better body mechanics on a service motion. Essentially, you wanted to become a better tennis player, and you payed money and sacrificed time for the opportunity to learn to be one
By now my point is pretty clear. Christian camps that don't do what they are supposed to do, that is - preach the gospel, make disciples of men and women and teach them how to be more like Christ should not be in the game of holding Christian camps. You can call it a motivational, spiritual, get to know your inner hurt child camp but once you remove the 'Christ' from the 'Christian' part..it's as good as if you never put that in the first place
All those points in 1 to 4 are in themselves relatively benign, or even good. But they are not what part of those things that should constitute a tennis camp because they add nothing of value. It's like what one of my tennis coaches used to say to me when I asked him how to get better. He said:
" Hit balls. Lots and lots of balls."
So, this is one of the way to become a better follower of Christ. Read the Word. Lots and lots of the Word. Pray to God. Pray lots and lots to God. And this is what you should be getting in a Christian camp. Lots and lots of what you should be getting
SDG
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8 comments:
The only thing I can say about TMC's camp is that Pastor Andrew Lim owns all the camp guest speakers we had in the last 10 years.
Sadly we only had 2 sessions with him (Sunday morning and Saturday morning).
And one too many photography sessions.
The question I would pose to that comment is - what measurement are you using?
Yours is against past speakers. Fair enough. Against that, it's difficult to say as I have only been to two church camps.
However, my benchmark is not man against man but Man against the Word.Did the speaker adequately convey the truth of the Gospel, the offence of the Cross and the need to be justified solely by faith in Christ?
It's not about how a speaker makes one feel, or whether he says the things that one likes to hear or if he displays a lot of charisma
Ultimately, it's about the truth of the Gospel and it's impact of you. That is what a speaker at a camp needs to convey given the diversity of people in a general church camp.
p.s Mine had only 1 session.
lol. I gather from facebook that church camp has just concluded. XD
jason had only 2 sessions and mike had only one session? That is just sad. I take it that there were many 'side activities'? It was in PD right?
And yeah, I agree on what you said about church camp. I don't know what happened this time but I know those I have went.
Ian, you're getting confused. I was referring to Jason's comment about the photography sessions. He was saying that the camp he went to, the one at PD, had too many photo sessions.
I went to St Mary's camp in Malacca and there was just one photo session. In between, there four sessions by the guest speaker and one by the pastor, each session was followed by a discussion/cell group and two additional sessions where you had to attend workshops on different aspects of ministry.
And all this in the same time frame and virtually all of Saturday afternoon off for leisure time.
There were no fun night, drama skits or telematches. One bout of ice breakers and that was it. And the whole camp was still loads of fun and laughter
So, my point was not which speaker was better but rather what they said and did in the short time that they had over the long weekend. The criteria I use is: Is it useful for the proclaimation of the Gospel
If not, then I believe that maybe one should reevaluate the aim of a camp in the first place
It's about using one's time for usefulness in the proclaimation of the gospel. That was the point of the post
I think the best session for me was the one where I took a flu pill and slept the entire Saturday afternoon while the youths made wantan mee. Yes you read right, wantan mee!!!
At least when Wei Shen was here, he made sure that the games were somehow related to the Bible. Now it's just, "Green house!!!! Yellow house!!!!"
And the part the pissed me off (or saddened) was Saturday night where after prizes were given and they (participants) were distributing the goodies, WHILE VESPER WAS ON. Aunty Sow Yoke was leading the vesper, she was trying to get people's attention and of course failing, and you could see the sadness in her face.
The only people that were doing the vespers were like me, Joel So, Pastor Andrew, the newer adult members (they come for 1045).
Yes, our beloved President and her committee were busy collecting gifts.
I think if Chris was there, he would've blown his top.
mike>> oh? there were two separate camps? lol. ok then. but doesn't change the main crux of my post, i.e., more fun than actually learning stuff.
jason>> wow. go all the way there, spend one afternoon, just to learn wan tan mee...? it has brought things to a whole new level, even the vespers part.
eh? chris wasn't there...?
Few years ago it was fried kuay teow.
Chris disappeared after dinner.
Jason, I agree with you. Wei Shen was quite focussed on relating all aspects of related activites in a church back to God (which is should). That was one of the good things I learnt from him and to this day, I am still impressed with some of the things he did.
Sadly, this doesn't seem to be the case anymore in the modern church.
I think that we now need shock therapy in the sense that we need to go to the other extreme to detox. i.e: Bible study, God centred worship etc. Inching slowly back is tough because the inclination, for man's fallen nature, is to seek the easy path.
We need to change the myth that studying the Word is dry, boring and just filling us with 'head knowledge'. The Word is the sword of the Spirit, it is living, and active. How can that ever be boring?
Ian, it's sad but I believe that God is raising a new generation from the remnant who are still faithful to him and his Word. What has gladdened me is that they are around, and they are thriving.
Watch out for my next post ;-)
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