Training Church Leaders Through Camping
Forty two years ago I directed my first camp in Costa Rica as a fresh faced missionary. Evangelism through camping was my goal. It still is. But, ah! The years tell me a more far reaching story.
Otto's testimony
Whether 8 year old Otto would ever evidence a spiritual conversion was much in doubt. His first week at camp, I sent him home early. His father had abandoned the home, and his mother was an alcoholic. He lived at the Latin America Mission Bible home. They returned him every summer to Camp Roblealto and in time he turned his life over to Christ. He became a counselor and
learned to lead campers to Christ. As a physical education student at the National University of Costa Rica he took my Introduction to Recreation course, and Camp Roblealto hired him as the Director of programs, where he disciples new young volunteer staff. My discovery? Leadership training is the hidden gem in the camp ministry. In Latin America where 7,000 new pastors are needed regularly to care for the growing church and where 85% of these churches are led by persons with no theological training, camps are excellent forums for forging new leaders.
LAM – 23 Missionaries involved in the Camping MinistryThe Latin America Mission has over 23 missionaries involved in the camping ministry, nine of whom are positioned to reach all the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries with tools for leadership development as managers of Christian Camping International (i.e. CCI Latin America and CCI Brazil). Others manage camps and/or programs in Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay and Brazil.
Esdras Krebsky, Brazilian executive director of CCI Brazil, writes: "I began my passion for camp because I saw campers come away with changed behavior, beliefs, language, clothing, and choice of friends. Then, I noticed what camp had done to me as a counselor! My focus changed from just campers to include volunteer staff. They began getting involved in local church outreach and some decided to become missionaries and pastors."
Born in an age when the Western world had great belief in progress and solutions to the world's problems, the camping movement has always seen itself as an agent of change. At the turn of the century (19th to 20th) camp leaders were crusaders against delinquency; a decade later, educators in non-academic skills; in the 1930's, promoters of democracy; and in the 1960's, advocates of racial harmony and concern for the poor, as well as for children with special needs. Missionaries involved with youth are convinced that camps are environments of decision making, change, and character formation.
LAM missionaries Lisa Anderson Umaña Director of Leadership Development and Robert
Bruneau, executive Director of CCI Latin America, preach the idea that the recreation / camp leader is a pastor, a person who builds relationships. This conviction is in the philosophical pores of our movement. The camper should have someone who is helping him/her build a relationship with God, with himself, with others, and with God's creation. Dinho Pereira, Brazilian director of Camp Victoria, a center for camp leadership development, is convinced that training must be practical. "A great majority of training courses offer only a technical or classroom type of training. What students need is the opportunity to participate and work under supervision in a real camp program. The camp program is the strongest tool that the church has today to reach city people."
Transformation, more than information
The LAM missionaries who provide the leadership for CCI in Latin America insist on formation rather than the mere accumulation of information.We believe that the education of servant leaders for camps is a process. That process involves teaching that is both theoretical and practical, and provides not just information, but leads to transformation of the leader's life. That process demands time and effort sufficient to achieve formation. In that way, CCI can provide to the churches leaders trained to mold the lives of campers.
Transformation is the conscious design of the 17 day Institute for the Forming of Instructors (IFI) that provides its national associations with qualified teachers for our courses throughout Mexico, Central and South America. I like to describe those 17 days together as time to forge a culture.
The components of that culture are a team of leaders who share a commitment to an
* intimate walk with God,
* a hunger to teach in such a way as to see lives transformed by Christ, not just improve in the delivery of more information;
* a desire for a ministry of integrity
* a conscientiousness about the foundational value of "koinonia", true New Testament fellowship.
A student at the Institute experiences a variety of teaching methods, a variety of evaluative techniques, a full hour every morning for time alone with God, a use of recreation that enriches the learning environment, a covenant to live as a Christian community, a Bible encounter group, plus a strong pedagogical element that allows the student to comprehend teaching philosophies, adopt a teaching philosophy, and opportunities to practice and be evaluated by fellow students.
A Ball in one Hand; a Bible in the other
God has privileged me with post graduate degrees in theology and recreation. I like to tell people that I am a missionary with a ball in one hand and a Bible in the other. Back in 1885, at the beginning of the modern recreation movement, a YMCA professor observed,
If you want to understand a child, watch him/her at play. If you want to influence a child, play with him/her.Play is transcultural by nature. The play element, the recreational environment (a camp) lends itself to and becomes an educational and formational environment par excellence. At a Christian camp, a temporary community is created, the faith is explicitly taught, and then modeled 24/7. Its unique components lend themselves to receptivity and transformation.
Forty two years ago, Otto was one of the first campers for this freshman missionary. Today, as a physical education teacher at a secular private high school in Costa Rica, Otto maintains a strong commitment to evangelism in his position, often using camps, and adventure recreation. His church has benefited greatly from his leadership skills.
LAM Missionary, Costa Rica