When I was in middle/high school, camp was a big deal, not just a big deal it was HUGE. It was always a time for old friends to get together reconnect and for at least a week forget about life. The experience of the worship services were always enlightening, and helped "boost" our spiritual gage, almost always in a life changing way.
Times have changed, we can see the change reflected in the camp attendance. When College Camp started it was packed out but now it lives with a ventilator. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Times change and so do people. It's not easy to take off work or travel for a couple of days. Plus, those childhood experiences are different, we don't connect the way we use to. It seems I am reading more and more of my friends who have abandoned the church and even God. I'm not sure I can blame them, not that the church is bad but sometimes it misunderstands who we are. There are these expectations to believe but not question, there are the "extremist" who represents "christianity" that look like hypocrites and say really stupid things. This whole christianity thing is not what they remember or even felt, and our questioning goes unanswered or we are given the "simple" answer but it lacks the meat.
We always learned this "love" of Jesus, this Jesus who went to people who are NOT perfect, who suffered from their own bad choices, but the church doesn't do the same thing. So in a sense we are rejectedby those who taught us. Our quesions go on unanswered and our spark of interest slowly dims to where we can no longer understand the flame that once was.
My hope and my prayer is that we get a few people who still have that spark and that we can feed that spark just a little, not with easy answers but with hope and a clearer vision of who God is.
This was written before College Camp occurred
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