Our youth summer camp here at NewSpring Church is called “The Gauntlet,” it took place last week in Daytona Beach, Florida and here are several thoughts I had…
#1 - I’ve heard that student ministry is a thing of the past, that it may have been effective in days gone by but it just isn’t going to work in today’s church…uh, if that is true then someone forgot to inform our student ministry staff because our youth ministry is ON FIRE at every campus right now…and this past week all of those “fires” from every campus were able to get together…and it was AMAZING!
#2 - Getting to spend the week with the students every year is one of the things I really do enjoy and look forward to…it was so awesome to get to talk with so many of our students from all of our campuses.
#3 - I will NEVER forget getting to lead a young lady from the Greenville campus to Christ outside the hotel on Wednesday night. God has amazing plans for her life!
#4 - Being a part of baptizing 245 students was absolutely amazing…seriously, I don’t have words to describe it.
#5 - Usually at a youth camp the goal is to work up to the last night and let it be amazing…uh…it didn’t quite go that way because EVERY SINGLE DAY/NIGHT was unbelievable! It was literally one of the most powerful things I’ve ever been a part of!
#6 - Thanks to everyone who gives regularly here at NewSpring Church…because our church is so generous we were able to invest heavily in this event…and we will see the return on this investment for eternity as over 100 students surrendered their lives to Christ!!!
#7 - I am SO PROUD of our student ministry team…they have built a ministry on God’s Word and not games. God is raising up LEADERS in our student ministry…it is amazing to see the hunger and depth of our students!
#8 - I am OLD! :-) Trying to keep up with these students literally wore me out!!
If you want to see some videos our team did then check them out on Brad’s blog here!
For those who went as volunteers…THANK YOU…God used you to make a HUGE difference!
And for the students who went…pray for God to continue fan the flame that He began in you down there, continue to meet together (Hebrews 10:23-25) remembering that DEVOTION is not based on EMOTION…and get ready for HIM to use you to absolutely change your entire school this year. BE THAT CATALYST that Brad spoke about…God is going to do GREAT THINGS through you guys!