Why Should My Church Sponsor Day Camp?

Today’s guest blogger is Troy Scott, who has been serving LifePoint Church in Goshen since August, 2003. He grew up in Indiana and attended Anderson University where he met his amazing wife, Beth. They have two kids Caleb & Hannah. He loves living in Goshen because it’s close to Notre Dame football!

In this blog, Pastor Troy discusses why his church sponsored a summer day camp in spite of the extra effort it takes to host the camp and recruit volunteers.

“You’re crazy!”

That’s what a lot of people thought when I suggested we invite SpringHill Camps to do a day camp for our church of 205 people with only 10 kids old enough to attend a camp.

They had a point. SpringHill normally works with much larger churches. But I believed God was nudging LifePoint Church to do this for a couple of reasons.

1. We needed a BHAGG. A BHAGG is a “big, hairy, audacious God Goal.” LifePoint Church had been playing it too safe. It was time to have a goal so big we could only meet it with God’s help!

2. We needed to be more outwardly focused with kids. Doing a day camp helped us with this perspective. LifePoint Church has always known its greatest kingdom effectiveness is when it is sharing Jesus with kids. SpringHill Camps does an awesome job of pointing kids to Jesus while turning our church campus into a massive playground.

With God’s help, we had 115 kids for our first camp in June 2013. Fifteen of those kids were from LifePoint and the rest were from the community. We had sacrificially given over $17,000 in December 2012 to make it possible for any kid to go to camp regardless of their financial situation.

Last year, 15 kids accepted Jesus as forgiver of their sins and leader of their life.

Our second year of camp is just around the corner. We know God will do big things—things only HE can do. We also know kids from the community who haven’t attended any church will hear the Good News and invite Jesus into their lives.

We can’t wait!

Thanks, Pastor Troy, for offering your perspective and reminding us that young souls matter. We will be holding your week up in prayer that the harvest will be great.