If you ask middle school or high school friends about their favorite part of camp, you will hear an array of things. For my friend Ruby, it was “the actors who made everyone laugh.” For my friend Allison, it was the fact that she “felt like an adult” and didn’t have her parents “breathing down [her] neck all the time.” For my friend Peyton, it was the fact that “the food was all-you-can-eat at every meal.” But for my friend Sienna, it was the fact that “[she] got to talk about real life stuff and hear about how Jesus really cares for what is going on in [her] world.”
Gosh, isn’t that what Campaigners is all about? Long after we pull out of Young Life camp and the “actors,” feelings of adulthood, and all-you-can-eat food are memories, we get to continue talking about real life stuff and learning about how much Jesus really cares.
Most often, we do this through Campaigners (the “help them grow in their faith” part of our mission statement). And, after eight years as a leader in three different areas, I am here to say that there are about as many ways to do Campaigners as there are stars in the sky. (Young Life staff are a go-the-extra-mile, try-something-new bunch.) BUT! There are two things that are consistent throughout every Campaigners gathering I have ever been a part of:
We read the Bible together every time.
We talk about real stuff.
Now, maybe more than ever, we have the opportunity to link arms (figuratively, at this point) with our middle school, high school, and college friends and invite them to join us in the transformational and missional life Jesus directs us to live (2 Corinthians 3:18 and Matthew 28:19).
How might we do that in the coming months? What does that look like?
Since we are innovative and fluent in our spheres of ministry, I’ll share a few ideas, but leave specific answers (some of the hows and whens) to us individually. However, I hope that these questions provide a helpful and encouraging lens through which we can plan for summer Campaigners this year.
What can we do this summer (because of our current reality) that we have not been able to do before? Let’s face it. Our current circumstances have provided both us and kids with more margin than we have had in years. What is possible now that was not possible before?
Perhaps it’s meeting in a small group every day for one week. Walk through one of the five-day studies on the Bible app. (Young Life offers several.) If week one goes well, ask kids if they want to try a second week. Or, move to a weekly model, with kids doing a five-day study on their own, using the app to chat with each other about it throughout the week and then coming together once a week to talk about it.
How can we read the Bible with our friends in a NEW way?
Give your friends different opportunities to engage with Scripture. Try letting kids read the story like a play – one person playing the narrator and others reading the words of specific people in the stories. Ask them to imagine the scene or draw pictures of it. You’ll find other ideas in “A Dozen Ways to Bible Dive” by Crystal Kirgiss, Vice President of Discipleship.
How can we incorporate fun and laughter?
It doesn’t take much for us to see ways in which the loneliness and sadness of the world have crept into our friends’ lives. How can we use fun and laughter to break through the walls of sadness?
Yes, the focus of Campaigners should be the Bible and real stuff, but it can include more. If you’re working with middle schoolers, it will definitely need to be more because they don’t want to sit still and talk for long. Bake cookies, play basketball, take silly photos. That’s not “throw-away” time in Campaigners – it’s intentional time to build relationships and trust with your friends.
If there were ever a group of people to enter into the lives of kids in new and creative ways during unprecedented and uncertain times, it would be you. Over the last few months, I know you have worked tirelessly to come up with ways to continue to get middle school, high school, and college friends in front of Jesus.
I can’t help but think about the paralyzed man’s friends in Luke 5. They were relentless in bringing their friend to the feet of Jesus because they knew that He was exactly what he needed. They knew that Jesus really cared about what was going on in their friend’s world and that He would find a way to heal him through His words. If reading God’s spoken word to us and talking about real stuff are the two most consistent pieces of Campaigners, I truly believe that we have so much to look forward to this summer.
Written by: Emie Salem