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Get Real: Finding Your True Self in Jesus
InsideOut: Christian Resources for Outdoor Ministries
Copyright and Online Permission Statement
Copyright © 2013 by Chalice Press. Produced for and outlines developed by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) Committee on Outdoor Ministries (COM).
Site License
Purchase of this resource gives license for its use, adaptation, and copying for programmatic use at one outdoor ministry site (hereinafter, “Camp”) for up to one year from purchase. For questions or permission for other uses, contact Chalice Press at 314-231-8500 or permissions@.
This site license allows your camp to post this edition of InsideOut resources for up to one year from purchase on a password-protected Web site for the exclusive use of volunteer directors and authorized staff. The password must expire within one year of purchase, and the administrator must change the password immediately upon discovery of unauthorized use. Please e-mail the Web site link for verification to info@.
The camp must include the following copyright permission statement on each Web page, posted file, or item of the InsideOut curriculum:
Copyright ©2013 Chalice Press. Used by permission. For use only at [insert camp name and location].
Thank you for your help in this matter and for your willingness to serve in the ministry of camping.
Project Manager
Crystal Zinkiewicz
Copy Editors
John Patrick Carey, Anne Konopka
Art Director/Design
Hui-Chu Wang
Elizabeth Wright
Cover Images
BIGSTOCK®
Interior Photographs and Images
Camp Mack, Camp Hopewell, Fotosearch
Writers
Joshua Ashton Hill is chaplain at The Episcopal School of Knoxville, Tennessee. A priest in the Episcopal Church, Josh is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School, the Episcopal Seminary at Yale. He is currently enrolled as participant in the Youth and Theology Certificate program at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2007, Hill was a National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Fellow, having devoted a year of graduate study to environmental theology. He has worked variously in youth ministries for thirteen years, including five years at Camp Wesley Woods in Townsend, Tennessee. Josh wrote the Biblical and Theological Backgrounds.
Lara Blackwood Pickrel is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and serves Hillside Christian Church in Kansas City, Missouri, as their associate minister for youth and young adults. Writing and other creative practices are an essential part of her ministry, along with summer camps, social media, and anything else that helps her keep up with children, tweens, teens, and young adults. You can find some of Lara’s work at Chalice Press, ”The Thoughtful Christian Blog,” and her blog, “Serendipity Soiree” (). Or you can check out how she and her youth ministry colleagues are taking risks for the sake of the church by visiting . Lara wrote both the Daily Guides for Young Children and the Daily Guides for Older Children.
Katie Barrett Todd is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and Union Presbyterian Seminary. Katie has served churches in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Kentucky in youth and young adult ministry. Growing up she attended Camp Fellowship in Laurens, South Carolina, and has many years’ experience as a conferee and group leader at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina. Katie holds a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian Education and is married to a Presbyterian minister, with a son and a daughter on the way. She enjoys swimming, traveling, writing, teaching, and family time. Katie wrote the Daily Guides for Younger Youth.
Whendi Cook Broderick has worked for many years with the Connecticut Conference United Church of Christ both as its Youth Consultant and as a program leader at Silver Lake Conference Center. A graduate of Hartford Seminary’s ecumenical Building Effective Youth Ministries program, she has a passion for co-creating transformational experiences with people of all ages. Whendi holds a Ph.D. in Emancipatory Learning and works widely in popular education, creative arts, outdoor adventure, and service learning. She is a graduate professor in the field of Oral Traditions, a musician, and an interdisciplinary teaching artist. Whendi wrote the Daily Guides for Older Youth.
Sandy Safford has served as a Christian educator for twenty years in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is also a partner for FAITHSENSE Consultants and currently responsible for multigenerational ministries in a UCC church. Sandy’s degree is actually in environmental education, and after more than ten years in that field moved into Christian education. Combining both passions, she has volunteered as camp director for thirteen summers at Highlands Presbyterian Camp in Colorado. She spends at least a week each year at summer camp with fifth and sixth graders, and has led more than six summers of grandparent/grandchild camp, one of her favorite camps. Sandy wrote the Daily Guides for Intergenerational and Family Camps.
Tracey Brown serves as director for Potosi Pines camp, a United Methodist camp in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tracey served in youth ministry for sixteen years, during which she was in leadership for Riverside District Camps. She grew up in church camping and says that her formative faith milestones were a result of Christian camping. Tracey also worked for the YMCA and Girl Scouts in their camping programs. She wrote for the national church newsletter Insight. Tracey wrote the Extra Resources for this year’s curriculum.
Contents
Welcome to InsideOut
Introducing Your Get Real Resource
Daily Overview for Get Real
Your Camp, Your Curriculum
Training Your Staff: A Plan
Learning about Campers
Age-Level Characteristics (Handout)
Multiple Intelligences (Handout)
Teaching Bible Stories
Bible Study Methods (Handout)
Bible Storytelling Methods (Handout)
Get Real Biblical Introduction
Biblical and Theological Overview for Each Day
Daily Guides for Younger Children
Daily Guides for Older Children
Daily Guides for Younger Youth
Daily Guides for Older Youth
Daily Guides for Intergenerational or Family Camps
Extra Resources for a Great Week at Camp
Arts and Crafts
Games
Science Fun
Table Talk for Younger and Older Campers
Nature Activities
Multi-Day Projects
Daily Worship Plans
Camper Cards
NEW! Day Camp (Six Weeks of Daily Activities)
Tell Us What You Think…
Sneak Peek at Next Year
Welcome to InsideOut
Thank you for choosing InsideOut: Christian Resources for Outdoor Ministries as your program resource for outdoor ministry this year. What an exciting and awesome opportunity you have to share God’s love and goodness right in the middle of God’s wonderful creation. As camp directors and counselors, you know that curriculum is only the backdrop to the amazing things God does in the lives of campers and staff at camp. You know that outdoor experiences, love of God’s creation, safe community, and life-long relationship building with God through Jesus Christ are the anchors of Christian education at camp. Our hope is that this resource will be a partner, taking much of the burden of planning off of you and freeing your staff for holy conversation and Spirit-filled experiences. Feel free to mold, shape, and adapt this curriculum to meet your camp needs.
What Is InsideOut?
InsideOut is the result of the curriculum partnership between Chalice Press and the Committee on Outdoor Ministries of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. The partnership is committed to creating and offering excellent, effective, and economical tools for Christian camps. The goal of these curriculum resources is to bring together theological scholarship, experiential learning, biblically grounded teaching and learning experiences, culturally relevant language and illustrations, inclusivity, and environmental responsibility.
InsideOut: Christian Resources for Outdoor Ministries curriculum follows a four-year rotation of themes: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and the Church. Get Real: Finding Your True Self in Jesus is the 2014 edition and emphasizes Jesus in the Bible study and learning activities.
InsideOut writers are selected through an application process and are chosen for quality of writing and feet-on-the-ground experience in Christian camps. Read their biographical information above, and you will know you are in good hands. If you are interested in applying for writing for the 2016 edition, please indicate that on the evaluation form on the next to the last page of this resource.
Each volume of InsideOut provides:
• Biblical and Theological Overview for the theme and for each day
• Daily Guides for a full week each for Younger Children, Older Children, Younger Youth, Older Youth, and Intergenerational/Family Camps
• Extra Resources, which include additional Arts and Crafts, Games, Science Fun, Table Talk for Younger and Older Campers, Nature Activities, Multi-Day Projects, Daily Worship Plans, and Camper Cards
• Day Camp plans for a full six weeks—NEW
• Training Helps, in a variety of formats: video, PowerPoint, plus written guidelines and handouts
• Artwork for your use to publicize your camp and to create reminders for your campers
What Is the Committee on Outdoor Ministries?
The Committee on Outdoor Ministries of the National Council of Churches meets twice a year to pray, dream, and discern how to effectively and faithfully partner as an ecumenical body to support outdoor ministries across America.
How Can I Use the DVD-ROM?
By purchasing these materials, you bought a license to use them at a single campsite for the whole summer. Open and edit files from the Word files on the DVD-ROM, make copies of the files, or print the pages from the PDF file. Governing bodies owning more than one camp are expected to purchase a copy of the curriculum for each site.
How Do I Give Feedback?
Your comments are valuable and important to the future development of InsideOut. Please e-mail an evaluation of the curriculum (found at the end of the materials) to info@. Or, mail it to InsideOut, 483 E. Lockwood, Ste. 100, Saint Louis, MO 63119.
Blessings on your great adventure in camping this season!
Crys Zinkiewicz, Project Manager
Introducing Your Get Real Resource
Get Real: Finding Your True Self in Jesus is the official InsideOut resource for the 2014 camping season. Here are tips and suggestions for using it well in your outdoor ministry program.
Biblical and Theological Overview
Be sure to read the Biblical and Theological material more than once. First, read it all the way through by itself. This reading will help you have the big picture—not just what you are doing, but why! Here’s another opportunity to fall more deeply in love with God, who loves us and has given us Jesus as God with us, friend, teacher, healer, and Savior—the Real Thing! As your love grows, you will be more fully equipped to pass it on to your campers.
Secondly, begin your study of each day’s plan by reading again the scripture and the Biblical and Theological Overview for that day. Keep it fresh in your mind and heart as you plan and lead and listen to your campers. No printed material will ever be able to anticipate all of the questions, comments, or opportunities that come in a live discussion with campers. You become the one who helps them see the connections that can draw them closer to God.
InsideOut resources use the New Revised Standard Version as the primary source of scripture.The NRSV is copyrighted by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. The secondary translation used in this resource is the Common English Bible; those passages will include (CEB) with the reference.
Daily Guides
The Daily Guides are by age level:
• Younger Children (ages 7 to 9)
• Older Children (ages 10 to 12)
• Younger Youth (ages 12 to 14)
• Older Youth (ages 15 to 18)
• Intergenerational/Family Camps (adults and children of all ages)
Daily Guides for each age level are divided into three sections:
Explore, which generally gives you two Bible lesson activities. You may choose to do one or both of them.
Experience, which gives you several activities that build on the theme for the day. You will also find activities that help to create community.
Express, a guide for daily worship, devotions, and singing. The Extra Resources section on the DVD-ROM also includes worship plans, which will give you additional options.
Seven Days
Not every camp is seven days long, but Get Real provides a week of plans.
Day 1 Guides are half-day experiences that introduce the theme.
Days 2 through 6 Guides each give a full day’s worth of activities for Bible study, play, and worship.
Day 7 Guides are half-day closing activities that help you wrap up the theme and send campers home with love and affirmation.
If your camp is shorter, then you have choices to make.
One option is to treat Jesus’ question, “Who Do You Say I Am?” as a thread running through the subsequent days. Introduce the story and the question and simply tell the campers that they will be discovering their answers throughout the week. Then at some point each day, remind them of the question. Evening worship or cabin devotions, for example, provide a natural opportunity to do so.
Another option is to review the daily themes and leave out one or combine parts of two.
Customize Your Plan
Get Real provides you with more activities than you are likely to be able to use—even in a full week of residential camp! Here are a few tips as you plan each day:
Explore generally offers two approaches to the Bible study. Look at them both, but you don’t have to do both! As you read through the activities in Experience and Express, you will see that many of them also provide campers with an entry into a deeper understanding of the scripture.
Days 2, 3, 4, and 6 each have two scriptures. With younger children, for example, working with only one will likely be sufficient.
One factor to take into account as you consider your options for Explore is the designation of the Multiple Intelligences the particular activity uses. Often the first one in Explore uses mostly linguistic or verbal intelligence, whereas the second may push into some of the other ways of understanding, such as spatial or bodily/kinesthetic, for example. All are valid ways of learning, but some may suit your particular group of campers better than others. (For more about Multiple Intelligences, see the discussion in “Training Your Staff” and the “Multiple Intelligences” handout below.)
Experience will also give you choices. You do not need to do all of them. Again, consider your group, the Multiple Intelligences, your particular setting, your schedule, your goals, and your own skills and experience as you decide.
Also, don’t think that just because the order in the curriculum puts Explore first that you have to do the Bible study first. On the first day of camp, especially, you will be wise to do some of the community-building activities from Experience before you tackle Bible study. Other days, you may want a wake-up activity before you ask the group to engage with the scripture. The order in which you plan your day is up to you!
The listing at the beginning of the Daily Guide, Customize Today’s Plan, is in the order in which the Explore and Experience learning activities are printed. But you have the opportunity to designate your own order. Please do! Here are samples of how you might use this tool. You can simply checkmark those activities you want to do, and even cross out those you choose not to do. Or you can write in times for the various activities, or indicate an order with a number. The tool is yours; use it any way that is helpful to you.
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
1 Morning Worship
3 Fake Christmas vs. Real Christmas
Promises, Promises
2 Backpack Name Game
4 What’s Our Covenant?
Christmas Charades
5 Leafy Jesus
6 Evening Worship
7 Cabin Devotions
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
7:45 Morning Worship
9:00 Fake Christmas vs. Real Christmas
Promises, Promises
8:30 Backpack Name Game
1:30 What’s Our Covenant?
Christmas Charades
4:00 Leafy Jesus
7:30 Evening Worship
9:00 Cabin Devotions
Be sure also to consult the Extra Resources section as you are planning your day. The Arts and Crafts, Games, Science Fun, Table Talk for Younger and Older Campers, Nature Activities, Multi-Day Projects, Daily Worship Plans, and Camper Cards there will help ensure that your campers have a wonderful experience all week long.
Express focuses on worship. Use the ideas “as is” or as a starting point for your own creativity. Be sure to look also at the daily worship plans in the Extra Resources pages. These too are rich, just waiting for you to mine them!
The Song Suggestions cover a wide range of possibilities—traditional songs (many familiar to camp settings), hymns and carols, and contemporary Christian music. Some may be new to you. In listing these, we’ve attempted to give you a clue as to their identity. Some titles are the same for different songs! In some cases, we noted the songwriter; in others, the artist. Whatever the designation, you should be able to find a source, especially through the Internet.
Because music is intellectual property and because as Christians we do not want to steal, even in such seemingly harmless ways, do pay attention to the issues of copyright. Your camp or denomination will be a helpful source for you to consult. Some will have licenses already, freeing you to pull from a wider range of wonderful musical creativity.
Enjoy the Get Real resource. Make it yours! If you have feedback, please let us know. Contact us at info@ or by mail: InsideOut, 483 E. Lockwood, Ste. 100, Saint Louis, MO 63119.
Daily Overview
Day 1 Guide
Title: Who Do You Say I Am?
Scripture: Matthew 16:13–17
Focus: Jesus is asking who I say he is and what he means to me. How will I respond?
Campers Will
• be welcomed into a safe and loving community
• encounter a challenging question
Day 2 Guide
TItle: Jesus Is God with Us
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1—2
Focus: Jesus is God with us—not far off, but always present.
Campers Will
• explore the Christmas story from a new perspective
• discover that God loves them enough to come to them through Jesus
Day 3 Guide
TItle: Jesus Is Friend
Scripture: John 15:9–17; John 11:1–45
Focus: Jesus calls us friends; he shows us a model of real friendship that helps us be friends to others.
Campers Will
• see that Jesus had friends and showed them great love
• hear that Jesus commands them to love one another
• recognize that Jesus shows them how to be real friends
Day 4 Guide
TItle: Jesus Is Teacher
Scripture: Matthew 7:15–20, 24–29
Focus: Jesus is the great teacher. He leads with authority, wisdom, and truth. His teachings are trustworthy.
Campers Will
• hear that Jesus challenges them to decide whom or what they will follow and consequently what kind of persons they will be
• recognize that following Jesus’ teachings is wise
Day 5 Guide
TItle: Jesus Is Healer
Scripture: John 5:1–9a
Focus: Jesus brings healing in many ways. Jesus can use us to bring healing to those around us.
Campers Will
• see that healing and wholeness are important to Jesus’ ministry
• understand that they can be healers too in many ways
Day 6 Guide
TItle: Jesus Is Savior
Scripture: Romans 5:1–11; Luke 24:36–49
Focus: Jesus offers us forgiveness. When we claim his gift, we have freedom from sin and we can live joyfully in his love and peace.
Campers Will
• recognize that Jesus truly is the Son of God, not just an important teacher or healer
• know that through Jesus sin is forgiven and grace extended
• be challenged to live more fully with and for God every day
Day 7 Guide
TItle: Jesus Is the Real Thing
Scripture: Luke 4:14–21
Focus: Jesus calls us to join him in ministry, to take home what we’ve learned at camp and make our world a better place.
Campers Will
• explore how to carry what they’ve learned home with them
• recognize that they have a ministry role too
Your Camp, Your Curriculum
From ideas for welcoming campers to sending them off one week later, Get Real: Finding Your True Self in Jesus is intended to be a guide for all you do this week. Of course, summer camp programs come in many shapes and sizes and use a variety of program and leadership models. You can design a camp curriculum that fits the needs of your camp, your program, and your staff.
The word curriculum is often understood as a specific print resource. In its original use, however, the word means “the course to be run.” Everything that happens at camp is curriculum; it’s part of the “course to be run” during the days at camp. Get Real, a curriculum resource, is meant to be a guide or partner for what you choose to do during your camp: Bible study, community building, games, hikes, worship, and so on.
You are the expert in what your camp needs. This resource provides the ingredients, but you get to mix them up and make the right “course to be run” for your camp, staff, and campers.
To help you adapt Get Real to your design for your camp, the DVD-ROM contains program materials for all age levels as well as extra resources for a great week at camp. The format of this resource makes customizing the resources to fit your camp as easy as possible. All of the materials are available to you on the DVD-ROM, which contains non-editable PDF files and editable Word files. Using the PDF files, you can review all the material. Using the Word files, you can copy and paste the materials you select into your own word processing program, arrange their order, and edit their content to create a plan that is right for your camp and staff. Your purchase of this resource allows you to print and/or photocopy whatever you need for use at your campsite.
Setting Goals for the Experience
The first step in getting ready for camp is to set goals for your summer program. As you consider the time you have at camp and the young people who will attend, you need to decide what you want to happen:
• What kind of experience do you want campers to have?
• What do you want them to take home?
• What do you understand about how God is at work in their midst? about who Jesus is?
• Is camp a place for faith formation, religious education, evangelism—or all?
• What are your camp’s most important values?
Whatever your camp goals, keep them in mind as you create your plan, train your staff, and relate with your campers. Stating these goals clearly at the beginning of your planning will influence the decisions that you make and the curriculum resources that you choose or create.
Begin goal-setting by writing down five or six broad goals. For example, you may want campers to learn some Bible stories, or to accept Jesus Christ as Lord, or to experience Christian community—or all three. You may want campers to practice stewardship of God’s creation, to take a wilderness trip, or to provide service for the camp or community. Write down these goals, leaving space below each one. Then, for each goal, write down specific objectives, stating what campers can do to reach that goal. Your list might look like this:
Goal: Campers will learn four stories of Jesus.
Objectives: During the time they are at camp, campers will
• Open their Bibles on a daily basis
• Read at least four stories from scripture
• Have a chance to reflect on each story
• Be invited to explore each story’s meaning for their own lives
Goal: Campers will practice stewardship of God’s creation.
Objectives: During the time they are at camp, campers will
• Explore God’s creation
• Learn about the ecological crisis
• Worship the God of creation
• Identify three things they can do to care for God’s creation after they go home
Once you have identified and written down these goals and objectives, you are ready to determine the ways in which this particular resource can assist you in reaching them. Feel free to choose among the activities or to adapt them for your camp program.
Organization and Leadership of Your Camp
Camps may be organized in a variety of ways and may use different leadership models. As you design your curriculum, you need to understand the way these two elements work at your camp. For example, as you arrange these resources for use at your camp, you need to know who will use the curriculum, what the schedule is, and who will plan worship. To organize campers, your camp probably uses a variation of one of these three basic models:
Small-Group Decentralized Camping
In this model each small group—usually co-ed—lives together 24/7 with two counselors, a male and a female. The group plans all their activities together. The emphasis is on the community that develops within this group as they work and play, worship and pray, disagree and forgive together.
Although the group plans its own schedule, it adapts parts of its schedule to the larger camp schedule. For instance, the times for meals and special activities are probably set for the entire camp. Groups decide if and when they want to sign up for things such as swimming and arts and crafts. As a leader, you need to know what activities are available and the times at which they are held.
Within this model some camps set a time aside for all groups to gather for Bible study and/or worship. During these times, a designated camp chaplain or pastor may serve as the leader. This person is then responsible for developing the Bible study and/or for planning and leading worship.
Centralized Camping
In centralized camping, campers may also live in small groups. The schedule for group activities, however, is set with only limited opportunities to adapt the schedule to the needs of individual groups. In small-group decentralized camping, each group stays together for all activities; in a centralized form, campers may participate in several different groups during the day. They may sleep with one group, do daily activities in a variety of groups, and eat with yet another group. In this model, designated resource persons lead large-group activities, such as Bible study, games, or worship.
Conference Camping
Conference camping is actually a type of centralized camping. The focus is on the large group, however, rather than on small groups. In a conference format, the schedule and activities are planned ahead of time by a camp program director or team of leaders. Campers come together for a plenary session and then move from activity to activity in small groups.
Leadership Models
Another factor to consider is the leadership model of your camp. Some camps have full-time camp or program directors, who are responsible for overseeing the program. Other camps have site managers who host volunteer camp directors or deans. A committee of the camp’s governing body is charged with overseeing the camp program and recruits these leaders. These volunteer camp directors come to camp for short periods—usually a week—and are responsible for the program and staff during the time they are there.
Several models are used for staffing camps. At some camps, the staff—usually college-aged students—is hired for the entire camp period. Other camp staffs are made up of volunteers who come for a week at a time. Some camps involve a mixture of weekly volunteers and paid staff.
The role of staff also varies according to the model being used. In the small-group model, each group of campers has two counselors who live with the group twenty-four hours a day. These leaders are generalists who lead Bible studies, comfort the homesick, help settle conflicts, play and pray with campers, lead games, and act as role models.
In camps where campers change groups during the day, leaders may be specialists. For example, one person may only teach swimming, while another person is responsible for creating all the arts and crafts opportunities. These leaders may or may not live in tents or cabins with campers.
Evaluation
The evaluation done after the camp program ends complements the goal-setting with which you began. Through evaluation you will discover how well you reached your goals. Using the results of your evaluation, you can begin to plan for the next year of camp.
Be sure to develop evaluative tools for campers, parents, and staff to use. Their responses will help you find out how these three important participant groups perceived your camp program. Ask campers and staff what they thought about camp while their memories are fresh, before they go home. After camp is over, mail evaluation forms to parents.
On all your evaluation forms, ask specific questions rather than just general ones. If you want to know how campers liked the food and what food they liked best, ask them to name their favorite camp food. Ask parents such things as why they chose to send their children to your camp. If you have some new element at your facility or in your program, include questions about that. Be sure to ask if there are things that members of these groups would like to see added or changed next year.
Training Your Staff: A Plan
The purpose of staff training is to enable counselors and other leaders to know how to reach the goals and objectives you have set for your camp program. It is not enough to pull together some curriculum resources and hand them to the leaders. Leaders need to be trained to use the materials with the campers in ways that will reach your camp’s goals.
Within the various models, different amounts of time are available for training. In camps using different volunteers each week, counselors may arrive one or two hours before campers, providing only a brief time to train them. On the other hand, camps that hire for the whole summer may have five or more days to train them. In still other camps, with a mix of paid and volunteer counselors, training may occur in different ways and for different amounts of time.
Regardless of how much time you have, include these three essential elements:
1. Your camp’s goals and objectives for the summer program
Counselors need to be familiar with your camp’s goals and objectives. They need to see the ways in which the specific things they do with campers contribute to those goals. One way to make staff familiar with these goals and objectives is to circulate these statements well ahead of the training time. You may then ask staff members to arrive at camp with a list of specific activities they can do with campers to reach each objective. During training, have leaders share their ideas about specific activities and discuss them in the context of your goals and objectives.
2. The biblical and theological foundation
Counselors need to be familiar with the scriptures and have background information about each. Even if the camp has a pastor or chaplain who leads the major Bible study time, the counselors need to be familiar with the stories in order to develop the daily theme with campers through a variety of activities and also to deal with questions, comments, and opportunities that arise for exploring the scripture and its meaning for them.
Send out the Biblical and Theological Overview section to staff before they arrive. This plan provides an opportunity for counselors to read and study individually and then to discuss as a group in the training. For volunteer staff who arrive just ahead of campers, plan a weekend training session before the beginning of camp for the purpose of exploring the biblical themes. For longer staff training periods, one day can be spent on each story/theme. Some camps invite local pastors and educators to participate in counselor training by introducing each theme. Having counselors engage in Bible study using the selected scriptures for the week invites them to reflect on their own faith.
With Get Real, an important part of the theological training needs to be conversations about the Trinity and also about sin and salvation. The emphasis of this year’s curriculum is Jesus, which means the language scale tilts toward more references to Jesus than to God or the Holy Spirit. That emphasis may mean some campers will raise questions or evidence some confusion. As a staff, have the conversation: “How would you explain the mystery of our triune God, especially to children who are concrete thinkers?”
Jesus as Savior is central to our theology as Christians. Yet, through the years and in our many faith traditions we have different ways of talking about sin and salvation. Conversations during training need to illumine how your tradition understands and explains these two central tenets of the faith, and then go further to help leaders know how to do so in age-appropriate ways.
3. Activities within the curriculum and how they relate to the goals and objectives of your camp
Counselors need to be familiar with the activities in the curriculum. Reviewing the activities related to each Daily Guide is a start. Go a step further by including time for counselors to lead the other staff in some. This familiarity increases their confidence in leading activities with campers. Counselors also need to understand how specific activities can contribute to reaching the goals and objectives. Since you have been intentional about what you have chosen for your camp’s curriculum, your staff needs to understand the rationale behind your choices. For example, if one goal relates to care of creation, counselors need to understand how Daily Guide activities such as a hike, a camp cleanup, or an exploration of the swamp contribute to this goal.
Plan Your Training
You can use the following ideas for study of each of the seven sessions. Do this plan as is or divide it into shorter sessions spread throughout the day.
A. Use one of these methods to introduce the biblical story and focus:
Direct staff to the Daily Overview for Get Real chart (above).
• Read or have someone else read the passage from the Bible.
• Read the focus statement. Ask someone who is a good storyteller to tell the story. (Ask that person in advance so he or she can prepare.)
• Read the focus statement. Lead the staff through the story using one of the three Bible study methods described in the handout below: Bible Study Methods.
• Read the focus statement. Ask a small group of staff to present a skit of the story. (Ask them in advance so they can prepare.)
B. Use one or more of these to introduce the background material and theological issues:
• Play the video provided with this curriculum. It introduces the theme and Bible background.
• Ask a small group of staff to prepare a presentation or lead a discussion using information from the Biblical and Theological Overview section.
• Invite a local pastor or educator to present the information.
• Deal with the issues of the Trinity and of sin and salvation, indicated above.
• Use maps, photos, and other illustrative material.
C. Use the Leader Reflections questions
At the end of each day’s Biblical and Theological Overview are reflections addressed to the leaders. Use them as a springboard to a discussion of the ways in which the biblical material and concepts intersect with their own lives and faith.
Sample Training Exercises
1. Create an Activity
Invite staff members to explore the concepts and stories by developing and leading an activity. Divide into four to five small groups (depending on your numbers). Explain that you will assign a type of activity (Bible study, creative activity, environmental activity, service activity, or game) to each group and that they are to develop an activity to achieve one of the goals in the focus statement for the session. Tell them that they can use any of the Daily Guides or Extra Resources from Get Real itself or develop one of the study suggestions on the handout, Bible Storytelling Methods. Once they have prepared the activity they will lead the rest of the staff in it.
Give the groups about twenty minutes to prepare and then allow up to an hour for all the groups to lead their activities. After each activity, facilitate a fifteen-minute evaluation session involving everyone. Ask those who led the activity for ideas about how they might improve their session. Other staff members can contribute constructive and positive comments about ways that it could be strengthened. As the camp leader, participate in the evaluation, offering suggestions and taking advantage of any teachable moments.
Supplies: Bibles, Get Real Daily Guides and Extra Resources, Bible Storytelling Methods handout, recreational equipment, arts and crafts materials, and environmental education materials
2. Play Who Are You?
Explain to the staff that they will work in small groups to choose a biblical character from one of the Bible stories and identify what they admire and how they want to be like that character. You can use this activity for any one Bible story or after completing the exploration of all the Bible stories.
Have staff self-select into small groups. Assign one or more of the Bible stories to them. Give the small groups about ten to fifteen minutes to choose a biblical character from the story (or stories) and to decide what they like or admire about the character. Each small group will create a short skit about the person, letting the others guess which one they have chosen.
Gather the whole group for the presentations. Have all the small groups present their skits at one time, or scatter them throughout the day. After each skit, invite the trainees to talk about what these characters have to teach them about being camp counselors. Ask: “What kind of camp counselor would each of these biblical characters have made? How do you want to be like them this summer?”
Keep a list on a large sheet of paper of all the qualities the group identifies in the biblical characters. Afterward, post the list where staff can see it during the remainder of the training.
After the activity is finished, gather back together. Use questions such as the following to encourage discussion about the study and how they could use the method with campers:
• What did you like about this activity?
• What did you find difficult about this activity?
• Would you use this activity with campers? Why or why not?
• With what age campers would this work best?
• What do you think campers would like about this activity?
Supplies: Bibles, Get Real listing of scripture from the Daily Overview, large sheets of paper, and markers
3. Learn the Stories
Explain to staff that they will work in small groups using one of the Bible stories to reflect on what it tells them about Jesus. Then they will use a form of artistic expression such as a cartoon, poem, song, mural, and so forth to describe the nature of Jesus to the rest of the group. Let them choose their groups. Assign each group one of the Bible stories, or choose a specific activity of this type from Get Real. Give them about fifteen to twenty minutes to talk about what the story tells them about Jesus and to prepare an artistic expression about what they found out.
Gather back together to share the artistic expressions. You can have all the small groups make their presentations at one time or scatter them throughout staff training.
Use questions such as the following to encourage discussion about the study and how they could use the method with campers:
• What did you like about this activity?
• What did you find difficult about this activity?
• Would you use this activity with campers? Why or why not?
• With what age campers would this work best?
• What do you think campers would like about this activity?
Supplies: Bibles, Get Real listing of scripture from Daily Overview, a variety of types of paper (such as newsprint, construction, notebook), and a variety of drawing materials (such as markers, pencils, pens, crayons)
Learning about Campers
In addition to being familiar and comfortable with the content of the curriculum, counselors need to understand the campers with whom they will be working. Campers of different ages have different behavior and learning characteristics. As staff members prepare to lead children and youth, they need to know what is appropriate for each age group. Copy the Age-Level Characteristics chart below for your staff manual and use it to introduce counselors to each age group.
The camp setting provides an environment that promotes experiential and relational learning. Your staff needs to be familiar with the value of experiential learning and ways to develop plans for active learning. Faith can come alive through active learning that invites each camper to participate as a whole person. Movement, involvement of all the senses, the arts, and a multiplicity of methods make camps a powerful force in the faith formation of young people.
InsideOut resources are committed to experiential learning. Activities are based on the Multiple Intelligences theory of Howard Gardner. Gardner defines intelligence as the ability to create problems to solve and then to solve them. Each person has a preferred manner in which to do that best. Gardner has named and described eight different ways in which people express their ability to create and solve problems. See the Multiple Intelligences chart below.
Point out to staff that the primary Multiple Intelligences for each activity are identified at the end of the activity, along with the list of supplies needed. Encourage your staff to include activities that engage several intelligences during a camp day. In this way, each camper will find an opportunity to use his or her preferred intelligence, leading to greater engagement.
In establishing a relational learning environment, staff members need to consider the roles of both learners and leaders. In such a learning environment, leaders are not “teachers” who have all the answers. Leaders or counselors are facilitators and guides, helping the whole group make discoveries. They are partners and travelers with the learners on the journey of discovery. The learners are full participants in the discovery process, bringing insights and sharing experiences. Active learning is always more effective than passive learning that involves just listening.
The following are indicators of such an active, experiential learning environment:
• Learning and discovery are taking place.
• Leaders are aware of the many ways in which people learn.
• Leaders understand that faith formation takes place through the whole camp experience.
• Campers and leaders engage in dialogue and practice collaboration.
• A spirit of cooperation undergirds the discoveries, and the experiences of each person are valued.
Understanding Age-Group Characteristics
Human beings develop physically, emotionally, spiritually, and cognitively throughout their life span. One way you can express love and care for young people and build their sense of worth as children of God is to expect behavior of them that is appropriate for their ages. The opposite side of this is to show your love by not expecting behavior that is appropriately expected only of older children.
Younger Children (ages 7–9) can be characterized in the following ways:
• They learn best by doing, and they have very short attention spans.
• They think in concrete terms about things they can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. Most cannot think about abstract ideas such as truth, love, sin, and so on. They have a great need for adult role models of the same gender.
• They seek out heroes.
• Their faith is very literal. Because they are unable to think abstractly and because they seek out heroes, they enjoy the stories of the Bible and hearing about the people in the stories.
• They want to master many skills, but they still need to be cherished for themselves, not their performance.
• They are very active, but are often unable to manage their own need for rest. They need rest time and a clear bedtime.
• They are beginning to define themselves outside their families and look to their peer groups for acceptance.
• They have a very
silly sense of
humor.
Older Children (ages 10–12) can be characterized in the following ways:
• They are very active but need help slowing down for rest.
• They have a deep need for fairness and characterize everything as right or wrong.
• They thrive within same-gender friendships.
• They are reluctant to relate to, and especially to touch, the other gender.
• Girls mature much earlier than boys and may be menstruating and wearing bras by this time.
• They still have a need for same-gender role models.
• They are beginning to question everything, but do so more out of wonder than out of doubt.
• Their faith is very literal and reflects the faith of their parents.
• They are beginning to learn the fundamentals of abstract thinking.
Younger Youth (ages 12–14) can be characterized in the following ways:
• They are in the midst of a great deal of change: physically, emotionally, and socially.
• Boys experience growth spurts, voice changes, hormonal swings, and sexual changes.
• Girls tend to be more mature emotionally, socially, and physically than boys their same age, and therefore begin to date boys one or two years older. They swing back and forth between adult and childlike behavior.
• They need to be accepted and belong and will do almost anything to do so.
• They may have experimented with drugs, cigarettes, sex, and alcohol or be thinking about it, and may need a nonjudgmental person with whom to discuss their choices.
• They focus on the “now” and have very little ability to think about the future implications of their actions.
• They need very clear boundaries that allow them a sense of freedom and help them develop skills for responsibility.
• They are developing abstract thinking skills but may still prefer to think concretely.
• They are very idealistic.
Older Youth (ages 15–18) can be characterized in the following ways:
• They are seeking to form an identity separate from their families.
• They can use abstract thinking skills that enable them to think about concepts and perspectives other than their own and about the consequences of their actions.
• They are beginning to form a statement of faith that is separate from their parents’.
• They are questioning the authority of scripture, church leaders, and their parents.
• They are almost fully developed physically but are still very self-conscious about appearance.
• They are very concerned about weight. This concern, particularly in girls, may develop into eating disorders.
• They still need lots of rest and sleep, but do not usually plan it into their day without reminders.
• Many have probably experimented with drugs, smoking, sex, and alcohol. They need to be able to discuss their choices in a nonjudgmental atmosphere.
• They are under tremendous pressure to succeed so that they can get into college or get a job.
• They want to belong.
Multiple Intelligences
Multiple Intelligences refers to the ability to create problems to solve and to solve those problems. Each of us has a way to do that best. Here is a brief description of the eight different ways in which people express their ability to create and solve problems. Look for the Multiple Intelligences lists following activities throughout the guide for particular intelligences you might be looking for.
Logical/Mathematical:
This intelligence likes to deal with numbers and abstract patterns. Often, this intelligence is referred to as scientific reasoning. These learners like to read, write, and tell stories; play word games; use computers; debate; and write in journals.
Intrapersonal:
This intelligence is comfortable with self-reflection, thinking about thinking, and spirituality. It involves the knowledge of inner feelings and emotional responses. These learners prefer independent, self-paced study, journal keeping, and individualized projects.
Musical:
This intelligence is based on an enjoyment of rhythmic and tonal patterns. People with this intelligence enjoy singing, listening to music, and playing musical instruments. They respond to music and group singing.
Spatial:
The key elements of this intelligence are the sense of sight and the ability to form mental images and pictures in the mind. These learners enjoy drawing, building, designing and creating things, looking at pictures, and playing with machines.
Linguistic:
This intelligence uses words and language effectively. People with this intelligence enjoy all the possibilities of exploring ideas and concepts. They express realities through words—writing, reading, talking, and listening.
Interpersonal:
This intelligence responds well to working with others. The people who have this intelligence are able to work cooperatively and have a sense of empathy for the feelings and experiences of others. They enjoy cooperative games, board games, group brainstorming and problem solving, peer coaching, and interpersonal interaction.
Bodily/Kinesthetic:
This intelligence uses the body to express emotion, and to articulate ideas and concepts. These people learn well through movement, touching, using body language, sports and physical games, drama, dance, using clay, and building projects.
Naturalist:
This intelligence is attuned to the natural world and uses all senses to enjoy creation. These learners enjoy the study of nature, identifying cultural artifacts, collecting, sorting, and observing variation of objects in nature.
Those wishing to learn more about Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory are encouraged to consult Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Howard Gardner (New York: Basic Books, 1983).
Teaching Bible Stories
The goal of telling Bible stories at camp reflects a belief in the power of stories to pass on meaning and values. Campers learn about God and what God has done and is doing in the lives of humans. They are invited to consider what they in turn know about God and what God has done in their lives. Even if a young camper goes home knowing only the stories, we have provided a foundation on which that child can build a faith.
Unfortunately, counselors don’t always come to camp equipped to understand the importance of stories, and they often lack the skills for inviting campers to hear and respond to them in an age-appropriate way. Educators have long known that we humans are more apt to repeat an activity if we have experienced it ourselves. Consequently, one of the best ways to equip counselors for this important task is to engage them directly.
Involving staff through a variety of experiences has two advantages. First, experiencing the methods will give them the opportunity to reflect on the stories from the perspective of their own faith. Counselors will not only become more conversant with the stories but also ponder the meaning the stories have in their own lives. Second, leaders will become familiar with a variety of methods they can then use with campers.
This section provides a series of possibilities for studying the Bible and telling Bible stories that you can use during staff training. Each of the following activities includes the process, plus guidance to encourage staff to reflect on ways that they could use each method with campers and the age group for which they are most appropriate.
Each of the methods included here invites staff and campers to encounter the Bible stories in imaginative ways that can lead to growth in their faith. All of them encourage the participants to step into the story and ask, “How is this like my experience? What does it tell me about God? What do I want to do now?” The activities add value to both the experience and the insights of the learners. They provide the means for exploring scripture in such a way that both staff and campers can respond to God’s call to discipleship.
Two handouts you can use with your staff are included in the section: Bible Study Methods and Bible Storytelling Methods. You have permission to reproduce these two handouts for use within your camp for staff training. The handouts can either be distributed at the beginning of each session or placed within your staff manual as a permanent resource. Since several of the activities encourage participants to record their insights, you may also want to include some blank pages for them to use for their personal reflection.
Bible Study Methods
1. Small Group Bible Study
Explain to staff that during this activity they will reflect on one of the Bible stories and ponder what is meaningful to them in it. Have the participants form themselves into small groups of six to eight and designate a facilitator for each group. Pass out the Bible Study Methods handout and review together the ten steps for Small Group Bible Study. Assign the Bible passage they will be using and give the groups about twenty minutes to complete the study.
After the study is complete, gather again. Use questions such as the following to encourage discussion about the study and how they could use the method with campers:
• What did you like about studying a portion of scripture this way?
• What did you find difficult about studying it this way?
• Would you use this small group method with campers? Why or why not?
• With what age campers would this work best?
• What do you think campers would like about this way to study scripture?
Supplies: Copies of the Bible Study Methods handout, Bibles, pens, and notebook paper or journals
2. Shared Praxis
Introduce Shared Praxis as a way they can explore any of the themes or passages. The method has five steps, inviting a group to examine both their own experiences and the biblical passage, which creates a conversation between their own experience and the portion of scripture. Have them look at the Bible Study Methods handout, and talk about each step. Lead the group through this Shared Praxis activity or one that you have created:
How Did Jesus Treat Outsiders?
Step One: Who are the unpopular people or outsiders you know? Choose one of these activities to begin:
a. Ask staff when they have had an experience of being the popular one or the outsider. What was it like to be popular or an outsider?
b. Have staff create a skit about an outsider and how the “in” crowd treated that person. Invite staff to talk about what happened in the skit and their own experiences of being “in” or “out.”
c. Tell about an experience you have had of being left out or feeling left out. Invite staff to tell about their own experiences and feelings.
Step Two: What makes some people outsiders?
Invite staff to think about why some people are popular and why some others are outsiders. Ask, “What makes us insiders and outsiders? Why do some people belong and others don’t? Where do you see the issue of insiders and outsiders affecting community, national, and global situations? What are some of the consequences of having insiders and outsiders?”
Step Three: Stories of Jesus
One of the things Jesus did a lot was to hang out with unpopular people. In Jesus’ time, people were unpopular for a number of reasons. We don’t have all the same reasons in our day, so it is important for staff to understand that these people were the outsiders and Jesus chose to be with them. Furthermore, he ate with them, which was one step beyond just hanging out with them.
Luke 19:1–10—Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He worked for the Roman government, which had invaded Israel and now ruled the country. Tax collectors often collected more money than the Romans required and put the extra in their own pockets, so they were seen as both traitors and cheats.
John 4:5–27—Women were understood as possessions and not as people. It was completely unacceptable for a man to walk up to a woman he didn’t know out in public and just start talking to her. And on top of the regular reasons why Jesus shouldn’t talk to her, she was a Samaritan and someone who was living with a man who was not her husband. This very complex story has lots of double and deep meanings. Focus on the fact that Jesus talked to this woman and that he told her God’s good news about who he was. Be aware that this story is not a good choice for younger campers.
Matthew 9:10–13—This is another story about Jesus choosing to eat with tax collectors.
Step Four: How is Jesus’ story like our story?
Ask questions such as, “Do you think Jesus felt uncomfortable about hanging out with outsiders? Why do you think he chose to do this? How did he feel about these people? How did he treat these people? How do you feel when you are with unpopular people? How do you treat them?”
Step Five: What would you like to do differently next time you meet an outsider?
Ask questions such as, “Think about an unpopular person in your school, church, or neighborhood. Imagine that you see Jesus hanging out with this person and laughing and having fun. How would you feel? What would you want to do? Do you feel any different about these people when you imagine Jesus being with them?”
After the staff members have completed the Shared Praxis, use some of the following “wonder” questions to encourage conversation about their response to the Shared Praxis and how they can use this method with campers:
• I wonder what you liked about studying a portion of scripture this way.
• I wonder what you found difficult about studying a portion of scripture this way.
• I wonder whether or not you would use this method with campers. Why or why not?
Supplies: Copies of the Bible Study Methods handout, Bibles, pens, notebook paper or journals
3. Theologizing Model
Introduce the Theologizing Model as a way to explore any of the session themes and passages. This method has six steps that invite a group to examine both their own experiences and the biblical passage, creating a conversation between the two. Have them look at the six steps for the Theologizing Model on the Bible Study Methods handout, and talk about each step. Lead the group through the method:
Step One: Invite the group to identify a story in one of the Bible passages or an experience they have shared during staff training, such as a cookout, hike, or distinct training session.
Step Two: Once everyone has agreed on the story, have one or more people retell the story in the passage or experience in his or her own words.
Step Three: Encourage the group to identify feelings of the people in the biblical story or experience they have shared. If you are using an experience from staff training, keep in mind that there may be unresolved feelings that will need to be discussed. Invite people to name those feelings but not to get involved in a blame game.
Step Four: Ask staff to identify some of the main themes or issues (such as love, conflict, or peace) found in the story or experience. Encourage them to tell where they see these themes at work in the story.
Step Five: If you began with an experience shared by the staff, invite them to think of biblical stories in which these themes can also be found. Make a list of those stories. If you began with one of the Bible stories, encourage staff to relate these main themes to experiences they have shared during their training. Either way, invite them to identify the places in either the shared experience or the biblical story where they see God and what these help them know about God.
Step Six: Talk about what they learned from the discussion about the biblical story or shared experience. Then ask them what the implications of this learning is for what they believe or how they want to behave in the future at both camp and at home.
After they have completed the Theologizing Method, use some of the following “wonder” questions to encourage conversation about their response to the Theologizing Method and how they can use this method with campers:
• I wonder what you liked about studying a portion of scripture this way.
• I wonder what you found difficult about studying a portion of scripture this way.
• I wonder whether or not you would use this method with campers. Why or why not?
Supplies: Copies of the Bible Study Methods handout, Bibles, large sheets of paper, and markers
Bible Storytelling Methods
1. Create a Skit
Explain to staff that they will have a chance to work in small groups to create a skit using one of the Bible stories. Distribute copies of the Bible Storytelling Methods handout. Divide the participants into three groups. Assign each group a story and one of the methods for creating a skit. Give them about fifteen minutes to read the scripture and plan their skits. Reconvene and have them present their skits.
Afterward, talk about how to use skits with campers. Use some of the following questions to encourage conversation:
• What did you like about each kind of skit method?
• What age group would you use the skit method with?
• What do you think campers will like about doing the skits?
Supplies: Copies of the Bible Storytelling Methods handout, Bibles
2. Make Puppets
Prior to the activity, set up three tables in different parts of the room. Put the copies of the Bible Storytelling Methods handout on each of the tables and separate the supplies for each kind of the puppets—one kind per table. (See the handout for types of puppets and the supplies.)
Explain to staff that they are going to learn how to make three different kinds of puppets to tell the Bible stories. Divide into three groups and assign each group one of the stories. Explain that they are to rotate among the tables and make that kind of puppet to tell their assigned story. Give them about thirty minutes. When time is up, give the groups a few minutes to choose which type of puppet they will use to tell their assigned story, and then move into the storytelling.
After each group has presented its story, talk together about how to use puppets with campers. Use some of the following discussion questions to encourage conversation:
• What did you like about using puppets to tell the Bible story?
• What age group would you use the puppets with?
• What do you think campers will like about the puppets?
Supplies: Three tables, copies of the Bible Storytelling Methods handout, Bibles, supplies for making puppets (see handout)
3. Write an Easy Poem Form
Explain to the staff that they will learn and use two easy forms of poetry. Assign one of the Bible stories to the whole group. Explain that everyone will have about twenty minutes to read the scripture and to write their own poems using one or both forms of the poetry.
Call everyone back together and invite those who wish to read their poems. Be sure that they identify which poetry form they have used. After the poems have been shared, talk about how to use them with campers. Use some of the following “wonder” questions to encourage conversation:
• I wonder what you liked about each kind of poetry form.
• I wonder how you can use the poetry forms with different age groups of campers.
• I wonder what you think campers will like about using the poetry forms.
Supplies: Copies of the Bible Storytelling Methods handout, Bibles, paper, and pens
4. Use an Artistic Response
Prior to the activity set up three tables in three different parts of the room. Put copies of the Bible Storytelling Methods handout on each table and separate the supplies for each kind of artistic response—one kind per table.
Divide into three groups and assign each a Bible passage and one of the artistic expressions. Give the groups about twenty minutes to read the scripture and create their art in response. Bring the groups back together and look at the mural and the cartoon. Invite the third group to sing their song.
Afterward, talk about how to use these artistic methods with campers. Use some of the following questions to encourage conversation:
• What did you like about each kind of artistic method?
• With what age group would you use them?
• What do you think campers will like about creating the mural, drawing the cartoon, or writing the song?
Supplies: Three tables, copies of the Bible Storytelling Methods handout, Bibles, art supplies (see handout)
Bible Study Methods
Handout
Steps for Small Group Bible Study
Step 1: Have one person read the biblical passage aloud.
Step 2: Ask each person to identify one word or phrase that seems important to that person.
Step 3: Invite each person to share that word or phrase with the group.
Step 4: Have someone else read the biblical passage aloud again.
Step 5: Tell each person to write down what the biblical passage has to do with his or her life now.
Step 6: Invite each person to share what he or she wrote in #5 with the rest of the group.
Step 7: Have someone read the biblical passage aloud a third time.
Step 8: Ask each person to write down what God seems to be saying to him or her in the passage.
Step 9: Invite each person to share what he or she believes God is saying to him or her in the passage.
Step 10: Join hands and invite each person to pray aloud for the person on his or her right.
Shared Praxis
1. Identify the issue or challenge to be discussed. Invite people to name their own experiences concerning the issue or challenge.
2. Invite people to discuss the issue or challenge and how it affects their lives. Encourage them to reflect on why they do what they do and what the likely or intended consequences of their actions are.
3. Introduce the biblical story and background information about the setting of the story. Read the story and talk about what happened in the story. Encourage people to discuss the faith response the passage invites.
4. Encourage people to talk about how the story speaks to their own experiences with the issue or challenge. Invite them to discuss what can they learn about the issue or challenge from the biblical story. Encourage them to have a conversation between their own stories and the biblical story.
5. Provide the opportunity for the learners to think about how their future behavior might change because of hearing the story and thinking about it. Give them an opportunity to choose a faith response for the future.
Theologizing Methods
1. Remember an experience. It can be any experience that the group has shared or a story from scripture.
2. Recall and retell the experience. Group members use their own words to retell the story.
3. Identify feelings of the people in the story. If there are unresolved feelings in the group about this experience, talk about them.
4. Isolate the main issue (such as love, conflict, or peace) found in the story or experience.
5. If you began with a group experience, relate these main issues to biblical stories or theological concept(s). If you began with a biblical story, relate these main issues to the experiences of the group.
6. Clarify what the implications are for beliefs and/or behavior, both at camp and at home.
Bible Storytelling Methods
Handout
Skits
Tableau—Read the scripture, and talk about the different scenes in the story. Imagine you are going to draw the different events in the story. Instead of drawing them, stand still/freeze as if you are the figures in the drawing. Do this for each of the scenes in the story. Have someone read or tell the story as each scene is made Supplies: Bibles, (optional: costumes)
Narrated—Have one person read or tell the story. This can be fun if the person tells the story without the actors knowing what the story is. They act it out as the narrator describes what they are doing. Supplies: Bibles, (optional: costumes)
Camper Developed—Read the scripture. Talk together about a way to act out the story. Discuss who will say what. Supplies: Bibles (optional: costumes)
Puppets
Finger Puppets—Put one bandage over the top of a finger and wrap a second bandage around the finger over the two ends of the other bandage. Draw a face on the bandage. Sometimes you can loosen the bandages enough so the finger puppet slips on and off your finger, but normally you just use the puppet once. Supplies: One-inch-wide bandages (two for each person), fine markers, Bibles
Paper Plate Puppets—Draw a face on the surface of the paper plate you would normally eat on. You can draw the hair, or use glue and yarn to add hair. When the face is complete, attach a craft stick to the back with masking tape. Supplies: One paper plate (the cheap kind) for each person, markers, craft sticks, masking tape, Bibles (optional: glue, yarn, and scissors)
Clothespin Puppets—Hold the clothespin up as if you were going to push it down onto a clothesline. Use a fine marker to draw a face on the round top. Then using the fabric, fashion clothing for the puppet. Cut out a three-inch by one-inch rectangle. Cut a slit in the middle and put the fabric over the “head” of the puppet. Tie it with yarn. Supplies: Push clothespins (not the clip type), scraps of fabric, yarn, glue, scissors, fine markers, Bibles
Easy Poetry
Cinquain poetry is based on a certain number of words in each of its five lines. The words can be any length and do not have to rhyme.
Line 1: One word: a person, place, or thing
Line 2: Two words that tell about the word in Line 1.
Line 3: Three words that also tell about the word in Line 1.
Line 4: Four words that tell a feeling about
Line 1.
Line 5: One word that is like the word in Line 1.
Haiku is a form of poetry that comes from Japan. It depends on the number of syllables in each line. Here’s how you do it:
The first line has five syllables.
The second line has seven syllables.
The third line has five syllables.
Supplies: White copy paper or notebook paper, pencils, handout with poetry forms, Bibles
Respond Artistically
Mural—Read the Bible story and decide what the major scenes in the story are. Divide the butcher paper into panels or use a separate large sheet of paper for each scene. Draw the different scenes to the story. Hang the scenes in order on the wall. Supplies: Bibles, butcher paper or separate large sheets of paper that can be taped together, markers, masking tape or pushpins
Cartoon—Read the Bible story and decide how you will tell the story as a cartoon. Draw the pictures of the cartoon. Hang on the wall. Supplies: Bibles, white copy paper, pencils, black ink pens, masking tape or pushpins
Song—Read the Bible story and write it as a song. Choose a familiar tune to sing the words to. Supplies: Bibles, large sheets of paper and markers
Biblical and Theological overview
Introduction
Get real. The Bible study and devotional materials you are about to read and lead are real. They cover a range of topics and different books of the Bible, but they have one thing in common—getting real. There’s a lot of fake out there. In a culture of manicured online profiles, electronically altered images, and relentless deception in marketing and advertising, it’s difficult to know who our friends are and whom we can trust. And it’s far too easy to buckle under the pressure to become the images we see.
It’s a shame because it is only in the context of a real and trustworthy community that individuals come to know their true identity. We all are in danger of losing our true selves. This threat is real, especially for young people, who tend to look for feedback cues from those around them to test the social acceptability and popularity of their images. They secretly test things like their clothing, their speech, their body image, their affiliations, their taste in music, their style, and so on. The more pressure they put on themselves to attain a certain image or fit with a certain crowd, the less and less they are able to stay in touch with who they are deep down. They lose themselves. When other people who also don’t know themselves begin influencing how young persons understand their lives, they lose themselves. It becomes more important than ever to get real. We all must seek our own identity from a trustworthy source.
God is the most trustworthy friend any of us will ever know. How shall we seek God? Christians have long answered that question by pointing to the life and legacy of Jesus, who is God of very God, having taken on human flesh. The mystery of the incarnation and the birth of Jesus reminds us that God does not come to us in conventional and expected ways. Sometimes we must look in places that seem most unlikely. The King of kings was not born in a palace but in a stable fit for animals. And the honored guests at his birth were not royals but lowly shepherds.
In this day and age, finding the unexpected doubtlessly means we have to move beyond the noise and frenzy and into the last great frontiers—time and silence. To get real, we need to silence our phones, close our laptops, turn off the tv, and spend time waiting for a still, small voice—and, this week, to enter a place, a community, called camp.
We will find that God’s voice, once recognized, is speaking in the world now and in many different places. Sure, it speaks in scripture, theology, art, music, and nature, and it even speaks through the loving action of God’s people. Yes, God speaks through us a message we can trust. We are not created in the image of popular culture. We are created in the image of God, who loves us just as we are and asks us to love others in the same way.
There is no more real way to live and move and have our being.
Biblical and Theological Overview
Day 1
WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?
MATTHEW 16:13–17
The Story
This reading may be short, but it packs a punch! Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Some ambiguity surrounds Jesus’ use of the term “Son of Man.” Is he referring to someone else or himself?
The disciples’ original response is this: “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” This answer seems to indicate that they interpret Jesus’ question as students might interpret a history teacher’s question. For instance, “Looking back on the history of the prophets, which one do you think is the apocalyptic figure who will return and vindicate Israel?” Such a question understandably leads to their answer about John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and the prophets. Of particular note is the “some say” that begins their answers.
Jesus, however, narrows the question. He is not ultimately interested in a report on the diversity of opinions that exist “out there.” Now he’s asking the disciples as individuals what they believe. After Jesus reframes the question, “Who do you say I am?” it seems that only Peter hears it correctly. Not only does he respond on a personal level, but he also understands that Jesus uses “Son of Man” in reference to himself.
Peter’s reply sets him apart as a leader among the disciples, not only because he understood the question and had the right answer, but also because his answer came to him by faith. He was willing to go within himself in order to grapple with the personal question, “Who is Jesus?” And his heart told him, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
The Story’s Context
This story is a moment in the drama of Matthew’s gospel that signals a shift in the narrative. Up to this point we have been introduced to Jesus much the way common people would have known him: a teacher, preacher, and healer. Up to this point his public ministry has been primarily concerned with reinvigorating the faith of God’s people, and his teachings and conversation portray him as a special rabbi with a distinct angle on what he teaches.
But there is more to Jesus than being a rabbi. He is the King of the Jews, the Son of Man, and the Son of God. Here, for the first time in Matthew’s gospel we begin to see the disciples grappling with the challenge of Jesus’ true identity and what it will mean for him. This moment in the story signals the beginning of his teachings about his own crucifixion and the structure and authority in the church, which can be understood as Jesus’ “succession plan.”
Jesus knows he is in danger and that he will die. The disciples will have a difficult time with this. Much more difficult will be understanding that this death will be the wellspring of abundant life.
Background
Jesus is traveling alongside his closest companions through the area that is the present-day border of Syria and Lebanon. The geography is mountainous with sheer rock faces one hundred feet high, where the travelers likely stopped. They arrive at the region of Caesarea Philippi, a Roman city at the base of Mt. Hebron, which is the highest mountain anywhere in sight. The city is named after tetrarch Philip, a regional governor of Rome who dedicated a Roman temple there to the Emperor Tiberius.
All these details are of particular importance when we consider what is said next in verse 18: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” Of course, Peter—Petros in Greek—means rock, and Jesus establishes a plan to build a church on the foundation of Peter and his exemplary faith. This declaration is significant because it represents a philosophical difference from the practice of establishing a temple on a high mountain. Jesus builds his temple in the hearts of those who have faith like Peter’s, for that “rock” is more solid even than Mt. Hebron.
Theological Issues
The scene in this reading is classically known as “Peter’s Confession.” It’s a confession not because Peter has done something wrong, which he now admits. Rather, confession is a theological term that means to tell the truth of the stirrings of one’s heart. It is “to go on record,” about what one holds most true. In this reading, Peter confesses his belief that Jesus is truly a one-of-a-kind representative of God who will make the world right.
This moment in the gospel story is astonishing because the disciples have up until now been mystified and confused as to the true identity of Jesus. They think he could be a prophet, but Peter knows in his heart that Jesus is more than just a messenger of God—he is the message. That recognition means devotion to God is something different from allegiance to a set of rules, ideals, or principles; devotion to God is like a relationship with a person. Specifically, that person is Jesus Christ.
How does Peter know this? Verse 17 says that Jesus’ true identity was revealed to Peter through divine inspiration—that is, faith. Faith is the heart’s knowledge of inner, invisible truth. It is a very different way of knowing than science, in which knowledge relies on observation of what is outward and visible.
When Peter uses faith to discern Jesus’ identity as Lord, he simultaneously receives his own identity—servant. By faith, Peter comes to know God and himself at the same time. This scripture passage says that discovering and knowing who Jesus really is will enable us to understand ourselves more deeply. And that union will make us more useful to God, to our neighbors, and to the world.
Leader Reflections
As we read about Peter, it is helpful to think of him as a caricature of our own struggling discipleship. Often in the gospels we see Peter as a close reflection of ourselves. Peter is frequently the one who is confused or mistaken. Time and again it is Peter who is in need of correction or forgiveness—and none of us is without the same need. But here is one of the few occasions when Peter sets a perfect example and teaches us the very anatomy of basic Christian faith: who we say Jesus is. How we answer Jesus’ question determines how we follow him.
When we read a story about something Peter did, a good interpretive question to ask is, “What would it mean if this story were not about Peter but about me, instead?” And it is this question that will drive your discussion and Bible study with campers.
As you read this lesson with campers, try to help them imagine that Jesus is asking this very same question—not who do your parents or neighbors or friends say I am, but who do you say that I am? The bottom line is that if we want our faith to be real—and not just a stale set of rules and beliefs to follow—then we have to wrestle with this question on a deep and personal level.
Try to help your campers imagine not just what their response might be—but what their response might mean for the way they live and relate with God and others. Campers will have all week to meditate on a response. For the first day, simply allow the question to be asked. After all, that’s what Jesus does.
Day 2
JESUS IS GOD WITH US
ISAIAH 9:6; LUKE 1—2
Isaiah 9:6
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Background and Context
Isaiah 9:6 is about casting a vision of hope in difficult times. In this case, in times of the Assyrian military threat on God’s people. In the face of danger Isaiah proclaimed that God’s people would only be safe by the hand of God, not by the sword. A great thing to remember is that the main theme of the book of Isaiah is right there in his name, which means “salvation is of the Lord.”
In the time period of this text’s origin (eighth century b.c.e.), God’s people placed their hope in the coming of a special political leader, a messiah. That may sound strange to Christian ears, since we profess Jesus as the Messiah. But messiah has not always referred to a spiritual savior, as it does in Christianity. It literally means “anointed one” and was then a title that referred to the anointing of a king at a coronation ceremony. A messiah was any king of Israel who had God’s blessing.
It is significant that, in this case, the hope is cast upon a child: “For unto us a child is born.” First of all, a child is unexpected, just as the unexpected defense to a grave military threat would be God, rather than armament and battle. Moreover, a child is blameless, a fresh canvas, and a child king could take power at a young age and rule for a long time. The verse also declares the child’s successes to be possible only as long as he is a cooperative vessel for the action of God. Isaiah was the mouthpiece for a movement that sought a return to trusting in God—not just a king. Isaiah told of a hopeful time when help would be close at hand.
Theological Issues
While the author of Isaiah surely could not have knowingly been writing about Jesus, with the dawn of Christianity a definite theological connection arose between the figure from Isaiah 9:6 and the messianic definitions. At the very root of the two distinct understandings of messiah is placing the hope of the world in the mercy of God.
Luke 1—2
The Story
The angel Gabriel plays a major role in the first chapter of Luke, as the author emphasizes the revelatory nature of both John’s and Jesus’ miraculous conceptions and births. Gabriel visits Zechariah to foretell the birth of John the Baptist, the one who would prepare the way for Jesus. Gabriel then visits Mary and asks her permission to partner with God in bringing Jesus into the world.
We then learn Mary and John’s mother, Elizabeth, are cousins; and when they visit together while both women are pregnant, John leaps in Elizabeth’s womb. What is implied is that John, in utero, already possesses a spiritual and familiar knowledge of the divinity of Jesus Christ, enough to recognize Jesus in close proximity and become excited.
Chapter 2 is dedicated to the documentation of Jesus’ credentials as a model Jew: Jesus is named and circumcised on the eighth day, as required by religious law. Jesus is presented to the temple priest accordingly, and as an infant is recognized by Simeon as God’s salvation not only for Israel, but also for Gentiles. Luke is concerned with showing that God includes Gentiles among the fold of God’s family, but this extension of hospitality is controversial from the Jewish perspective. So Jesus can only succeed in this message among Jews if he himself is shown to be a model Jew—above reproach.
That means he must become an expert in the law. To emphasize this point, Luke tells the story of an adolescent Jesus focused on religious instruction and conversation with the rabbis during the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover. He stays there with the teachers for three days until his parents, who surely feared the worst after searching for him for so long, found him in the temple. The detail of three days is a sure allusion to the resurrection.
Jesus develops his adult spirituality very early, and we are left with only one verse to describe nearly twenty years of his life: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor” (Lk. 2:52).
Background and Context
Chapter 3 of Luke picks up when Jesus is thirty years old. So chapters 1—2 do a short fly-by of Jesus’ childhood and adolescence before an abrupt leap to his adult ministry. Luke attempts to fill the narrative about Jesus’ upbringing as much as possible by depicting Jesus as heroic from day one.
The author of Luke, who references Isaiah extensively throughout his gospel, begins where Isaiah left off—with the promise of God’s salvation. Jesus’ mother, Mary, and John’s father, Zechariah, are characterized as models of the faith of Israel, and each of them receives acknowledgment for bursting out into spontaneous scriptural songs, known as canticles. The content of these songs underscore an important theme as they extol the social justice themes of Isaiah and present Zechariah and Mary as torchbearers of the centuries-old messianic anticipation in Israel. They are important characters not because of their power or influence, but because of their faith.
Theological Issues
Jesus is born as the fulfillment of Israel’s longing and the fullness of her desire. Moreover, the incarnation of God seems to be the fulfillment of the desire of heaven, as the angels of heaven humble themselves to come celebrate with lowly shepherds. This theme of heaven reaching down to earth is a central concept in Christian theology, which is notable because it is novel in the history of religious ideas. Where human beings had been chasing after God, the notion of God taking on human flesh suggests that Christianity is not about humanity striving for God but about God striving for humanity. This twist is the very heart of the gospel.
As we progress through the week with the theme of knowing our truest identity in Christ, it is helpful to remain mindful of the basic fact of God’s pursuit of us in love. Who are we then? All of us are unique as individuals, but we share many things in common. At the very least, we are the ones who are pursued relentlessly by a loving God. God sees us as valuable even as we are.
Leader Reflections
Without a doubt the most important take-away from these two readings is that God in Jesus has made a brand new way for human beings to live together that sets us free for lives of real joy, peace, power, and freedom. The two scriptures we read today help us think about the uniqueness of the Christian story and what it means to get real with Christian living.
Christians profess belief not in some far off and distant God who rules with rules from the sky. Rather, Christians serve the personable God who comes near, the God who searches after us where we are and meets us with an invitation through Jesus Christ to a relationship of love, acceptance, and participation.
This action of God in Christ suggests that followers of Jesus are also to seek out the lost and hopeless with an invitation to belong and believe. It would be helpful to ask yourself and eventually your campers how it would affect your living if you were constantly aware of God’s presence with you at all times. How would you treat others? How would you treat the world? What would you do with this gift of life? How does Jesus make a real difference in life?
Day 3
JESUS IS FRIEND
JOHN 15:9–17; JOHN 11:1–45
John 15:9–17
The Story
In today’s story, Jesus is talking with his disciples as a business executive might talk to shareholders in a boardroom. Pardon the metaphor, but it holds. Jesus is discussing his succession plan, and the disciples will need to know the inner workings of the ministry if they are to carry it on when Jesus is gone. Jesus talks to them not as servants or even employees; he addresses them as friends, people who can be entrusted with carrying forward the kingdom.
Of particular significance in this story is the new commandment: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Of course, the original audiences of the gospel would have heard “commandment” and thought of the Ten Commandments of Moses. Since Jesus is giving a new commandment, a summarized law, he declares himself more authoritative a voice than Moses.
While the command to love may sound warm and fuzzy, it is important to hear what Jesus is really saying. The Greek word Jesus uses here is agape, which is different from affiliative love (phileo) and desirous love (eros). Agape acts for the benefit of the other, no matter the return for the self, no matter for what team the other plays. Agape seeks the good of enemies, even if there is no return or joy in the act. Jesus doesn’t just suggest this agape love—he commands it. Jesus lets them—and us—listen in on the inner workings of the kingdom of God: It all hinges on agape. Agape is the energizing force at the heart of God. And when we welcome and receive that love, it begins to pour out of us as well.
Context and Background
Chapters 13—17 of the gospel of John are almost a book all to themselves. Where the beginning of the gospel focuses on the many signs and episodes in the life and work of Jesus, and where the end of the gospel tells his passion and resurrection, chapters 13—17 report a single evening in the life of Jesus and his twelve disciples. Jesus has gathered with them for the festival of the Passover, and they are eating together. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, an action that demonstrates that devotion and love are perfected in service to others, establishing a tone of friendship with God through Christian discipleship.
Then Jesus begins teaching about this unique way of loving and its rootedness in the heart of God for the next three chapters, and the reader gets the keen sense that Jesus knows he’s nearing the end of his earthly life. This will be his final teaching, his final sermon, his final opportunity to pass his ministry to his disciples and to be sure they understand what to do and why.
In the context of passing the torch we come to John 15:9–17. Jesus has just provided the metaphor of himself as a vine and the disciples as branches that grow from that vine. The branches have a life of their own, but they remain dependent on the vine for nourishment and life. So too should we Christians understand our ministry: We are to thrive in life and servant-love to others, but we must remain connected in a close, personal relationship with Christ, so our lives and ministries might be nourished by God, the source. Jesus emphasizes the word commandment in his teaching—he is telling us something important.
Theological Issues
Jesus speaks about the loving and relational—one might say “friendly”—nature and tone of God’s connection with humanity. Compare that to sadly lingering depictions of God as angry judge. Because we have a constant connection with the life-giving God in Jesus, we can walk through life without ever stepping outside the presence of God for a moment. This connectedness is the cornerstone of Christian living, and it’s a fundamental necessity of “bearing fruit.”
Further, Jesus teaches us about God’s relentless pursuit of us unconditionally. Once we can understand and receive that sort of agape, then our lives are transformed so that we begin to participate in it. If we welcome it, God the Holy Spirit begins to generate agape in us too, and we become channels of light for the world. When we begin to function according to God’s designs for us, then we are getting real.
John 11:1–45
The Story
John 11:1–45 is the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus is Jesus’ dear friend and the brother of Martha and Mary, two prominent women who are friends of Jesus, as well as disciples of his. When Jesus arrives at the house, he is met by much mourning and sadness. Both Mary and Martha tell him Lazarus would not have died had Jesus been there. They both demonstrate faith in Jesus and the belief that Jesus might perform a miracle. Seeing them in such distress, Jesus himself weeps—God feels what we feel. Jesus’ tears are a classic illustration of divine compassion. Jesus is moved to act, and he calls Lazarus back from the tomb: “Lazarus, come out!”
Context and Background
Chapter 11 of the gospel of John stands out among last reports on the public ministry of Jesus before he is anointed at Bethany and enters Jerusalem. Think of the symbolic significance that one of Jesus’ final acts of ministry is out of compassion to restore life. This act is a microcosm of the gospel.
Throughout the gospel of John the goal of spiritual virtue is captured in this theme of giving life—new life, eternal life, abundant life. The reader may remember John 3:16 (“Everyone who believes in him…may have eternal life”) or John 4:14 (“The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”) or John 10:10 (“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”) [author’s emphasis]. The author of the gospel of John wants to make clear that the entire purpose of God’s action in Jesus is to have compassion on the world and to bring it from death into life.
Theological Issues
Lazarus is raised from the dead in a story that is a certain foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus. Appropriately, Jesus’ resurrection is the theological focus. Unlike the raising of Lazarus, the resurrection has implications for all humanity and for eternity. Lazarus, the reader is to assume, was resuscitated, only to live a longer life and eventually die again. He was raised individually, but Jesus’ resurrection means eternal life for all who believe. The raising of Lazarus is but a foretaste of what will happen in the resurrection of the dead.
Of course, theology in John’s gospel is all about recognizing the divinity of Jesus. It is the identity of Jesus that gives meaning to his words. Without the divine identity, the gospel makes little sense. And it is with an eye to the special identity of Jesus that we are to notice the difference between Lazarus being raised and Jesus being resurrected.
Getting real demands recognition of Jesus’ divinity and his resurrection. When we know this, we can place our trust more confidently in the promises of God and abide fully in the love Jesus invites us to—so that our joy may be complete.
Leader Reflections
How have you experienced God’s love? What practices are part of your life that keep you abiding in Christ’s love? What is it like to attempt to follow Jesus’ commandment to love others unconditionally—with agape? Is it easy? You might prepare an example from your life to share with your campers on the challenges of loving others, as well as the joys of the times when you have. Young people appreciate honesty and candor. You may succeed more with campers by being open with a story of an attempt that seemed a failure than in simply telling of successes.
Finally, to reflect on the John 11 passage, a powerful spiritual exercise is to visualize Jesus talking to you instead of Lazarus. Insert your name here: “________, come out!” When you hear Jesus commanding you to new life and restoration, what comes to your mind, especially about what needs to change? This exercise may be a path to love—and well worth guiding campers through it.
Day 4
JESUS IS TEACHER
MATTHEW 7:15–20, 24–29
The Story
Jesus is teaching a large crowd of curious listeners a new type of religious doctrine that is grounded in relationship with God, not rules. In this section of teaching Jesus is talking specifically about the issue of authority. In other words, with all these contradictory teachings and messages floating around out there, which ones should a person believe and follow? Which ones are thus rightfully “authoritative”?
Jesus talks about learning to tell the difference between a teacher of truth and a “false prophet,” one who spreads lies. Followers of Jesus are called upon to seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and to hold fast to teachers of truth—ones who will be known as those whose lives bear good fruits.
Jesus is the most authoritative of these teachers because his life bears the best fruit. True followers of Jesus will build their lives on his teachings. And their lives will bear good fruit. To take this path is like a wise person who builds a house on a firm foundation of rock. To dismiss the teachings of Jesus is to foolishly build a house on sand.
The Story’s Context
The reading for today comes at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount, which extends from Matthew 5—7. Jesus has attracted and commanded the attention of a large crowd; and he has taken them on a retreat together, “on a mountain,” where he will be the teacher. While on the mountain, he lays down the longest single set of ethical teachings in all four gospels. Included among these teachings are the Beatitudes (“Blessed are the poor,” and so on), the Lord’s Prayer, and other teachings that remind listeners that God’s ways are considerably different from the conventional norms of human society.
The reading for today comes at the end of this sermon, and it is a closing statement or recap that beckons listeners to build their lives on the teaching itself. Any preacher hopes a sermon will yield some action among the congregation, and Jesus is no different: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (v. 24).
Background
Something to keep in mind about the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew is the original audience. In the original audience for the gospel of Matthew were Jews, many of whom had become or were becoming Christian, as well. For the first several decades of Christianity, the evidence shows Christians attending temple on Saturday and church on Sunday. So this gospel occupies the territory of that gradual transition toward some kind of Christianity that is also grounded in Jewish customs.
This audience would have been familiar with the path to power in society as had been paved by the religious leaders and lawyers at the time: a highly codified set of laws one must follow to attain political or religious status. But here was Jesus saying that authority comes from the Lord as the fruits of righteous living in relationship with God, not from obedience to laws. Jesus wants to help the crowd reconnect with God by helping them “bypass the system” and serve God only, not just the law. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.
Theological Issues
One major theological issue raised by today’s reading is the theme of allegiance. Jesus asks, To whom (or what) do you pledge your allegiance? He says the answer to that question is clear in one’s fruits. And if one’s fruits are not good, that person’s life is not grounded in allegiance to God. It will come crashing down, like a house built on sand.
Allegiance to God is about consent to God’s wisdom, commitment to God’s action in our lives, and loyalty to that action even if it seems God is absent. God has given us in Jesus and his teachings a picture of what it means to walk in truth, but it is up to us to cooperate with that vision by welcoming the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Another issue raised by our reading is the identity and authority of Jesus. Matthew’s gospel portrays Jesus as the fulfillment of the law. This new element is significant to an audience that had built its own religious self-understanding on following the laws of Moses, their greatest authority up to that point. But knowing Jesus to be the Messiah thrusts him higher even than Moses, and it enables the gospel writer to portray Jesus as the new lawgiver, the new Moses. Jesus’ identity is fundamental to his authority. His teachings are authoritative.
Leader Reflections
As you read this passage, let the words speak to your own life. Do you have experiences of taking a wrong path that led to destruction? If appropriate, would you consider sharing that story with campers? Likewise, do you have experiences of putting your trust in Jesus and his teachings when you made a decision in life? An example could be a major milestone in life or something as simple as choosing to view the poor as blessed. What are specific ways you have tried to build your life on the solid rock of Jesus’ teachings, and what part of your experience might be helpful for campers as a model?
Day 5
JESUS IS HEALER
JOHN 5:1–9A
The Story
In today’s reading, Jesus walks by a public pool where sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people are gathered. They wait there in hopes of receiving the miracle of healing, according to a local legend about the healing properties of the pool. (See “Background” below.) Jesus, walking past this pool, learns a particular man had been ill for thirty-eight years, and he begins a conversation with the man. There is no small talk. Jesus is incapable of speaking words that do not penetrate the soul. Jesus is the Word-made-flesh; his words themselves are pure truth and cut right to the proverbial core.
His question itself is, on the one hand, odd because the answer would seem obvious: Of course, the man wants to be made well. That’s why he is at the pool. But, on the other hand, if we assume Jesus was aware of the obvious, then we can also assume that Jesus’ question about wellness was intended on a deeper level. Jesus asks the man if he wants to be made well. The man explains that he does; but in order to be cured, he needs help going down into the pool.
Jesus offers the man both physical and spiritual healing, not by way of his expectation (the water in the pool) but rather by the power of God. Jesus tells the man to get up, take his mat, and walk. At once the man was healed and he left the pool, a detail that signifies his moving forward in the power of new life.
The Story’s Context
The first several chapters of John’s gospel are dedicated to the signs and miracles of Jesus, which point to his divinity. After the poetic and theologically soaring prologue, which introduces Jesus as the pre-existent Word of God through whom all things were made, the gospel writer seizes an opportunity to demonstrate creation’s subservience to Christ. This subservience is best seen in miracles, occasions when Jesus commands and nature obeys. A perfect example is his turning water into wine in chapter 2.
Another type of sign is his teaching and proclamation about who he is and what he will do from the cross. Jesus is the Word, and the Word is God’s agent in speaking the creation into being and life; so when Jesus teaches, God is creating something more in the world. Think of it as the eighth day of creation.
This interpretive key is critical. The writer hopes the souls of the gospel’s audience are illumined with the revelation to perceive who Jesus really is and consequently persuaded to serve and obey him, just as creation does.
Background
Some ancient manuscripts include extra information in verse 4, which tells us that those who gathered at the pool were there because of a popular legend. The legend went like this: Occasionally an angel of God would visit and stir up the waters of the pool, and the first person to step into the pool thereafter would be made well. This background is important for understanding the man’s response to Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be well?”
His efforts at the pool demonstrate that the man wanted to be well; but because of his condition, he was never able to reach the stirred-up water before anyone else. We should also remember that the motivation of the gospel writer is to depict Jesus as a spiritual leader. Just as, in chapter 4, the Samaritan woman at the well asks for regular water but receives “living water,” so too will this man who wants a physical cure also be given the fullness of life abundant.
Theological Issues
Perhaps the most formally theological statement one can make about this passage is that its proper interpretation hinges on the belief that Jesus is God and, therefore, wields the power of God. Without this cornerstone, the narrative of John’s gospel makes little to no sense. The gospel of John succeeds in conveying truth to the reader only insofar as that reader is willing to use Jesus’ divine identity as the central interpretive lens. Without acknowledging Jesus’ identity—even if only as in a character analysis of fiction—the literary devices of John will fall short. For John, Jesus’ full divinity is a given.
Beyond the question of Jesus’ divinity, focusing attention on the man’s faith is useful. Not only does he believe his healing is possible, but he endures thirty-eight years of waiting for it. He has not given up hope or belief that he might be made well, and he genuinely believes that the only impediment to his health is touching the stirred water first. So he is watchful.
The man had hope, but what he also needed was grace. Faith, life, healing, and salvation are all gifts. The man’s faith and willingness to be healed was a good start, but he needed to be open to the possibility of a gift. He had obviously been seeking wellness on his own for some time, with no success. It wasn’t until he became reliant on grace that he was healed.
The perceptive reader and student of John’s gospel will remember that in the previous chapter, Jesus met with the Samaritan woman at the well and said to her, “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty” (Jn. 4:14a). Here, in the very next chapter, Jesus is putting his money where his mouth is.
When Jesus says to the sick man at the pool, “Stand up, take your mat and walk,” we recall the idea of living water from the previous chapter. So Jesus’ command for the man to be well is in itself “living water” for this man. He no longer needs the water from the pool because Jesus has become living water, stirred up for him. When Jesus’ healing energy and powerful words of new life surged through the man’s soul, he was made well. He had been healed, and he was liberated and empowered to resume a more abundant life.
Leader Reflections
A good question to ask ourselves when we read this passage is this: When Jesus talks to us, do we trust what he’s saying is dependable? The gospel writer has made a bold theological statement about the value and trustworthiness of Jesus’ words themselves. They are indeed the most powerful agent in creation. They created the creation!
Yet, every one of us struggles to place the fullness of our trust in him. Our own lack of courage to depend on the Word of God may be something like the man’s—maybe we need the gift of grace. Before having a conversation about the power and grace in Jesus with your campers, it is good preparation for you as a leader to reflect on your own struggles to trust the words of Jesus as true and final.
It is also important to ask what you most want for your life and what’s holding you back. What would it mean for Jesus to say to you, “Get up and walk”? Or you might simply ask campers, What would life be like if there were a steadily speaking voice you could trust on the topics that matter most to you? Would you listen? Would you consult that voice regularly? Would you fall in love with it?
Day 6
JESUS IS SAVIOR
ROMANS 5:1–11; LUKE 24:36–49
Romans 5:1–11
The Reading
Above all else, the letter to the Romans is about the cross of Jesus Christ and what God accomplished through it. Namely, victory over sin and death, reconciliation with the creation, and new life for God’s people—those who are now “in Christ.” Romans 5 is a discussion of God’s grace and the benefit of Jesus’ resurrection for those who are in Christ through faith.
Paul writes that the outcome of God’s saving action in Jesus on the cross is that humanity has received the free gift of reconciliation with God (v. 11). And, being reconciled to God, humanity has a new opportunity to cooperate with God’s action in the world, through the cross of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 6). We are not condemned to perpetual state of sin and uselessness to God; rather, God has made a way whereby we might be restored to a state of partnership with God in the hard work of shining the light of truth.
This knowledge, Paul says, is enough to give us a deep peace (v. 1) and a sense of confidence that we can indeed stand blamelessly before God in spite of our sins. Paul says something remarkable about the nature of our peace and confidence before God. Not only are we bold in boasting about our newfound hope in Christ, but also that peace and confidence are so strong that we can even boast in our suffering (v. 3).
Even while we are suffering, we can boldly boast that God is alive and in control because suffering sets off a chain of redemptive consequences that lead back to hope (vv. 3–5). Paul will repeat this theme throughout his letter, but it is nowhere more direct than in the often-memorized verse, “We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God” (Rom. 8:28a, CEB). It is this sentiment that is perhaps most notable as we explore the connection of the Romans reading with the one from Luke 24 below.
Background and Context
The letter to the Romans stands as the apostle Paul’s final and most complete statement of Christian theology. It was probably written circa 53–56 c.e., toward the end of Paul’s life and ministry. Whereas his earlier letters tended to focus on particular theological and practical issues that affected the daily operations of a specific faith community, Romans is more general and conceptual. It provides a bigger picture of who Jesus Christ is and precisely what his life, death, and resurrection mean for humanity.
The original audience is the church in Rome, and we see Paul attempting to weave a theology that is for both Jews and Gentiles. This interlacing was a lasting impact of his life and ministry.
Luke 24:36–49
The Story
The scene is Jerusalem, and the disciples are gathered together, presumably in hiding and in mourning at the same time. Jesus, their friend and leader, has been crucified. Rumors of his having been raised have been whispered, but we know that the women who first witnessed the empty tomb were dismissed when they returned to report the resurrection to the disciples. The gospel writer says, “These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (Lk. 24:11).
Only Peter went to see for himself, and he found the tomb empty as they had said. We are told he immediately went home, presumably leaving the rest of “the eleven” to hide and mourn. This fear and uncertainty serve as the backdrop for the resurrected Jesus’ sudden and unexpected visit with them. The risen Jesus calms the disciples, convinces them he is alive and real, eats a snack, and leads a Bible study with them! Life bursts in and dispels death; light penetrates the darkness. And the mission goes on.
Background and Context
The story that appears in Luke’s gospel after Peter’s departure and immediately before our selected reading is known as the Walk to Emmaus. One disciple named Cleopas and another who remains unnamed are walking to Emmaus, which is about a three-hour trek from Jerusalem. On their way, a man joins them and asks why they are so sad. They say something like, “You must be the only person around here who hasn’t heard what happened to Jesus.”
The man begins teaching them about the scriptures. They listen intently. When they arrive at their destination, they invite the stranger inside for dinner, and when they break bread together his identity is revealed—the stranger is the risen Jesus. He becomes known to them in the breaking of the bread. As soon as they come to this realization, Jesus vanishes.
The two disciples head back to Jerusalem immediately to report the good news to the eleven. Just as they arrive and begin to tell their story, Jesus himself appears to validate it. And his first words are the very key to our study: “Peace be with you.”
Theological Issues
Linking Romans and Luke
The theme of Christian peace unites the two readings theologically. Where the distressed and mourning disciples are concerned, Jesus appears and beckons them to see the world differently. They should not remain in mourning, for he is alive.
Moreover, the outrageous suffering and tragedy that is the great injustice of the cross does not get the last word. Injustice does not stand, and God prevails. This assurance is the central promise of Christian hope. We see in the story of Jesus’ resurrection a basic pattern of how God takes brokenness, suffering, and injustice and finds a way to weave it into a lasting blessing. All this is tantamount to the most basic point of theology: God is in control.
Of course, to feel that God is in control is not always easy, especially when things happen in our lives that we cannot possibly reconcile with the will of a loving God. Scripture deals with this problem in many ways. The story of Job famously teaches that accepting pain is simply a matter of accepting life, and that God is God no matter what we do or do not understand about how God works. While this lesson may remain valid for those of faith, it is not exactly easy to hear or trust at times for many of us.
Romans and Luke offer an added perspective, and that is that God, while not the cause of our pain, is very present in helping us convert that pain into spiritual energy, strength, and new life. God universally offers renewal and spiritual healing when we are hurting. All people who hurt are invited to receive this healing. The product of such healing is a new person, a person who can find peace in hope itself. These new people are vessels of God’s continued healing action in the world.
Leader Reflections
Who we are is more than the sum of our deeds. This precept is true because God is always quietly moving and working in our lives to bring healing where there is hurt, meaning where there is meaninglessness, and completion where there is lacking. This faithfulness usually happens without our even noticing it.
As you prepare to lead a session on these topics with your campers, try to remember a time when you faced a challenge in life and found strength in God. Remember what it felt like and what you learned. If you are prepared to share something from your personal experience, the lesson can truly come to life.
Day 7
JESUS IS THE REAL THING
LUKE 4:14–21
The Story
Think of a time when you were performing something for which you had long prepared. It might have been a sporting trial, a musical or theatrical performance, a speech or presentation. Try to get in touch with the feeling of just before you go “on stage.” All eyes will be on you. You may be beset by nerves and butterflies, and you are doubtlessly thinking about what people will say when it is over. Now imagine that your performance is actually an earnest statement of your personal beliefs and that those beliefs are extremely contentious with your audience—people from your hometown. It is very likely that these people will reject you, though they’ve known you for your whole life. You might be praying for courage at time like that. Jesus most likely was. And the curtain goes up…
At the appointed time, Jesus stands up in the synagogue at Nazareth to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, Jesus begins to read. He declares what is essentially his personal mission statement:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(Lk. 4:18–19)
The Story’s Context
What we have in Luke 4:14–21 is an introductory summary of Jesus’ ministry. Having been baptized by John and tested in the wilderness for forty days, Jesus embarks on the mission that will define his life, ministry, and legacy. Jesus has been prepared for the spiritual work of ministry, and he begins in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. He starts this ministry by stating his plan to preach good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and relief to those in debt.
After this scene, the congregation is pleased with Jesus. His words are harmless enough. The hometown boy is such a good boy, they probably think. But that’s not who Jesus is, and Jesus does not stop short of speaking his whole truth. In verses 22–30 Jesus extends the logic of ministry to the marginalized—it now includes Gentiles. Their inclusion is patently scandalous!
Jesus reminds the crowd of a story in the Hebrew Scriptures about God healing Naaman, a Gentile. The people become furious and want to kill him because he has challenged their notions of political identity and the nature of religious mission. God is the God of the Gentiles too, Jesus says, and the gospel writer of Luke will use spreading the gospel to the Gentiles as his central theme throughout the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. Luke/Acts finally ends with Paul preaching the gospel in Rome, a symbolic culmination of Jesus’ mission.
Background
Interestingly, the selection from which Jesus reads does not appear exactly like this in any one passage of Isaiah. Isaiah 61:1 is very close but instead includes the ministry of binding up the brokenhearted (not in Luke), and, unlike Luke, it makes neither mention of recovering sight for the blind (Isa. 42:7) nor freedom for the oppressed (Isa. 58:6). Either Jesus was reading from a different manuscript from what survives today, or Jesus was selectively skipping around in Isaiah in order to have the scripture emphasize what he wanted.
This pattern raises the possibility, that, by offering selections of emphasis, Jesus has shed some light onto the way he interprets scripture and the way he understands the mission of the messianic ministry. To stretch, it may also shed some light onto the content of the scripture teaching to disciples on the road to Emmaus and to the eleven in chapter 24. This message of lifting the lowly would be thematically consistent with the songs of Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon (Lk. 1—2) and with the mission and ministry of Jesus throughout the gospel of Luke.
Theological Import
One of the theological truths that is most challenging to the world is the basic fact of God’s equal love for all people. Human beings are stratifiers, organizers, and judgers of value; and our cultures all reflect this tendency. Even churches are organized accordingly.
But Jesus reminds us that God is the true judge, and God judges everyone with equal favor. That equality can be especially troubling to our worldviews and our senses of deserving or non-deserving. Any attempt we make to structure our personal, family, or institutional ethics around the promise of God’s favor for all is an uphill battle.
Jesus desires reconciliation and reintegration for those populations who have been marginalized by mainstream society, because all are equal in God’s eyes. Jesus is in ministry for all, but he must focus on what that means for the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed, and the indebted—and, in Luke, the Gentiles. Knowing the context of ministry to the Gentiles as a guiding interpretive theme of the gospel of Luke/Acts helps narrow the focus and life application of our particular lesson for campers.
Leader Reflections
Children and youth are not too young to know the reality of social cliques, hierarchy, and strata of belonging. Experiencing the dark side of this reality can be very tough emotionally, and it can take a toll on anyone’s self-esteem—not to mention a child’s.
As you prepare to lead this section, reflect on your own experiences of being with the “in” crowd or the “out” crowd. Explore feelings associated with each, and ask yourself what you might change if you could go back. You may choose to ask campers to identify groups in their school and then say which ones they belong to. Are there groups that have formed at camp that tend to alienate certain people?
The question is, What can you do that is within your power to break the isolation of people you know who are marginalized? Campers benefit from thinking through what it feels like to be cast aside or written-off as unimportant. And, they should be reminded that culture does not have the final say when it comes to our value as individuals. Anything that marginalizes another or denounces the worth of another is a lie, but living according to Truth means walking daily with the fact of God’s equal love for all.
It is the last day of your week at camp. By now, your campers will be introduced and enriched by the truth of God’s blessing and favor in their lives. The theological fact of God’s relentless and unconditional love for all is the core of the Christian formation and living. When we allow the Designer of Life to reveal what we can discern of the designs that underlie our lives, that self-knowledge leads to self-love and service to the world. In short, knowledge of God’s love begets life everlasting.
Younger Children
DAY 1 GUIDE
Who Do You Say I Am?
Key Verse: He said, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”—Matthew 16:15–16 (CEB)
Scripture: Matthew 16:13–17
Focus: Campers will learn that the disciples and others thought many different things about Jesus. They will begin to see that Jesus was and is many different things, just as they are many different things.
Connection to Campers: On the first day of camp, it is important for campers to begin feeling comfortable with their surroundings and the people in their group. By talking about the many roles or faces of Jesus, campers have the opportunity also to discuss the variety of roles they fill. This exploration can help them begin to know their peers and adult leaders, even as they begin to know Jesus in a different way!
Leader Notes: To prepare for leading your campers, read through the “Biblical and Theological Overview” for Day 1. Remember that your top priorities are to help everyone in your group learn one another’s names and to help children feel safe and welcome at camp.
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
Morning Worship
Many Sides
Going on a Journey
I Like To...
Who Do We Say We Are?
Evening Worship
Cabin Devotions
Explore
Many Sides
In advance, decorate a small cardboard box to show some of your own roles and favorites. Have your box ready to use as an example. When campers talk about their own boxes, give enough time for them to really share—and be sure to celebrate each child!
Hand out a cardboard box to each camper. Explain that, like a box, every person has many different “sides.” These sides might include being someone’s child or sibling or having favorite activities and favorite colors, and so forth. Show campers the box that you have prepared, and tell them a little bit about each side. Then invite campers to use the provided art supplies to create their own box that shows off some of their “sides.” Keep an eye out for children who seem stuck, and be ready to give concrete prompts for each side, if needed.
Allow campers to take turns telling about some of the sides of their boxes. Then tell them that this week you will all learn about some of Jesus’ “sides.” Read Matthew 16:13–17 aloud. Explain that even though the disciples were Jesus’ friends, they didn’t completely understand who he was—they could only see some of his sides.
Present a single large box to your group. Tell campers that each day as they learn about some of the sides of Jesus, you will add them to this Jesus Box. Invite campers to guess what these sides might be. Write these guesses on a large sheet of paper. Keep the campers’ boxes, the Jesus Box and the sheet of paper in a special place in your meeting area so you can come back to them each day.
Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal, Linguistic, Spatial
Supplies: Bible, one box (shoe box size) for each camper, one larger box, your personal box, crayons, markers, pens, colored paper, scissors, glue sticks, large sheet of paper
Experience
Going on a Journey
In this name game, campers will have the opportunity to learn one another’s names and imagine together as they prepare for the week. If weather permits, play outside so campers can begin to get a sense of their surroundings.
Invite campers to form a circle (sitting or standing). Tell them that this week they will be going on a journey together—a trip in which they will learn more about one another and more about Jesus. Place an empty backpack in the center of the circle (primarily as a visual to help children imagine). Explain that as they go around the circle, each person will tell his or her first name and one thing that starts with the first letter of that name, which he or she will bring on this journey. Be sure to go first so that campers have an example: “My name is Lara and I am bringing Laughter.”
If your group takes to this game, you can add a second level of difficulty. Ask campers to take turns saying each camper’s name as well as the thing he or she is bringing. Celebrate when your group is able to remember every name and item for the journey!
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal, Linguistic
Supplies: Backpack
I Like To...
This game will help children learn one another’s names and more about each person. Encourage campers to listen carefully so they can remember both names and activities when it is their turn. Play outside, if possible.
Invite the group to sit in a circle. Ask them to think of something that they like to do outside. Then select a camper to begin by telling his or her name and what he or she likes to do: “My name is Corey and I like to hike.” The camper to the right will then repeat the first person’s name and activity and then add his or her own: “Corey likes to hike. My name is Lexi and I like to swim.”
Continue around the circle until everyone has had a turn. Other campers can help by miming the activity if someone gets stuck. Because the last person has to remember every name and activity in the group, consider going last yourself.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal, Linguistic
Supplies: None
Who Do We Say We Are?
As the campers create a group name and group cheer, chant, or song, they will build a sense of group identity and belonging, while also thinking abut the question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Inform campers that they have an exciting opportunity. Remind them that today they are talking about Jesus’ question to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” Then explain that this week as they get to know one another in the group, they will also be getting to know Jesus better.
Creating a group name and cheer is a fun way to be a group together. Ask campers to take a moment to think about group names that describe the personality of the group. After they have thought for a minute or two, invite them to take turns sharing their best ideas. Write these down on a large sheet of paper and then take a vote for the final group name. (Be sure to affirm that every idea is a good one with value.)
Once the group name has been selected and celebrated, lead your campers in the creation of a group chant, cheer, or song. This can be as simple or as complex as is fitting for your group. (For example, a group called the Mighty Ducks might call out their group name, form a V, and yell, “Flying V!”) Practice your cheer a few times so that campers can become comfortable with it, as you may use it again throughout the week.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal
Supplies: Large sheet of paper, markers
EXPRESS – Worshiping God Together
SONG SUGGESTIONS
“LORD OF THE DANCE,” HYMN
“Jesus Loves Me,” Traditional
“Jesus’ Hands Were Kind Hands,”
Margaret Cropper
“I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N,” Traditional
“Be Still and Know,” Traditional (Psalm 46:10)
MORNING WORSHIP
ON THE FIRST DAY OF CAMP THERE IS PROBABLY NOT A MORNING WORSHIP. HOWEVER, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO INCORPORATE SOME SORT OF WORSHIPFUL EXPERIENCE EARLY IN YOUR TIME TOGETHER AS A GROUP, HEAD OUTSIDE. FIND A PLACE WHERE CAMPERS CAN SIT COMFORTABLY AND INVITE THEM TO SIT IN A CIRCLE.
Sing “Jesus Loves Me” to help them settle down into an attitude of worship. Ask them to be quiet for a moment, just long enough for them to listen to the sounds around them. Invite campers to share what they heard—and explain that careful listening is a type of prayer. Then take another moment to listen carefully to your surroundings. When you are done listening, have campers stand up, hold hands, and shout, “Amen!”
EVENING WORSHIP
ASK CAMPERS TO GATHER AND SIT IN A CIRCLE AROUND THE JESUS BOX. OPEN WORSHIP BY SINGING “BE STILL AND KNOW” TWO TIMES. HAND OUT A NOTE CARD AND PEN TO EACH CAMPER. ACKNOWLEDGE THAT, WHILE COMING TO CAMP IS EXCITING AND FUN, IT CAN BE HARD TO LEAVE PEOPLE AND THINGS BEHIND. INVITE THE CAMPERS TO WRITE OR DRAW SOMETHING OR SOMEONE ON THEIR CARD THAT THEY HAVE LEFT BEHIND THIS WEEK AND THEN PLACE THEIR CARDS INSIDE THE JESUS BOX FOR SAFE KEEPING. REMIND THEM THAT JESUS IS WITH THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS EVEN WHEN THEY ARE AWAY. SING “JESUS LOVES ME,” AND THEN CLOSE IN A POPCORN PRAYER IN WHICH PARTICIPANTS SHARE ONE THING THEY HOPE TO DO OR LEARN THIS WEEK.
Supplies: Jesus Box, note cards, pens
CABIN DEVOTIONS
BECAUSE THIS IS THE FIRST NIGHT AT CAMP, TAKE TIME TO HELP CAMPERS UNDERSTAND WHAT WILL HAPPEN EACH EVENING. AT THIS AGE, THEY HAVE A DESIRE TO KNOW WHAT IS COMING AND HOW THE ROUTINE WILL WORK. EXPLAINING THIS AT THE BEGINNING WILL HELP CALM THE FEARS OF ANY PARTICULARLY ANXIOUS CAMPERS. CABIN DEVOTIONS IN PARTICULAR SHOULD BE CONSISTENT AND ROUTINE IN ORDER TO END EACH EVENTFUL DAY WITH A FEW MOMENTS OF CALM AND STABILITY.
When campers are ready for bed, have them sit on their bunks (or in whatever arrangement works best in your style of cabin). Begin by inviting each person to share a “high” of the day—a moment that was particularly good. After everyone has spoken, invite campers to share a “low” from the day. Listen carefully for those campers who may need some encouragement this first night. Then lead campers in this prayer:
God, thank you for this day and this place.
Thank you for these people and your grace.
Help me to see Jesus in each face,
And give me good sleep, safe in your embrace.
Amen.
Day 2 Guide
Jesus Is God with Us
Key Verse: The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”—Luke 1:35
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1—2
Focus: Campers will learn that the Israelites were waiting for God to fulfill a promise: to send a Savior, a way for God to always be “right here” with them. Through the retelling of the Christmas story, campers will see that Jesus is that Savior—he is God “right here” with us.
Connection to Campers: The idea that Jesus is God With Us can be very powerful, especially for young campers on a day when they may be experiencing homesickness and other anxieties that can come after the first day and night away from home. Look for ways to help campers see and believe that Jesus is always with them, even right here at camp!
Leader Notes: To prepare for leading your campers, read through the “Biblical and Theological Overview” for Day 2. Be sure to spend some time reinforcing the names the group learned yesterday; by the end of today everyone should have those names down.
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
Morning Worship
Get Your Story Straight
Summer Christmas Pageant
Name Game 2.0
We Promise!
Elbow Tag
Natural Nativity
Evening Worship
Cabin Devotions
Explore
Get Your Story Straight
The Christmas story, especially in Luke 2, is likely one of the passages that your campers know best. Because many, if not all, children in your group know this story, you can allow them to tell it by correcting you when you get it wrong. This approach will give campers a sense of ownership of the biblical narrative and help them immerse themselves in the story while having fun! Some campers may not be comfortable disagreeing with adults, so be sure to let your group know that you are doing something special and in this instance they are supposed to point out when you are wrong.
Gather campers together and let them know that it is time to hear some of the scripture for the day. Let them know that it is probably a story they have heard before—and that you need their help. You’ve found a copy of Luke 2:1–20 that has some mistakes in it. Can they help you fix them?
Read the retelling of Luke 2:1–20 found in Get Your Story Straight! (below). Go slowly so that campers have time to notice the changes. The changes are pretty silly, so the campers will likely notice them at once, but they may need some gentle prompting in order to remember what the story actually says. Be patient and show some grace; if they get the answer right without using the exact language shown in parentheses, give them the win!
Multiple Intelligences: Logical/Mathematical, Linguistic, Interpersonal
Supplies: Get Your Story Straight! (below)
Summer Christmas Pageant
In this biblical exploration, campers will act out a portion of the Christmas story (Luke 1:26–45). By acting it out, campers will experience the scripture in a fun new way as they hear about Jesus as God With Us. If you have more campers than parts, allow some of your “camera shy” ones to act as directors of the pageant. If you have fewer campers than parts, have children play more than one part.
Gather together outside or in your usual group meeting space. Ask campers to raise their hands if they have ever been a part of a Christmas pageant. Invite them to tell about those experiences. Then explain that even though it is summer, today they will be performing a Christmas pageant at camp! This pageant is different because there are no lines or songs to memorize and no costumes to wear. Instead, campers will act out (pantomime) the story as you read it aloud.
Read Luke 1:26–45 out loud for the first time. Invite campers to listen carefully so that they know what happens in the story and have some understanding of the characters.
Assign the following roles:
Elizabeth
God
Gabriel
Mary
Jesus
Holy Spirit
Joseph
Zechariah
Ask campers to listen carefully and pantomime their parts when you read the story a second time. Then read the scripture slowly so that they have a chance to act out their parts.
When the pageant is over, celebrate together and then discuss questions such as these:
• What do you think it means when we say Jesus is “God With Us”?
• When have you felt like Jesus was right there with you?
• How can we thank Jesus for being with us always?
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic, Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: Bible
Experience
Name Game 2.0
This revisiting of yesterday’s name games will help campers lock in the names of their peers.
Produce a large bag of individually wrapped candy (or other appropriate reward). Explain to your group that you have a reward for every camper who can recall the names of the fellow group members, along with the items (for the journey) and outdoor activities that they had listed in yesterday’s name games.
Some of your campers may be able to fly through this. Let those campers go first so that the others have a chance to listen and refresh their memory. Campers who have trouble may receive hints and help from their group mates. The purpose of this game is for every camper to succeed, not for some to accomplish the task while others fail—so do everything in your power to make that happen. At the end of the game, celebrate the accomplishment together.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal
Supplies: Bag of candy or other small rewards
We Promise!
This covenant-making activity will allow children to create and understand the rules for your group and also help them understand the biblical concept of covenant.
Invite campers to sit in a circle. In the center, place a large sheet of paper that has “We Promise!” written at the top. Briefly talk with campers about the idea of covenant: that in the Bible and in their lives, people and God sometimes make special promises that help them to live together well. Explain that your group will be the best group they can be if they have a covenant to help them know how to treat one another. Ask for a volunteer to serve as scribe. As group members offer suggestions for the covenant, the volunteer can write them on the sheet of paper.
Your covenant might include statements such as: “Be kind to each other,” “Use only good touches,” “Listen when someone is talking,” “Don’t tell someone’s story outside of the group,” and, “Have lots of fun together!” When the group thinks the covenant is complete, invite each member to sign the paper. Post the covenant somewhere in your meeting space so it is visible. During the week, if challenges arise within the group, you can point back to the covenant as a reminder of your promises to one another.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal
Supplies: Large sheet of paper, markers, tape
Elbow Tag
This version of tag is mostly just fun, but it is also a game in which players are “safe” when they aren’t alone.
Head outside to a large, flat, open area. Explain to campers that they will be playing a special game of tag. Invite them to pair up, with each pair joined together by linking arms at the elbows. (Each person should still have a free arm.) Select one pair and split them up, naming one person “runner” and the other “it.”
Instruct the linked pairs to spread out across the open area. The person who is “runner” must run up to a pair and link arms with one member of the pair before being tagged by the person who is “it.” When this linking happens, the other member of the pair must leave the grouping. That person becomes the “runner” and must link with a different pair before being tagged by “it.” If the person who is “it” succeeds in tagging the runner before he or she links with a pair, the runner becomes “it” and the former “it” becomes the runner.
This game is finished when you run out of time, when campers appear bored or exhausted, or when you decide to end the game. When you are finished, take some breathing time and remind campers that with Jesus they are never alone and, when trouble chases after them—when they are sad, hurt, scared, or disappointed—they can “link up” with Jesus through prayer.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: None
Natural Nativity
This creative outdoor activity will allow campers to spend time exploring your camp’s natural setting, while thinking about the birth of God With Us.
Gather in your group’s usual meeting space. Ask campers if they have ever seen a nativity set. If they haven’t, explain what a nativity set looks like; if they have, ask children to describe the things that make up a good set (Mary, Joseph, Jesus, camels, wise men, shepherds, and so on). Explain that they are going to create a group nativity set made up of objects they find in nature. Have campers volunteer to create different pieces of the set, but keep track! You don’t want three Marys and no baby Jesus!
Take a short nature hike. As you walk together, encourage campers to find objects that “look like” their assigned nativity pieces or objects that can be easily combined to create those pieces (but don’t let them pick any flora that is still living). At the end of the hike, head back to your meeting space and give campers a few minutes to put together their pieces using the materials you have provided. Then do a nativity roll call, allowing each camper to present his or her assigned piece to the group. Assemble the full nativity set and then have the group look at the completed project together. Invite the campers to talk about what it was like to look for their nativity pieces in nature.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist, Spatial
Supplies: Natural found objects, twine or string, scissors, glue
EXPRESS – Worshiping God Together
Song Suggestions
“O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL,” CAROL
“Joy to the World,” Carol
“You Are My All in All,” Dennis Jernigan
“Kum Ba Yah,” Traditional
“Open the Eyes of My Heart,” Paul Baloche
MORNING WORSHIP
EXPLAIN THAT EVERY MORNING THE CAMPERS WILL GATHER IN THE SAME LOCATION TO START THE DAY WITH WORSHIP. PLEASE NOTE THAT THOUGH TODAY IS THE SECOND DAY OF CAMP, CAMPERS WILL BE GIVEN CAMPER PAGE ONE BECAUSE THERE IS NO MORNING WORSHIP ON THE FIRST DAY OF CAMP.
Begin by singing one or two songs, such as “You Are My All in All.” Then read Isaiah 9:6 aloud. Have campers respond by saying, “Thank you, God, for giving us Jesus.”
Hand out copies of today’s Camper Page. Invite campers to draw a picture of what it feels like to know that God is with them. (Alternative Camper Cards are available in the Extra Resources section of this resource.) Close with another song.
Supplies: Bible, Camper Page for Day 2, crayons
EVENING WORSHIP
BEGINNING TONIGHT, CAMPERS WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY EACH NIGHT TO DECORATE A SIDE OF THE JESUS BOX, BASED UPON WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED DURING THE DAY. BE SURE TO PREPARE FOR THIS WORSHIP IN A SPACE WHERE CAMPERS CAN GATHER AROUND THE JESUS BOX COMFORTABLY. FOR TONIGHT’S WORSHIP, TAKE ONE SIDE OF THE JESUS BOX AND WRITE IN THE CENTER: “THROUGH JESUS, GOD IS WITH...” BE SURE TO LEAVE PLENTY OF ROOM FOR CAMPERS TO WRITE THEIR NAMES THERE.
Gather in your worship space, and sing the first and last verses of “Kum Ba Yah” (“Kum ba yah” and “Come by here”). Read Isaiah 9:6 aloud, and then explain that Jesus is that child that Isaiah said would come. Then ask campers to tell you about the “side” of Jesus that you learned about today (Jesus is God With Us).
Instruct campers to take turns coming forward to the Jesus Box. When campers come forward, give them a marker to write their name on the box. After each camper has signed the box, have him or her say: “Through Jesus, God is with me!”
Gather in a circle, hold hands, and sing the first verse of a song, such as “Joy to the World.” Close worship in a prayer in which campers share things for which they are thankful, followed by a group “Amen!”
Supplies: Bible, Jesus Box, marker
CABIN DEVOTIONS
WHEN CAMPERS ARE READY FOR BED, INVITE THEM TO SIT ON THEIR BUNKS (OR IN WHATEVER ARRANGEMENT WORKS BEST IN YOUR STYLE OF CABIN). INVITE EACH PERSON TO TELL A “HIGH” OF HIS OR HER DAY—A MOMENT THAT WAS PARTICULARLY GOOD. WHEN EACH PERSON HAS SHARED, INVITE CAMPERS TO NAME A “LOW” FROM THE DAY. LISTEN CAREFULLY FOR CAMPERS WHO MAY BE EXPERIENCING HOMESICKNESS, AS THIS IS THE DAY WHEN IT IS MOST LIKELY TO DEVELOP. THEN LEAD CAMPERS IN THIS PRAYER:
God, thank you for this day and this place.
Thank you for these people and your grace.
Help me to see Jesus in each face,
And give me good sleep, safe in your embrace.
Amen.
Get Your Story Straight!
An erroneous retelling of Luke 2:1–20 (CEB)
Leader Note: Feel free to substitute different words for the errors; choose ones that your campers are likely to recognize. The actual language of the scripture is listed in parentheses.
In those days Justin Bieber (Caesar Augustus) declared that everyone throughout Texas (the empire) should be enrolled in community college (the tax lists/the census). 2This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. 3Everyone went to Wal-Mart (their own cities) to be enrolled. 4Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called New York City (Bethlehem), in Judea. 5He went to be enrolled together with Katy Perry (Mary), who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. 6While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her ears pierced (baby). 7She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a shopping cart (manger), because there was no place for them in the truck stop (guestroom or inn).
8Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their Xbox 360s (sheep) at night. 9The Lord’s giraffe (angel) stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified.
10The angel said, “Whazzup? (Don’t be afraid!) Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. 12This is a sign for you: you will find a football (newborn baby) wrapped snugly and lying in a plate of spaghetti (manger).” 13Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, 14“Glory to God in heaven, and on earth ice cream cakes (peace) among those whom he favors.”
15When the angels returned to Applebee’s (heaven), the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Hawaii (Bethlehem) and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” 16They went quickly and found the Three Musketeers (Mary and Joseph, and the baby) lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. 18Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. 20The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told.
Camper Page for day 2
Jesus Is God with Us
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1—2
On our first full day of camp together, we will learn about how God is always with us through Jesus!
Draw a picture of what it feels like to know that God is with you:
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for making sure that we are never alone! Thank you for giving us Jesus.
Amen.
Day 3 Guide
Jesus Is Friend
Key Verse: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.… You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last.”—John 15:14, 16a (CEB)
Scripture: John 15:9–17; John 11:1–45
Focus: Campers will learn that Jesus is our friend, and that Jesus is our role model who shows us how to be real friends to others. Campers will learn about the “fruits” of friendship with Jesus.
Connection to Campers: Friends are very important for younger children, and Jesus as friend is likely one of the ways campers are most familiar with him. Help campers build upon this base, so they can talk about the differences between a real friend and a fake friend—and help them to understand that Jesus shows us how to be a real friend.
Leader Notes: Prepare for today by reading the “Biblical and Theological Overview” for Day 3. Keep in mind that some of your youngest campers may still make friends based on availability (he or she is in my class, so we are friends) rather than other characteristics. Be prepared to help guide children through this conversation.
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
Morning Worship
Friend Scramble
Come Out, Lazarus!
Friendship Bracelets
Balloon Toss Trust Game
Find It with a Friend
Anatomy of a Friendship
Evening Worship
Cabin Devotions
Explore
Friend Scramble
This activity will help campers to hear the John 15 scripture and figure out what true friendship (the friendship offered by Jesus) looks like.
Explain to campers that today they will learn more about the real friendship that Jesus is all about. Read John 15:9–17 aloud. Invite campers to listen for the things that a real friend might do or be like. Then scatter note cards on the floor. These note cards should each have a word or phrase on them that is about the real friendship described in today’s scripture or about fake friendship.
Real Friendship cards: love, obedient, serve, joy, sacrifice, “good fruit”
Fake Friendship cards: disobedient, selfish, greedy, jealous, untrustworthy
Ask campers to look at the cards and work together to make two piles: a “real friend” pile and a “fake friend” pile. Once they have made these piles, have campers present them. Help them reorganize the piles if necessary. Ask:
• What do you think Jesus means by “good fruit”?
• How does it feel to know that Jesus is your friend?
Multiple Intelligences: Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: Bible, note cards with real or fake friendship terms written on them
Come Out, Lazarus!
This responsive reading of the Lazarus story can help campers both to focus on what they are hearing and to enter the story in a deeper way. Be sure to put extra emphasis on Jesus’ love for his friend Lazarus (“Jesus wept”), and avoid the temptation to focus on Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. If you give in to this temptation, you run the risk of sending the message that if a person is friends with Jesus, he will raise that person from the dead, and, conversely, that if loved ones who have died remain dead, they are were not friends with Jesus.
Read John 11:1–3, 17, 38–44 aloud. Invite campers to shout, “Come Out, Lazarus!” each time you read Lazarus’ name. After the reading is completed, explain to campers that Lazarus was one of Jesus’ closest friends, someone he loved very much. When Jesus found out that Lazarus had become ill and died, he was so overcome with grief that he went to be with Lazarus’ family—and he cried for his friend. Ask:
• Have you ever loved a friend so much that you felt sad when your friend was sad? What was that like for you?
• What did you do to be with your friend or to help him or her feel better? What has a good friend done for you when you were sad or sick?
• What does Jesus do that shows he is a real friend to Lazarus?
• How can you be friends with Jesus?
• Jesus calls us to be real friends for others. How can you be a better friend?
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic
Supplies: Bible
Experience
Friendship Bracelets
This simple friendship bracelet activity uses twisting or basic braiding instead of other more complex techniques. If you have other preferred techniques, feel free to teach them if you think that all of your campers are capable of them. It is important that every camper make at least three bracelets, as two per camper will be needed during evening worship.
Gather in an area that has a table and chairs. Tell campers that you will all be making friendship bracelets, and that you will be using a quick and simple technique because everyone needs to make at least three bracelets (two for worship, one to give away). Give each camper three pieces of yarn, at least thirty inches long. (You can “eyeball” this—the measurement does not need to be exact.)
Ask campers to hold the yarn strands together at one end and then fold them all in half (so that they have six strands instead of three). Once folded, help campers put a knot at the fold and tape the knot securely to a table or chair. Show campers how to twist the yarn, two strands in each of the three sections. Campers who are already proficient at braiding with three strands can do so. When a braid or twist reaches the desired length for a tie-on bracelet, help campers tie a knot and cut off the remaining yarn. Repeat this process until every camper has at least three bracelets.
As campers braid their yarn, ask questions such as:
• To whom would you like to give the bracelet(s) that you have made to share?
• How would you feel if someone gave you a bracelet?
• When you look at a friendship bracelet on your wrist, what do you think about?
• In what other ways can you tell people they are your friends?
When campers have finished their bracelets, have each camper place two bracelets inside his or her box for safe keeping until evening worship. Invite campers to give out their remaining bracelets to friends at camp throughout the day and to tell these friends, “You are my friend, and I care about you!”
Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal, Spatial
Supplies: Yarn in a variety of colors, scissors, masking tape
Balloon Toss Trust Game
In this classic outdoor game, campers will do an activity that they have likely done before, but with a twist. As balloons are tossed and caught or dropped and burst, campers will practice words of trust and forgiveness that are crucial to healthy friendship. Be sure to have towels on hand.
Go to a large outdoor area. Divide into pairs. (Be one half of a pair if you have an odd number of campers.) Place a container with a few water balloons next to each pair and invite the pairs to stand two or three paces apart, facing each other. Explain that they will be part of a water balloon toss. The pair will toss a balloon back and forth between them, taking a step apart after each toss and catch.
Before each toss, the catcher will tell the partner, “I trust you!” After each catch, the camper who tossed the balloon should congratulate the catcher. Each time a balloon is dropped, missed, or poorly thrown, the camper who made a mistake should say, “I’m sorry”; and the other camper should offer words of forgiveness. This game is over when you run out of water balloons.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic, Interpersonal
Supplies: Water balloons, towels, buckets
Find It with a Friend
In this nature scavenger hunt, campers will work in pairs to find all of the items on the list. The task is designed to encourage partnership and communication—two skills that help build strong friendships.
Head outside to a nature trail or other area of your camp that is undeveloped. Divide into pairs and give each pair a pen and a scavenger hunt handout (below). Explain that each pair is simply to find (not collect—except the litter) as many items on the handout as they can; but they are to work together as partners, listening to each other and having fun together! Explain the boundaries of the hunt (how far away they can go down the trail, if they should remain where you can see them, and so on), and then let campers begin searching.
At the end of the hunt, ask campers to talk about their experiences:
• Was the hunt fun?
• Was it easy or hard to work together?
• What could have made the hunt better?
• What was your favorite thing that you saw during the scavenger hunt?
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist, Interpersonal
Supplies: Copies of the Find It with a Friend handout (below), pens
Anatomy of a Friendship
This activity will help campers think through some of the qualities that they look for in a friend.
Gather together in your usual meeting space. Roll out a long sheet of butcher paper and invite one camper to lie down on it so that another camper can trace the outline. (Supervise so that the tracing goes quickly and without hurtful laughter or comments.) Once you have your outline of a person, give out markers and have campers sit on the floor around the paper. Invite them to take turns telling something they look for in a friend and then writing or drawing that thing or quality on the paper. For example, “I want a friend who is kind.” The camper can write “kind” on the paper or put a smile on the face of the outline.
As children identify these qualities, help them talk about whether they are describing a “real friend” or a “fake friend.” If a camper gives a “fake friend” quality, help him or her to come up with a new answer. When you are finished, have everyone take a look at the outline and decide if anything is missing. If so, add it to the picture. When the picture is complete, post it in your meeting space so campers can see it throughout the week.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Linguistic, Interpersonal
Supplies: Roll of butcher paper or several large sheets of paper taped together, markers, tape
EXPRESS – Worshiping God Together
Song Suggestions
“AH, LA, LA, LA,” VARIOUS VERSIONS: DAVID GRAHAM OR RHONDA CRIGGER (YOUTUBE)
“My Brother, My Friend,” Tony Congi
“What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” Hymn
“I Am a Friend of God” (chorus only),
Michael Gungor and Israel Houghton
“Every Move I Make,” David Ruis
“Lean on Me” (chorus especially), Bill Withers
MORNING WORSHIP
BEGIN BY SINGING ONE OR TWO SONGS, SUCH AS “MY BROTHER, MY FRIEND.” THEN READ JOHN 15:14–16 ALOUD, WITH A PAUSE BETWEEN EACH VERSE. HAVE CAMPERS RESPOND TO EACH VERSE BY SAYING, “SHOW ME HOW TO BE A FRIEND.”
Hand out copies of today’s Camper Page. Invite campers to draw a picture that shows some of the things a real friend does. Close with another song.
Supplies: Camper Page for Day 3, crayons, Bible
EVENING WORSHIP
FOR THIS WORSHIP SERVICE, CAMPERS SHOULD BRING TWO OF THE SIMPLE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS THAT THEY MADE EARLIER IN THE DAY. YOU MAY WANT TO HAVE A FEW EXTRAS ALSO. IN PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP, YOU SHOULD WRITE, “JESUS IS FRIEND,” IN THE CENTER OF A SIDE ON THE JESUS BOX.
Gather in your worship space, and sing a chorus such as “I Am a Friend of God” or “Lean on Me.” Read John 15:14–16 aloud. Then ask campers to tell you about the “side” of Jesus that you learned about today (Jesus is friend).
Instruct campers to hold their two friendship bracelets and make a circle around the Jesus Box. Remind them that the Bible story means that Jesus calls us “friend” and wants us to be friends with others.
Tell them that to remember that Jesus is their friend, they will attach bracelets to one side of the Jesus Box. Have everyone come forward and tape one of his or her bracelets to the box, and return to the circle.
Then tell the campers that as a way to remember that Jesus calls them to be friends with others, they will give their other bracelet to the person standing to their right. The campers should turn and tie a bracelet on that person’s wrist.
After bracelets have been taped and tied, hold hands and sing the first verse of a song, such as “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” or “Jesus Loves Me.” Close worship in prayer by each camper sharing the name of a best friend.
Supplies: Bible, Jesus Box, tape, campers’ friendship bracelets
CABIN DEVOTIONS
WHEN CAMPERS ARE READY FOR BED, HAVE THEM SIT IN WHATEVER ARRANGEMENT YOU’VE ESTABLISHED. INVITE EACH CAMPER TO SHARE A “HIGH” OF HIS OR HER DAY, A MOMENT THAT WAS PARTICULARLY GOOD, AND THEN A “LOW” FROM THE DAY. LEAD CAMPERS IN THEIR CLOSING PRAYER:
God, thank you for this day and this place.
Thank you for these people and your grace.
Help me to see Jesus in each face,
And give me good sleep, safe in your embrace.
Amen.
FIND IT WITH A FRIEND!
(nature scavenger hunt)
See how many items you can find on the list. Work together as friends so that nothing is missed. Mark the items off as you locate them. Have a fun time.
Find:
— Pine Cone
— Rock
— Leaf
— Three Pieces of Litter
— Blade of Grass
— Flower
— Berry
— Feather
— Tree Bark
— Stick
— Animal Tracks
— Something Soft
— Something Hard
— Something Shiny
— Something Blue
— Something Yellow
— Something Red
— A Triangle
— A Circle
— Something Rough
— Something Smooth
Camper Page for day 3
Jesus Is Friend!
Scripture: John 15:9–17; John 11:1–45
Today, we will learn about how Jesus is our friend. He shows us what real friendship looks like, so that we can be real friends too!
Draw a picture that shows some of the things that real friends do:
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for giving me the best of friends: Jesus! Help me to be a good friend to others, and help me to choose real friends for my life. Amen.
Day 4 Guide
Jesus Is Teacher
Key Verse: “Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock.”—Matthew 7:24 (CEB)
Scripture: Matthew 7:15–20, 24–29
Focus: Jesus is a wise teacher and we can trust him. If we pay attention to what he says, we will build our lives on a firm foundation!
Connection to Campers: Most younger children have positive feelings about their teachers and trust them. Help children see how Jesus fills the role of teacher, and help them begin trusting him in the same way.
Leader Notes: Prepare for today by reading the “Biblical and Theological Overview” for Day 4. Try not to focus overmuch on the portion of the Matthew text that talks about being thrown in the fire. Most campers of this age are not able to comprehend metaphor and would likely struggle with this portion of the text.
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
Morning Worship
A Firm Foundation
Jesus-Shaped Fruit
House of Cards
Good-Fruit Basket Upset
Teacher Says
Listen to Nature Speak
Evening Worship
Cabin Devotions
Explore
A Firm Foundation
In this activity, campers will have the opportunity to hear the Matthew 7:24–29 text and to experience the difference that building on a firm foundation can make. Because object lessons can only go so far with campers of this age, be sure to help your group make the connection between the building activity and us “building” our lives on Jesus.
For this Bible exploration, meet in a space that has chairs or two tables that you can move. You will need the Jesus Box as well as all of the campers’ boxes.
Ask campers to sit down on the floor with their personal boxes. Pull two chairs or two tables together so they are just close enough for the Jesus Box to sit with an edge on each chair or table. Then put the Jesus Box to the side. Invite campers to bring their boxes up to the chairs or tables and work together to build across the open space between them. As campers are building, encourage them but do not help them. They may figure out a way to build across the space; but it will likely take some trial and error, and the structure will be shaky.
When campers have finished building or have given up, invite them to take back their boxes. Then place the Jesus Box on top of the chairs or tables, across the gap. Now invite campers to try building over the gap once more. When campers finish (this time the building should go quickly), have them sit down again, and ask:
• Which was more difficult: building across the gap, or building on top of the Jesus Box?
• What made it more difficult?
Read Matthew 7:24–29 aloud. Help campers make the connection between their building project and the scripture:
• How is Jesus’ teaching like solid ground or a firm foundation for our lives?
• What can you do to follow Jesus’ teachings?
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: Bible, campers’ boxes, Jesus Box, two chairs or tables
Jesus-Shaped Fruit
This Bible exploration will help children understand what Jesus means when he talks about “good fruit.” Remember: Do not focus on the portion of the text that talks about being thrown in the fire; focus instead on, “You will know them by their fruit.”
Invite campers to gather around a table. Spread out some bowls with a variety of types of seeds. (You can use seeds from foods you eat or have around during the week at camp: apple seeds, lemon seeds, orange seeds, grape seeds, for example). Encourage campers to help you identify the seeds. As you do this, ask:
• What grows from an apple seed? (An apple tree) And what grows on an apple tree? (An apple)
• Can an orange grow from an apple tree? Can you plant an apple seed and end up harvesting grapes? Why not?
Read Matthew 7:15–20. Explain that the type of fruit you harvest depends on the type of seed or plant that you start with. You can only get a lemon from a lemon seed and tree. You can only get grapes from a grape seed. The same thing is true of the “good or bad fruit” Jesus talks about. Tell the campers, “The ‘fruit’ is our actions and words, which come from whatever is planted in our hearts and lives. If we make Jesus’ teachings the seed or center of who we are, our actions and words will come out looking like Jesus. We will bear ‘Jesus-shaped fruit.’” To make sure campers make the connection between fruit and actions and words, ask:
• What sorts of actions do you think are “Jesus-shaped”?
• What sorts of words do you think are “Jesus-shaped”?
• What can we do to make our actions and words more like Jesus’?
• Where can we go or what can we do to get help in this?
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic, Naturalist
Supplies: Bible, table, several bowls, a variety of fruit seeds
Experience
House of Cards
This activity builds upon and reinforces the Bible exploration, A Firm Foundation (above), and gives campers the opportunity to become teachers.
Meet in your usual group meeting space. Give campers several decks of playing cards, and invite them to spend some time building houses out of cards. If campers are unfamiliar with how to make a house of cards, give them a short demonstration and then set them loose.
As campers work, encourage them to try building these houses on as many different surfaces as possible. They can even try building a house of cards on top of one of their fellow campers who is lying on the ground! Be encouraging and spread your attention around the room as different individuals and groups work on their houses.
As campers wind down, or as you run out of time for the activity, ask them to point out the surfaces that were the best for building stable houses. Then ask them if they can remember what Jesus’ teachings have to do with these solid and stable surfaces. Listen carefully and let your group members do their best to explain this lesson to you. Become the student and ask them clarifying questions so that you can understand—and so that you can help them understand!
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Linguistic, Interpersonal
Supplies: Decks of playing cards
Good-Fruit Basket Upset
This silly game is a good way to get out some built-up energy, while also slipping in some of the good fruits that Jesus would like campers to grow in their life.
Make a circle of chairs with enough seats for all but one of your group members. Tell campers that you are going to play Fruit Basket Upset, but with a special twist: You will be using the names of some of the good fruit that are identified in the Bible. Then assign each camper one of the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22–23 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control). Make sure that there are at least two of each fruit (two loves, two joys, and so on); don’t worry about using all of the fruit of the Spirit. Ask campers to practice saying their fruit out loud a few times so they can remember it.
Have campers sit in the chairs. The group member left without a chair will start off in the middle of the circle. Whoever is in the middle wants to get a chair, so he or she should say the name of one of the fruit of the Spirit. The campers who have been assigned that fruit must get up and try to make it to a different open chair. Whoever is left without a seat is then in the middle and should say the name of another fruit.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: Chairs
Teacher Says
This game (which is essentially Simon Says) is a fun way to practice listening carefully to a teacher and to experience gentle consequences for not listening or following instructions. Be sure to help campers make the connection between listening well and listening to the teachings of Jesus.
Tell campers that you are going to play a game called Teacher Says, which is like Simon Says. You will be the teacher; invite the rest of your group to stand in a line facing you.
Call out instructions such as:
“Teacher says touch your nose.” (Everyone else has to touch his or her nose.)
“Teacher says jump on one foot.” (Everyone should begin jumping on one foot while continuing to touch the nose.)
“Teacher says stop touching your nose.” (all campers should stop touching their nose, but continue jumping on one foot.)
And so on...
If the teacher calls out an instruction without saying, “Teacher says,” then everyone should ignore the instruction.
Explain the consequences as follows: “If you don’t follow a ‘Teacher says’ instruction, you are out. If you do follow an instruction that doesn’t begin with ‘Teacher says,’ you are also out.”
The person remaining, who wins, can then be the teacher in the next round.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: None
Listen to Nature Speak
This experience with sound and nature will help children practice listening carefully and paying attention. Help campers make the connection between being attentive and noticing opportunities to follow Jesus.
Lay out beach towels in an outdoor area (field, meadow, or even an outdoor concrete surface). Have campers claim a space, lie down, and get comfortable. Then invite them to close their eyes.
Explain, “Sometimes when we close our eyes, our ears get better at listening. We can even hear tiny, quiet things that we might not have noticed when our eyes were open.” Tell campers they are going to spend the next thirty seconds in silence with closed eyes, and that their job is to listen very carefully for whatever sounds they might hear. If any of your campers seem a bit anxious about this, assure the group that you will keep your eyes open to watch over them while they are listening.
Count down to the silence: “Three—two—one—listen.” Watch the time and let campers know when the thirty seconds have passed. Invite them to open their eyes and give them a few minutes to tell what they heard in the silence. After they have shared, ask campers if they would like to try listening for one full minute. If they agree, go through the same process, and then announce when one minute has passed. This time, invite campers to tell if they heard anything different than they did during the thirty-second quiet time.
When you are finished with these periods of listening and reporting, remind campers that sometimes, in order to hear what Jesus is saying, persons have to listen and pay attention very carefully. Give an example, such as: “If you aren’t paying attention, you may not notice the person who needs food. And if you don’t notice her or him, how can you help?” Invite campers to think of other things Jesus has for them that they might miss if they don’t pay attention.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist, Linguistic
Supplies: Beach towels (or mats of some sort); a watch, cell phone, or other timing device
EXPRESS – Worshiping God Together
SONG SUGGESTIONS
“JESUS IS THE ROCK (AND HE ROLLS MY BLUES AWAY),” TONY CONGI
“The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock,” Traditional
“Standing on the Promises of God” (chorus only), Hymn
“My Hope Is Built” (chorus only), Hymn
“In the Secret,” Andy Park
“Be Glorified,” Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio
“Be Still and Know,” Traditional (Psalm 46:10)
MORNING WORSHIP
BEGIN BY SINGING ONE OR TWO SONGS, SUCH AS “BE STILL AND KNOW.” THEN READ MATTHEW 7:24–29 ALOUD. HAVE CAMPERS RESPOND BY SAYING, “TEACH US HOW TO BUILD ON SOLID GROUND.”
Hand out copies of today’s Camper Page. Invite campers to draw a picture Jesus teaching them something. Close by singing “Jesus Is the Rock” or the chorus of “My Hope Is Built.”
Supplies: Bible, Camper Page for Day 4, crayons
EVENING WORSHIP
FOR THIS EVENING WORSHIP, PREPARE THE JESUS BOX BY WRITING “JESUS TEACHES ME...” ON AN EMPTY SIDE. IF WEATHER PERMITS, HAVE WORSHIP SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE.
Gather campers and journey outside to your worship space. As you walk together, sing something simple and repetitive, such as the chorus of “Standing on the Promises of God.” When you reach your worship location, invite campers to sit and get comfortable. Open with a short prayer, asking God to help the campers hear what Jesus has to teach them. Read Matthew 7:24–29 aloud.
Invite campers to share something they have learned from Jesus. Instruct them to take turns coming forward to the Jesus Box. As each person comes up, give him or her a marker to write the thing he or she has learned from Jesus on the “teacher” side of the box.
Tell campers that you are going to close worship with the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples: The Lord’s Prayer. Ask if they know this prayer. If even one group member does not know it, invite campers to repeat the prayer after you, line by line. End by shouting “Amen!” and listen to it echo through the camp.
Supplies: Bible, Jesus Box, marker
CABIN DEVOTIONS
CABIN DEVOTIONS ARE AN INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT ROUTINE. BEGIN AGAIN THIS EVENING BY INVITING EACH CAMPERS TO SHARE A “HIGH” OF HIS OR HER DAY, A MOMENT THAT WAS PARTICULARLY GOOD, AND THEN A “LOW” FROM THE DAY. LEAD CAMPERS IN THEIR CLOSING PRAYER:
God, thank you for this day and this place.
Thank you for these people and your grace.
Help me to see Jesus in each face,
And give me good sleep, safe in your embrace.
Amen.
Camper Page for day 4
Jesus Is Teacher!
Scripture: Matthew 7:15–20, 24–29
Jesus is a teacher I can trust. I want to learn from him and follow his instructions. His teachings are my solid ground!
Draw a picture of Jesus teaching you something:
Prayer: Dear God, sometimes I need help to make the best choices. Thank you for giving me the best of teachers: Jesus! Help me to listen to him and follow his instructions. Amen.
Day 5 Guide
Jesus Is Healer
Key Verse: Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked.—John 5:8–9a (CEB)
Scripture: John 5:1–9a
Focus: Jesus can heal things that are broken or hurt, and Jesus notices us and is with us when we are hurting and lonely.
Connection to Campers: Children may know that Jesus healed people who were sick, but they may not know that Jesus also wants to heal our sadness and loneliness.
Leader Notes: Prepare for today by reading the “Biblical and Theological Overview” for Day 5. Be sure to avoid making statements that do not play out in real life, such as: “Jesus will always keep you safe” or “Jesus heals everyone who prays or has faith.” Younger children are old enough to make connections such as: My grandmother died, so does that mean we didn’t pray enough? Instead, focus on Jesus being present with us in our hurts and loneliness.
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
Morning Worship
Stir the Waters
Healing Mats
Obstacle Course
Band-Aid Tag
Healing Race
Get Well Cards
Evening Worship
Cabin Devotions
Explore
Stir the Waters
This Bible exploration will help campers imagine what it might have been like for the sick man to be healed by Jesus. It requires that you meet outside near water (a pool, lake, stream). If you don’t have any outside water features at your camp, get a tub, fill it with water, and place it in your meeting space. Prior to this lesson, remove the wrappers from enough adhesive bandages for your group, and write “Jesus Heals!” on the back of each one with a permanent marker. Remember to avoid making sweeping statements, such as, “Everyone who has faith will be healed by Jesus,” and instead focus on how Jesus notices not just the man’s illness, but also his loneliness.
Gather together next to the water. Invite campers to look at the water for a minute or two, watching the way it moves or is still. Then explain that you are going to read a story about a man with an illness who was healed by Jesus, and you would like them to imagine that they are each the man who gets healed.
Read John 5:1–9a. Ask campers what it felt like to imagine that they were the man. Turn back to the water and explain that, in Jesus’ time, people believed a special pool of water could cure people of sickness. (At this point you could help campers carefully dip their hands in the water so that they can feel it on their skin). Say: “This man had waited by the water in hopes that someone would help him in at the right moment. No one ever did. No one even noticed him! But Jesus saw his pain and his loneliness and decided to help him.”
(At this point, take the bandage strips with “Jesus Heals!” written on them and place one on a hand of each camper). Continue: “The man wasn’t healed in the water—he was healed when Jesus noticed him!” Ask:
• What are some things we believe will cure people today?
• What makes you feel better when you are sick?
• Why do you think Jesus noticed the sick man?
• How does it feel to know that Jesus notices you when you are hurting and feeling lonely?
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist, Intrapersonal, Linguistic
Supplies: Bible, water source, adhesive bandage strips, permanent marker
Healing Mats
Campers will weave their own mats out of paper strips and discuss what it might be like to live on a mat, like the sick man in John 5:1–9a. In preparation, take variously colored, large sheets of construction paper and cut them into long strips at least one inch wide.
Explain to campers that in honor of the sick man in today’s scripture, they will be making their own healing mats. Place paper strips in a large pile on a table or floor and then demonstrate how to weave them into a mat. Invite campers to do the same. When a camper’s mat becomes big enough to sit on, help the camper bind it off by placing strips of clear tape across each edge, which will help to hold the mat together.
When all of your campers have finished, have them place their mats on the ground and sit on them. Invite campers once again to imagine themselves as the man, and read John 5:1–9a. Then ask:
• What would it be like to have to live on a mat?
• What would you do if you had been stuck on your mat for a very long time, and then Jesus helped you to get up and walk again?
• Do you feel “stuck” sometimes, like you don’t know what to do or where to go? What are those moments like?
• How does it feel to know that Jesus can heal our “stuck-ness” and help us to be free to move around and live our lives?
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Linguistic
Supplies: Bible, colored paper strips (cut from variously colored, large sheets of construction paper), scissors, tape
Experience
Obstacle Course
This simple exercise will help campers practice trusting and relying on their friends, which is a skill we want children to develop so they can learn to trust and rely on Jesus and their community of faith when they are hurting or in need. Prepare a simple obstacle course, preferably outside, that includes turns, small items to step over, small dips, and so forth. Be prepared to watch campers carefully so that no one is injured on the course.
Divide into pairs. Tell campers that in each pair they will take turns being the blindfolded follower and the open-eyed leader. Explain that the leaders’ job is to take care of their follower, carefully leading through the obstacle course, making it through safely. The followers’ job is to trust their leader and listen carefully to the instructions so that they can make it through the course. Remind campers that throughout the activity, you will be right there to make sure that everyone is safe.
Blindfold the follower in each pair. Invite the leaders to slowly and carefully guide their followers through the course. Then switch, blindfolding the campers who just served as leaders. Invite the new leaders to slowly and carefully guide their followers through the course. When everyone has made it through, collect the blindfolds and have campers sit down. Ask:
• When you were the follower, how did it feel to not know where you were going?
• Did trusting your friend make it easier? How did it feel to rely on someone else?
• How can you trust Jesus more? What sorts of things or activities would help you to trust that Jesus will guide you and be with you?
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic, Interpersonal
Supplies: Prepared obstacle course, blindfolds
Band-Aid Tag
This variation of tag has campers use their hands like Band-Aids, one of the symbols we use throughout the day to remember that Jesus is healer. If possible, play the game in a large outdoor area.
Tell campers that you are all going to play Band-Aid Tag. Give these instructions:
“Band-Aid Tag is like regular tag, except that it has a few changes to the rules. One person will be ‘it’ and will try to tag other members of the group. Your hands are the ‘Band-Aids.’ If you are tagged, you must put one of your hands on the spot where you were tagged, and keep your hand there for the rest of the game. If you are tagged a second time, you must put your other hand on the second spot. If you are tagged a third time, you have no bandages left, so you must move to the ‘hospital’ (a space to the side of the play area), do five jumping jacks, and shout, ‘Jesus is healer!’ so that you can ‘get well’ and rejoin the game with two new bandages.”
After five or six minutes of play, start over with a new person who is “it.”
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: None
Healing Race
This simple relay race is mostly just fun, but it also ties into the theme of healing and encourages teamwork. It is easiest if you use rolls of toilet paper, but if you would prefer not to waste toilet paper, then substitute reusable elastic bandages. As you supervise the race, make sure that campers do not wrap anything around the face of the “patient.”
Tell campers that you are going to have a race. Divide into two teams and provide each with a box containing rolls of toilet paper or elastic bandages. You need a volunteer from each group to be the “patient.” Have these two volunteers sit down in chairs on one side of your area. Instruct the rest to line up across from their patient on the other side of the room and explain that they will take turns taking a roll or bandage to their patient and wrapping the entire thing around him or her. When the first person in line has finished wrapping, he or she runs back and tags the next team member, who will then wrap another roll or bandage around the patient. The first team to complete wrapping their patient wins.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic, Interpersonal
Supplies: Two chairs, rolls of inexpensive toilet paper or reusable elastic bandages (one per campers—minus two)
Get Well Cards
In this activity, campers will create get-well cards for people at camp and at home who are in need of Jesus’ healing.
Gather in a room with tables and chairs. Have everyone sit down; explain that they will be making get well cards for friends and family. As you place the supplies on the table, encourage campers to think of people at camp and at home who are sick, sad, or lonely. Invite campers to take sheets of paper, fold them in half, and then decorate and write in their cards. Encourage them to include this message inside their cards: “Jesus Is Healer!”
Be sure to have campers put the name of the intended recipient in each card. Cards that are for folks at camp can be delivered throughout the day. Cards that are for people at home should be placed inside campers’ boxes so they can be delivered after camp.
Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal, Spatial
Supplies: Enough tables and chairs to accommodate all the campers, construction paper, crayons, pens, markers, campers’ boxes
EXPRESS – Worshiping God Together
Song Suggestions
“BE STILL AND KNOW,” TRADITIONAL (PSALM 46:10)
“Jesus Loves Me,” Traditional
“Change My Heart, O God,” Eddie Espinosa
“Amazing Grace” (verse 1), Hymn
“Jesus’ Hands Were Kind Hands,”
Margaret Cropper
MORNING WORSHIP
BEGIN BY SINGING A SONG, SUCH AS “BE STILL AND KNOW.” THEN READ JOHN 5:1–9A ALOUD. HAVE CAMPERS RESPOND BY SAYING, “JESUS, BE WITH ME WHEN I HURT AND HELP ME TO HEAL.”
Hand out copies of today’s Camper Page. Invite campers to draw a picture of a time that Jesus helped when they were hurt or scared, or draw a picture of Jesus healing someone in the Bible. Close by singing the first verse of “Amazing Grace” or of “Jesus’ Hands Were Kind Hands.”
Supplies: Bible, Camper Page for Day 5, crayons
EVENING WORSHIP
FOR THIS EVENING WORSHIP, PREPARE THE JESUS BOX BY WRITING “JESUS IS HEALER!” ON AN EMPTY SIDE. YOU WILL ALSO NEED AN UNWRAPPED ADHESIVE BANDAGE STRIP AND FINE-TIPPED, PERMANENT MARKER FOR EACH CAMPER.
Gather and journey to your worship space. As you walk together, sing something simple and repetitive, such as the first verse of “Jesus Loves Me.” When you reach your worship location, read John 5:1–9a aloud, and remind campers that Jesus is their healer too. Invite them to think of something they need Jesus to help them with or someone they think needs Jesus’ healing. Give each an unwrapped bandage and a marker, and encourage the campers to write the need or the name on theirs.
Invite campers to take turns coming forward to the Jesus Box and placing their bandage on the side of the box marked “Jesus Is Healer!”
Ask campers to name some of their joys and concerns. Close in a prayer that acknowledges those joys and concerns and lifts them up to Jesus, the healer.
Supplies: Bible; Jesus Box; adhesive bandage strips; fine-tipped, permanent markers
CABIN DEVOTIONS
WHEN CAMPERS ARE READY FOR BED, INVITE THEM TO EACH SHARE “HIGHS” AND THEN “LOWS.” LEAD THEM IN THIS CLOSING PRAYER:
God, thank you for this day and this place.
Thank you for these people and your grace.
Help me to see Jesus in each face,
And give me good sleep, safe in your embrace.
Amen.
Camper Page for day 5
Jesus Is Healer
Scripture: John 5:1–9a
Jesus is with me when I hurt. He wants me to be healthy, happy and whole!
Draw a picture of a time that Jesus helped you when you were hurt or scared,
—OR— Draw a picture of Jesus healing someone in the Bible.
Prayer:
Dear God, sometimes I get hurt or scared. Help me to know that Jesus is with me and cares for me when things are hard! Amen.
Day 6 Guide
Jesus Is Savior
Key Verse: Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness combined with our faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.… This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.—Romans 5:1, 5 (CEB)
Scripture: Romans 5:1–5; Luke 24:36–49
Focus: Help campers understand Jesus’ role as Savior has to do with how much God loves us.
Connection to Campers: At this age, most campers understand love in a simple and unconditional way. They love their parents. They love their teachers. They love their friends. Tap into this largely unspoiled understanding of love and help campers understand that when we say Jesus is Savior, we are talking about God’s love for us and for the entire world. Encourage campers to think about how they might want to respond to God’s extravagant love for us, which we experience through Jesus.
Leader Notes: Prepare for today by reading the “Biblical and Theological Overview” for Day 6. Remember that while most campers understand love in this way, there may be a few campers for whom trust has been broken and love has been wounded.
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
Morning Worship
My Hero!
Prove It
Do You Love Your Neighbor?
Resurrection Hunt
Heartbombing
In the Tomb, Out of the Tomb
Evening Worship
Cabin Devotions
Explore
My Hero!
At this age, campers have a strong attachment to superheroes. Use it to help them understand that Jesus is a different type of hero with a huge power: love.
Ask campers if they know about any superheroes. Give them some time to tell you about those heroes:
• What are their names? What are their powers?
• Which superhero is your favorite? Why?
• If you could have a super power, what would it be? Which super powers are the best?
Now explain that, in some ways, Jesus is like a superhero. Ask campers to help you list all of the powers they’ve heard that Jesus has. Write these down on a large sheet of paper. Then read Romans 5:1–5 aloud.
Say: “The greatest power Jesus had is one that God filled him with and expected him to share: love. When Jesus shares this God-love with us, we sometimes call it grace—and this gracious love is contagious! Jesus’ power fills us with power, so that we can share the same love with other people. So, in a sense, because Jesus loves us, we are given a piece of his super power. We can love other people and share God’s grace too!”
Ask:
• What do you think of Jesus’ “super power”? How is love powerful?
• How does it feel to know that you get to share Jesus’ super power? How can you use this power in the world?
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic
Supplies: Bible, large sheet of paper, marker
Prove It!
In this Bible exploration, campers will hear and interact with the story of the resurrected Jesus appearing to his disciples. Though it is a commonly heard story, young campers are far less likely to be familiar with it. Help them through the story, leave room for questions, and be prepared for a fascination with two things: Jesus appearing like a ghost and Jesus’ hands and feet. Even though this scripture doesn’t explicitly point out that there are holes in his hands and feet, campers may want to know why he shows those body parts to the disciples as a form of proof.
Tell campers that you have a story from the Bible about what happened after Jesus died on the cross. Remind them that after Jesus died, God brought him back to life so that he could keep sharing that powerful love and grace with the world. This story is one of those about what happened after God brought Jesus back to life.
Invite campers to imagine they are the disciples in the story; read Luke 24:36–49. Ask:
• Why do you think the disciples had a hard time believing the person was really Jesus?
• What did it feel like to see Jesus again?
• Why did the disciples want Jesus to prove it was really him?
Point out that even though Jesus could have been angry or irritated with the disciples for not believing it was him, he still shows love to them by calmly proving who he is and that he is really alive, which is why he eats something in front of them. (Ghosts don’t eat food!) Jesus also continues to share love with them by telling them that he is still going to send them the helper that God promised: the Holy Spirit.
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic
Supplies: Bible
Experience
Do You Love Your Neighbor?
This game ties into the theme of love and gives campers a chance to burn off some extra energy before you need to focus on something serious. Prepare for the game by pulling chairs into a circle (enough chairs for everyone but you).
Invite campers to sit in the chairs. Stand in the center of the circle—you are “it.” Explain that whoever is “it” will go up to one of the seated people and ask, “Do you love your neighbor?” The person who is asked the question will then choose to say “yes” or “no.” If “yes,” then the two neighbors on either side (the ones seated directly to the left and right) must switch seats before “it” can steal one of their chairs. Whoever is left without a chair is now “it.” If the person says “no,” he or she should then say, “But I love people who __(fill in the blank)____” (an activity, item of clothing, color currently being worn, and so on, pertaining to two or more players). Those campers must then jump up from their chairs and try to find a different empty chair while “it” also tries to sit in one.
Give campers an example: “If the person who is ‘it’ asks me, ‘Do you love your neighbor?’ and I reply, ‘No, but I love people who are wearing red,’ then everyone in the circle who is wearing red must get up and try to find a new seat while ‘it’ tries to steal one. If I reply, ‘Yes,’ then the two people seated on the right and left of me must try to switch seats while ‘it’ tries to get one.”
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: Chairs for the entire group (except yourself)
Resurrection Hunt!
This scavenger hunt encourages campers to look around in nature for signs of life, especially new life. Be sure to explain that, like Jesus’ resurrection, new life is a sign of God’s love for us.
Head to a nature trail or other outdoor area in your camp. Tell campers that you are going on a resurrection hunt and that their job is to look for signs of new life everywhere you go. As you walk, encourage them to shout with joy every time they see a sign of new life. Take the opportunity to talk about what they see. Explain, “Like Jesus’ resurrection, every bit of new life in the world is a sign of God’s love for us. That love keeps sprouting up, in expected and unexpected places, and we have to keep our eyes open so that we can see it!”
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist
Supplies: None
Surprise Hearts
Surprise Hearts is a gently subversive practice that has quietly spread across the country. It is a practice in which people affix hearts (stickers, cutouts) to random places and items throughout a city in order to bring smiles to the faces of strangers. In this camp version, campers will leave hearts throughout the camp as an expression of the love of Jesus.
Be sure to help campers know the difference between this random act of joy and littering. All hearts left outside must be made with natural or biodegradable objects (hearts of sticks or vines, hearts drawn in the dirt, hearts drawn with sidewalk chalk, for example), while paper hearts are appropriate for dining tables, bathroom mirrors, and so on.
Spread a variety of supplies out on a large table or floor. Explain that one of the best ways to respond to Jesus’ love is to share it. Tell the campers they will practice by creating and leaving hearts all over the campsite. Have campers cut hearts out of construction paper, draw hearts on small slips of paper, and select pieces of sidewalk chalk. When campers are ready, lead them on a hike around camp and help them identify appropriate places to leave or create hearts for other campers, camp staff, and future campers to discover. At the end of the hike, ask how it felt to share the love of Jesus in this simple way.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Naturalist
Supplies: Construction paper, paper, pens, scissors, sidewalk chalk
In the Tomb, Out of the Tomb
This high energy game is mostly for fun, but it also ties into the theme of Jesus’ resurrection: He was in the tomb, and now he is most assuredly out of the tomb!
Draw a long line on the floor or ground using masking tape. Invite campers to line up facing you on the right side of the line. Explain that for this game the right side of the line is called “in the tomb,” and the left side is “out of the tomb.” Tell them that you will yell “out of the tomb” or “in the tomb.” When they hear the command, they should jump to that side (unless they are already on that side; then they need to stay put). If they jump in the wrong direction or don’t jump to the other side when they should, they are out and should sit to the side of the play area. The last player left wins. Play as many rounds as campers are up for, or as will fit in your time slot.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: Masking tape
EXPRESS – Worshiping God Together
Song Suggestions
“JESUS LOVES ME,” TRADITIONAL
“All You Need Is Love” (chorus only),
John Lennon and Paul McCartney
“Shout to the Lord,” Darlene Zschech
“I Love You, Lord,” Laurie Klein
“I Will Call Upon the Lord,” Michael O’Shields
“You Are My All in All,” Dennis Jernigan
“Be Still and Know,” Traditional (Psalm 46:10)
MORNING WORSHIP
BEGIN BY SINGING ONE OR TWO SONGS, SUCH AS “BE STILL AND KNOW.” THEN READ ROMANS 5:1–5 SLOWLY, PAUSING AFTER EACH VERSE. HAVE CAMPERS RESPOND TO EACH VERSE BY SAYING, “YES, JESUS LOVES ME.”
Hand out copies of today’s Camper Page. Invite campers to draw a picture that shows how much Jesus loves them. Close by singing “Jesus Loves Me.”
Supplies: Bible, Camper Page for Day 6, crayons
EVENING WORSHIP
FOR THIS EVENING WORSHIP, PREPARE THE JESUS BOX BY WRITING “JESUS IS SAVIOR = JESUS LOVES ME” ON AN EMPTY SIDE.
Journey to your worship space. As you walk, sing something joyful and repetitive, such as the chorus of “All You Need Is Love.” When you reach your worship location, open with a short prayer, thanking God for loving humans extravagantly enough to send Jesus the Savior. Read Romans 5:1–5 aloud, and invite campers each to share one way he or she has seen or felt the love of Jesus.
Instruct campers to take turns coming forward to the Jesus Box. As each comes up, give him or her a marker and invite him or her to write “Jesus loves ___(camper’s name)___” on the “Savior” side of the box.
Invite campers to stand in a circle and put their arms around the shoulders of the people to their left and right. Close in prayer by counting to three, shouting, “We love you, Jesus!” and then leaning in for a group hug.
Supplies: Bible, Jesus Box, markers
CABIN DEVOTIONS
WHEN CAMPERS ARE READY FOR BED, INVITE THEM TO SHARE “HIGHS” AND “LOWS.” ADD A FINAL STEP BY ASKING THEM EACH TO SHARE ONE WAY HE OR SHE HAS EXPERIENCED THE LOVE OF JESUS TODAY. AFTER THAT, PRAY TOGETHER:
God, thank you for this day and this place.
Thank you for these people and your grace.
Help me to see Jesus in each face,
And give me good sleep, safe in your embrace.
Amen.
Camper Page for day 6
Jesus Is Savior!
Scripture: Romans 5:1–11; Luke 24:36–49
“Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so.” When we say “Jesus is Savior,” we are talking about LOVE!
Draw a picture that shows how much Jesus loves you.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for all the love we receive through Jesus. Help us to share that love with everyone we meet! Amen.
Day 7 Guide
Jesus Is the Real Thing
Key Verse:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”—Luke 4:18–19
Scripture: Luke 4:14–21
Focus: Campers will learn about Jesus’ mission in the world (his “favorite things”) and think about how to do those favorite things of his when they go home.
Connection to Campers: Children this age have a fairly black-and-white sense of justice. Taking care of people and being kind are the right things to do, and being mean and hurting people are the wrong things to do. Help children understand that when we say Jesus is the “Real Thing,” we mean that he is always doing the right thing, and that he wants us to follow his example in the world.
Leader Notes: Prepare for today by reading the “Biblical and Theological Overview” for Day 7. On this last day of camp, be sure to take the opportunity to help your campers feel a sense of completion. Celebrate them, what they have learned together and what they have accomplished; and give them a send-off that will help them re-enter their lives with a desire to follow Jesus’ example. Be aware that some campers may be a little sad that they are leaving camp today; remind them that camp rolls around each year, so they have something to look forward to next summer!
CUSTOMIZE TODAY’S PLAN
Choose what you will do today and in what order.
Morning Worship
Jesus’ Favorites
My Piece of the Puzzle
Raindrops on Roses
Circle of Love
Closing Worship
Explore
Jesus’ Favorites
In this Bible exploration, campers will hear the words that were on the Isaiah scroll that Jesus read in the synagogue. They will learn that those words describe Jesus’ favorite things, and they will create their own scrolls. In preparation for this activity, cut brown grocery bags into pieces that are roughly the size of a sheet of notebook paper. Make sure you have a sheet for every group member, plus a few extra.
Gather in a space that has tables and chairs. Read Luke 4:14–21 aloud. Then explain to the group that when Jesus read this scripture in the synagogue, he was telling the people what he was about. Basically, he was saying that these things are his favorites: good news for the poor, freedom, healing, justice, and announcing that God is at work in the world. These are things that Jesus cares about—and these are things Jesus wants us to care about.
Explain to campers that they get to make their own scroll that lists the things Jesus cares about, so that they can remember them when they go home. Give every camper a piece of brown paper and spread out some markers and crayons around the table. Write Jesus’ favorite things on a large sheet of paper or whiteboard so everyone can see them.
Jesus’ Favorites:
good news
freedom
healing
justice
God is working in the world!
Invite campers to write these things on their papers in their very best handwriting. Encourage them to decorate the page in a way that reminds them of how important these things are. Be sure to check on each camper to make sure that anyone who is struggling receives help.
When campers are finished writing and decorating, have them roll up their paper like a scroll. Help them roll the scrolls tightly and then tie them with pieces of yarn. Ask campers to place their scrolls in their boxes so that they remember to take them home.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Linguistic
Supplies: Enough tables and chairs to accommodate all your campers, Bible, brown paper grocery bags (preferably blank), large sheet of paper or whiteboard, scissors, markers, crayons, yarn, campers’ boxes
Experience
Raindrops on Roses
This activity uses music to help campers remember Jesus’ favorite things. Be sure to download the lyrics and the music, obtain a CD, or practice the song beforehand.
Tell campers they get to be creative geniuses and write a song about Jesus’ favorite things. Explain that because time is limited, instead of writing the music for the song you will use a song that has already been written and simply make up new words. The song is “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. Play it a few times on a CD player or phone, or sing it for the group. Invite campers to sing or hum along as they get comfortable with the tune.
Then get to work on creating new words by focusing only on verse one (“Raindrops on roses”) and verse four (“When the dog bites”). Refer the campers to the scripture, if needed. When your group has finished writing their new lyrics, make a clean copy on large sheets of paper so everyone can see it. Practice singing it together, and celebrate your creativity!
Multiple Intelligences: Musical, Interpersonal
Supplies: Recording and lyrics to “My Favorite Things,” device for playing the music, large sheets of paper, markers, Bible
My Piece of the Puzzle
In this activity, campers will put together a puzzle that has been made out of the group’s covenant. Each camper will be able to take a piece of the covenant home with them to remind them of the group, their week together, and the importance of the promises we make to God and one another. In preparation for this activity, carefully cut your group’s covenant poster into the same number of pieces as there are members in your group, including yourself. These pieces should be odd shapes with sharp random angles or curving lines (resembling a jigsaw puzzle), rather than simple squares or rectangles.
Invite campers to spread out on the floor. Give each camper one piece of the puzzle (keeping one for yourself) and do not tell them what these pieces create. Encourage campers to work together in order to put the puzzle together, and participate with them without telling them where to put each piece.
When the puzzle is complete, explain that the covenant poster represents your group this week. Point out that if any one piece (or person) were missing, the group would not be complete. Explain that the same thing is true when they go home: Their families, their schools, their churches would not be the same without them. They each have something special to offer, including the things that they have learned at camp this week.
Invite campers to brainstorm ways that they can share what they have learned whenever they go home.
Have campers take their pieces of the covenant home. They can put their pieces inside their boxes.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Interpersonal
Supplies: Covenant poster (from Day 2), scissors, camper boxes
Circle of Love
This activity will help bring your group to a close for the week, and send campers off with a sense that they are known and loved. Be sure to encourage your group members to be thoughtful instead of silly so that this activity can have as much power as possible.
Sit in a circle and give everyone a piece of paper and marker. Ask each person to write his or her name at the top of the piece of paper and then pass it to the person on the right. Invite each person to write one or more positive things about the person whose name is at the top of the paper.
When campers are finished writing, have everyone pass the papers to the right and write on the next person’s paper they receive. Continue until everyone has written positive things on every other group member’s paper. A completed piece of paper might look like this:
Madisyn Conner
good laugh
Always thinking
of others
generous
Loving
Makes pretty friendship bracelets
When the group is finished, collect all the papers and present them to the individuals. Give campers time to read their sheets and then have them place the papers inside their boxes so they can take them home.
Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal
Supplies: Sheets of paper and markers for each of the campers, camper boxes
EXPRESS – Worshiping God Together
Song Suggestions
“LORD, YOU ARE MORE PRECIOUS THAN SILVER,”
LYNN DESHAZO
“Micah 6:8 (What Does the Lord Require of You?),” Jim Strathdee
“I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me”
(first verse only), African-American spiritual
“I’m Gonna Sing, Sing, Sing,” Traditional
“Children, Go Where I Send Thee!”
African-American spiritual
“Who’s the King of the Jungle?” Traditional
“Jesus Loves Me,” Traditional
“My Favorite Things,” Rogers and Hammerstein
MORNING WORSHIP
BEGIN BY SINGING “JESUS LOVES ME.” THEN READ LUKE 4:14–21 ALOUD. HAVE CAMPERS RESPOND BY SAYING, “JESUS, YOU ARE THE REAL THING!”
Hand out copies of today’s Camper Page. Invite campers to draw a picture that shows how they can help people who are hungry or hurting. Close by singing, “Micah 6:8 (What Does the Lord Require of You?).”
Supplies: Bible, Camper Page for Day 7, crayons
CLOSING WORSHIP
FOR THIS FINAL WORSHIP TOGETHER, YOU WILL NEED THE JESUS BOX AS WELL AS ALL OF THE GROUP’S CAMPER BOXES. ON THE JESUS BOX, WRITE “JESUS IS THE REAL THING!” ON THE REMAINING EMPTY SIDE. WHEN WORSHIP IS OVER, REMIND CAMPERS TO TAKE THEIR BOXES HOME WITH THEM, OR HELP THEM PUT THEIR BOXES WITH THEIR LUGGAGE SO THEY WON’T BE LEFT BEHIND.
Invite campers to sit in a circle around the Jesus Box. Keep the camper boxes in a stack next to you. Open worship by singing “Micah 6:8” (or by singing the song you wrote earlier in the day). Read Luke 4:14–21 aloud.
Invite campers to come up to the Jesus Box to write or draw their favorite thing about Jesus on the final side. Ask campers to sit back down in the circle and then explain that while they have learned about Jesus’ favorite things today, you left something out. One by one, present each camper with his or her camper box by saying, “__________(name)___, you are one of Jesus’ favorite things!”
Close worship in prayer, having campers each share the favorite thing he or she learned this week. End the prayer by thanking God for each member of your group, and ask God to be with the campers as they go home.
Supplies: Bible, Jesus Box, campers’ boxes, markers
Camper Page for day 7
Jesus Is the Real Thing
Scripture: Luke 4:14–21
Jesus cares deeply about justice, kindness, and caring for the poor. He wants me to care about these things too!
Draw a picture that shows ways that you can care about people who are hungry or hurting:
Prayer: Dear God, I want to care about the people and things that Jesus cares about. Help me to help others. Help me to be fair. Help me to make the world a better place! Amen.
Extra Resources for a Great Week at Camp
Arts and Crafts
Self-Portrait
Ask campers to draw a self-portrait and use words that describe themselves all around the portrait. While younger campers can stay surface-level (“daughter,” “student”), encourage older campers to go a little deeper with their descriptions. Have the campers use Psalm 139:14, NLT (“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it!”) as the title of the portrait. Encourage campers to think about what makes them unique and how God created them special.
Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal
Supplies: Bibles, paper, pencils, crayons, markers
Handprint Wreath
Have campers trace and cut out both of their handprints. Then they are to add one self-descriptive word on each of the handprints and decorate them with bright colors in a free-form design. Assemble all of the cutouts from the group around the edge of a cardboard circle, creating a wreath. Put the name of the group in the middle of the wreath. Talk about how God has brought this group together to learn and grow together. Focus the conversation on the fact that all the unique personalities of the various campers will contribute to the group and that each person is important. (This craft could also be used as part of a worship experience or cabin devotions.)
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Linguistic
Supplies: Paper or cardstock for handprints, scissors, cardboard for base (can be covered with black paper to make a more dramatic backdrop), markers, crayons, glue or tape to assemble wreath
Facebook Page for Jesus
Ask campers to create a Facebook-type page for Jesus. Ask prompting questions, such as: Based on what you know, what would he have as his favorite quotation, music, TV show? What would he have said about where he was born, where he might have gone to school? Encourage campers to be creative and have fun with this task—it does not have to be too serious.
Within the conversation draw out what they know or think they know about Jesus. You will want to gently correct any misconceptions they might have. Ask follow-up questions such as: “Would you ‘friend’ Jesus? Would you want Jesus to see all the things you post? What kinds of things would Jesus post? Do you think he would post silly or serious things? What pages would he ‘like’? Who would Jesus ‘friend’?”
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic
Supplies: Paper, pencils, markers, (optional: Facebook homepage template)
Decorate Birthday Cupcakes
Decorate cookies or cupcakes for a birthday party for Jesus. Let campers make a wish and blow out a candle.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial
Supplies: Cookies or cupcakes, frosting and sprinkles, candles, matches
Life-giving Words Poster
Make a poster of “life-giving” words versus “life-draining” words. Ask for some examples from the group. Then talk about how each category makes people feel. Ask: Where could we use life-giving words? Why don’t we use these more often? What makes us forget them?
Have campers make crowns, putting together two or more strips of paper, and decorate them with the “life-giving” words so that they will always be “on the top of your head.” Challenge everyone to use at least two of the words you have listed today at camp.
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic, Spatial
Supplies: Poster board, long strips of paper, glue or tape, markers, scissors (optional: crown pattern, “jewels” or other decorations for crowns [use adhesive backed ones or provide glue])
Make Your Own Best Friend
Ask campers to describe their best friend from home (or at camp) and tell the story of how they met. Ask: What is the best thing about your friend? What are some of the most important qualities in a best friend?
In groups of three or four, have each group trace the body of a camper on large sheet of paper (or they can use chalk if you have a paved surface to work with). Each group should decorate their paper “Best Friend” by listing the qualities of a friend in the corresponding part of the body: for example, “A good friend should have a big heart to care for everyone.” “A good friend should have big ears in order to be a good listener.” Use full sentences or just place the word caring on the heart or listening on the ears.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal, Spatial
Supplies: Large sheets of paper and markers, or sidewalk chalk and paved area
“Graffiti” With Life-giving Words
Have campers write—in large, creative script—life-giving words (or phrases) on paper. Decorate the words and cut them out, then “graffiti” your camp with your words. Put them in cabins, the dining space, and the worship area as reminders for everyone to use those words all the time.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial
Supplies: Paper, markers, scissors, tape
Friendship Bracelets
Have each camper make a friendship bracelet and give it to someone in camp he or she doesn’t know well. Remind the campers to use “life-giving” words when they present their gifts. Challenge them to get to know the bracelet recipients better and work to make new friends. They can make the bracelets by knotting or braiding strands of embroidery floss. Younger campers can braid the floss if the tying is too challenging for them. (More elaborate bracelet directions can be found online. The visuals are helpful.)
(Leader Note: Beaded friendship pins provide a even simpler option for this activity. For instructions and supplies, use your Web browser.)
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal, Spatial
Supplies: Embroidery floss, friendship bracelet directions
Games
Name Yourself
Use adhesive nametags (or sticky notes) and have each camper write three to five identifications for him- or herself (dancer, soccer player, straight-A student, first-time camper). Encourage participants to be creative and come up with unique identifications for themselves. Collect all the tags and redistribute them to different people. Ask campers to stick the tags onto the people to whom they think the identifications apply. Once everyone is done, see who got the most right.
Find out who got some correct and what helped them know they were correct. With older campers, discuss differences in identifications that we put on ourselves and titles that are put on us. Talk about how those identities or labels make people feel and how important they are to them.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal, Linguistic
Supplies: Nametags or sticky notes, markers
Follow the Leader (With a Twist)
Play Follow the Leader, but tell the campers that only those with blue eyes can play (or any other distinction that will exclude a good portion of the group). Purposely exclude a group of them and have them watch. Make sure to celebrate and make a big deal of the others.
Bring them back together and ask:
• What did you think about that game?
• How did it feel to be left out of the game?
• How did it feel to be able to play, knowing that so many others could not?
• Have you ever been left out of something you really wanted to do?
• Who gets left out at your school? your church?
• What do you think you can do to make sure everyone feels included?
• What kind of leader do you think God wants us to follow?
God wants us to follow the real thing—a leader who includes everyone and who builds people up and does not tear them down.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic
Supplies: None
Teaching Game
Choose one or two campers to teach a simple game (for example: Hide and Seek; Rock, Paper, Scissors) to the group. The rest of the group should pretend they have never heard of the game and ask questions. Explore the ways the “teachers” use to try to explain. Do they just talk to the class or do they try to demonstrate? Do they let the class try the game? Guide the discussion to open the door to the various kinds of teachers they have had in their school careers. Ask: When you think about the good teachers you have had, what was it that made them good in your mind?
Multiple Intelligences: Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: None
Authority Versus Fame
Ask campers to explore the differences between authority and fame. Ahead of time, print pictures from the Internet of famous and infamous people. Select ones who are somewhat controversial (political figures, reality television star, music star, sports figure, or other current people).
One at a time, hold up each picture and ask campers to move to the right side if they think this is a person who is a good example and teacher. Have them move to the left if they feel this is a person who is famous for the wrong reasons. Ask them to defend their choices. Make sure you are open to all their arguments; there may not be a clear right or wrong.
Ask if these figures are persons they should be looking up to, or if they are famous for the wrong reasons. Use these discussion questions: Do you think famous people have a responsibility to be good role models? Does reality TV reward bad behavior with fame? What message does reality TV send? Does being in the media mean that a person is someone we should listen to?
Multiple Intelligences: Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: Pictures of famous people
“I Am” Charades
Look up the “I am” statements of Jesus in the gospel of John. Have campers take turns selecting a slip of paper with an “I am” statement on it and performing charades to get the others to guess which statement it is. Afterward, talk about each one and its meaning for us, and how the statements all begin to show us a picture of Jesus.
“I am the living bread.”—John 6:51
“I am the light of the world.”—John 8:12
“I am from above.”—John 8:23
“I am the gate.”—John 10:9
“I am the good shepherd.”—John 10:11
“I am God’s Son.”—John 10:36
“I am the resurrection and the life.”
—John 11:25
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
—John 14:6
“I am the true vine.”—John 15:1
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic, Linguistic
Supplies: Bible, slips of paper with the “I am” statements written on them
Science Fun
Design and Test a Parachute
Have the campers learn about air resistance while making a parachute! The goal is to create one that can fall slowly to the ground. Invite them to feel free to test their creations—and make modifications—as they go. Offer these instructions: “Cut out a large square from the plastic bag [or whatever material you provide them]. Trim the edges so it looks like an octagon. Cut a small hole near the edge of each of the eight sides. Attach eight pieces of string of the same length to each of the holes. Tie the pieces of string to the object you are using as a weight. Use a chair or find a safe, high spot from which to drop your parachute and test how well it worked—remember you want it to drop as slowly as possible!”
Discuss what’s happening, offering these insights: “Hopefully, your parachute will descend slowly to the ground, giving your weight a comfortable landing. When you release the parachute, the weight pulls down on the strings and opens up a large surface area of material that uses air resistance to slow it down. The larger the surface area, the more air resistance and the slower the parachute will drop. Cutting a small hole in the middle of the parachute will allow air to pass slowly through it rather than spilling out over one side, which should help the parachute fall straighter.”
Tie this activity to the Bible study; ask: How is Jesus like a parachute for our lives? How can he help slow us down when we are about to crash?
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: Plastic bags or other light material (one per camper), scissors, string, small objects to act as weights (small action figures work well)
Make a Big Dry Ice Bubble
(Leader Note: Be careful with dry ice as it can cause skin damage if not used safely. Adults should handle dry ice with gloves and avoid directly breathing in the vapor. An adult should always supervise this experiment.)
Have fun with the campers as you make a dry ice bubble that will grow and grow as it fills with fog. Place the dry ice in a bowl and add some water. (It should start looking like a spooky cauldron, with “fog” rising and rolling over the edges.) Soak the cloth strip in a soapy mixture and run it around the lip of the bowl; then drag the strip across the top of the bowl to form a bubble layer over the dry ice. Stand back with the campers and watch the bubble grow! Ask them how big they think it will get before it bursts.
Explain to the campers what is happening. Dry ice is carbon dioxide (CO2) in its solid form. At temperatures above -56.4°C (-59.5°F) dry ice changes directly from a solid to a gas, without ever being a liquid. This process is called sublimation. Putting dry ice in water accelerates the process, creating clouds of fog that fill up your dry ice bubble until the pressure becomes too much and the bubble explodes, spilling fog over the edge of the bowl.
Tie this experiment to the Bible story; ask: How can God’s love for us be like the fog? Can we become so filled that we just want to burst and share that love with everyone?
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: Water, a large bowl with a lip around the top (a cup will work too), a strip of cloth long enough to go across the bowl, soapy mixture in a cup or small bowl for making bubbles (liquid dishwashing detergent works best), dry ice—one piece for a cup, more for a bowl (many grocery stores sell dry ice)
Melting Chocolate
Ask campers, “At what temperature do you think chocolate goes from a solid to a liquid? How long do you think it would take? Is it different for white and dark chocolate?” Then explain that you are going to do a simple melting chocolate experiment to try to find out.
Put one piece of chocolate on a paper plate and put it outside in the shade. Have one camper be the “temperature taker,” who is responsible for using a thermometer set near the chocolate to check the temperature every two minutes. Have another camper with a watch be the official timekeeper, who records how long it takes for the chocolate to melt, up to ten minutes. If it isn’t hot enough outside for it to melt by then, have the timekeeper note how soft it is after ten minutes.
Repeat the process with a piece of chocolate on a paper plate that you put outside in the sun. Pick two other campers to be “temperature taker” and timekeeper this time, and record these results in the same way.
Find more interesting locations to test how long it takes for the chocolate pieces to melt. You could try hot water or even a camper’s mouth. Have campers compare the results to determine in what conditions the chocolate melted.
Explain to campers that at a certain temperature the chocolate pieces undergo a physical change, from a solid to a liquid (or somewhere in between). On a hot day, sunlight is usually enough to melt chocolate, something they may have unfortunately already experienced. You can also reverse the process by putting the melted chocolate into a fridge or freezer where it will go from a liquid back to a solid. The chocolate probably melted quite fast if any campers tried putting pieces in their mouths. Ask: What does this experience tell you about the temperature of your body?
For further testing and experiments you could compare white chocolate and dark chocolate. Do they melt at the same temperature? How about putting a sheet of aluminum foil between a paper plate and a piece of chocolate in the sun. What happens then?
Tie this experiment to the Bible story; ask: When God’s love warms our heart, what are some of the negative things that “melt away”?
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: Small chocolate pieces of the same size (chocolate bar squares or chocolate chips), paper plates, thermometers, watches, pens and paper to record the results
Mixing Oil and Water
Discuss with the campers how some things just don’t get along well with each other. Say, “Take oil and water as an example. You can mix them together and shake as hard as you like, but they’ll never become friends—or will they?” This fun experiment will help campers find out how bringing oil and water together can help do the dishes.
Gather the campers around and describe what you are doing as you go through the following steps:
1. Add a few drops of food coloring to about two tablespoons of water in a plastic cup.
2. Carefully pour the colored water, along with two tablespoons of cooking oil, into a small soft drink bottle.
3. Screw the lid on tight and shake the bottle as hard as you can.
4. Put the bottle back down let all the campers take a look. (It may have seemed as though the liquids were mixing together, but the clear oil will float back to the top, with the colored water beneath.)
Explain to the campers that while water often mixes with other liquids to form solutions, oil and water do not mix. Water molecules are strongly attracted to each other, which is the same for oil. Because they are more attracted to their own molecules, they just don’t mix together. They separate, and the oil floats above the water because it has a lower density.
Say to the campers, “But, I really think oil and water belong together,” and then add some dishwashing liquid detergent and shake the bottle again. As they all combine together, explain that detergent is attracted to both water and oil, helping them all join together and form something called an emulsion. This property is extra handy when washing greasy dishes; the detergent takes the oil and grime off the plates and into the water.
Tie this experiment to the Bible story; ask: Is there someone in your life you just don’t mix well with? Why do you think that is? How can your relationship with Jesus help make that better?
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: Small soft drink bottle (with screw-top lid), measuring devices, two tablespoons of water, food coloring, plastic cup, two tablespoons of cooking oil, liquid dishwashing detergent
Make Your Own Rainbow
Have the campers form a semicircle to watch as you take a glass of water and a sheet of paper to a part of the room with sunlight. (Near a window is good.) Hold the glass of water above the paper and have them watch as sunlight passes through the water, refracts (bends), and forms a rainbow of colors on the sheet of paper. Let different campers take turns holding the glass at different heights and angles to see if these create different effects.
Explain to the campers that while people normally see rainbows as an arc of color in the sky, they can also form in other situations. They may have seen a rainbow in a water fountain or in the mist of a waterfall—and they can even make their own (as you did in this experiment). Rainbows form in the sky when sunlight refracts (bends) as it passes through raindrops; it acts in the same way when it passes through the glass of water. The sunlight refracts, separating it into the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Tie this experiment to the Bible story; ask: What promise from God does the rainbow remind us of? How does the rainbow remind us of God’s creative touch in nature?
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial, Logical/Mathematical
Supplies: A clear glass of water (about three quarters full), white paper (optional: a prism will make an even more dramatic presentation)
Table Talk—Younger and Older Children and Intergenerational
Use these questions to prompt theme-related discussion at meal times. They could also be used during down times, between activities, or as time fillers as well. Feel free to use one question or all of them. If the discussion takes a different turn, be open to that and allow the campers to be creative and explore the ideas.
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic
Supplies: Copies of the question of the day for each table
Day 1: Who Do You Say I Am?
What are words people use to describe you? Who are some people in your life who have told you about Jesus? What have they said about him? What are some words you would use to describe Jesus?
Day 2: Jesus Is God with Us
What is the best part about being your age? What is the worst part? What do you think Jesus would have been like when he was your age? Do you think he would have been a good student? Would he have played sports? Would he have been a good brother?
Day 3: Jesus Is Friend
How did you meet your best friend? Why do you think friends are important? What is great about your friend? The Bible tells us Jesus had friends. What do you think he liked best about his friends? What do you think they liked best about him? Why do you think Jesus is a good friend to us?
Day 4: Jesus Is Teacher
Tell us about your favorite teacher. If you become a teacher when you grow up, what grade would you like to teach? What kind of teacher would you be? What would the rules in your classroom be? Jesus did not teach in a classroom with desks; mostly he taught outside (kind of like we do at camp). Why do you think learning outside is fun and important?
Day 5: Jesus Is Healer
Tell about a time you got hurt. How long did it take until you felt better? How can having Jesus in your life help you feel better?
Day 6: Jesus Is Savior
Tell about a time when you forgave someone for hurting you. How did that make you feel? How hard was to do?
Day 7: Jesus Is the Real Thing
What will you do first when you get home? What will be different in your life because of what you learned while you were at camp this week? Besides dirty clothes, what will you take home with you? What are the best memories you will take home? How would you finish this sentence: “Because of camp…”?
Table Talk—Younger and Older Youth
Use these questions to prompt theme-related discussion at meal times. They could also be used during down times, between activities, or as time fillers as well. Feel free to use one question or all of them. If the discussion takes a different turn, be open to that and allow the campers to be creative and explore the ideas.
Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic
Supplies: Copies of the question of the day for each table
Day 1: Who Do You Say I Am?
Has anyone every gotten a wrong impression of you? Have you ever made a first-impression judgment that you later realized was wrong? If Jesus were around today, what do you think the world would think about him? What would your classmates say about him? What would you say about him?
Day 2: Jesus Is God with Us
What are you afraid of? How does that change when you remember that God is always with us? Have you ever felt God with you? How do you think you can better tune in to God’s presence in your life?
Day 3: Jesus Is Friend
Have any adults in your life ever questioned your friend choices? What was the result of that? Are you still friends with the person in question? Do you think friends can be a positive influence? a negative influence? Why or why not? How does thinking about Jesus as your friend help you?
Day 4: Jesus Is Teacher
Tell about a teacher who made a difference in your life. How was that person influential for you? How can you make a difference in the lives of others even if you do not become a teacher? How did Jesus’ style of teaching make a difference to those he taught?
Day 5: Jesus Is Healer
What are some ways you have seen people be healed? How can words be healing? How have you helped someone feel better—physically or emotionally? What do you think it was about Jesus that made him a healer?
Day 6: Jesus Is Savior
Tell about a time when you received forgiveness. How did it make you feel? Did it make you more willing to forgive someone else? How does living your life with the promise of God’s love and grace help you?
Day 7: Jesus Is the Real Thing
How will you be different because of what you learned during your week at camp? What will others notice is different about you? How will knowing that Jesus is the real thing help you make a difference in the world around you? How would you finish this sentence: Because of camp...”?
Table Talk—Questions for Fun for All Ages
These are fun questions for helping campers connect with one another.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal
Supplies: Copies of the question of the day for each table
Question 1
If you could have any two famous people for parents, who would you have and why?
Question 2
If you were Noah and you could only save ten pairs of animals on the ark, which ten would you save and why?
Question 3
If you had to spend the rest of your life in a library, a museum, or a zoo, which would you choose and why?
Question 4
If you had to be an inanimate object in camp, what would you choose to be and why?
Question 5
If you could make your own report card, what imaginary subjects would you get A’s in? For example, Making Silly Noises: A; Eating Hamburgers: A.
Question 6
If you had to wear only one T-shirt for the rest of your life, which shirt would you wear and why? What color would it be? What logo or words would it have on it?
Question 7
If you had to pick someone you know to be President, who would you pick and why?
Question 8
What would you do if you could be the size of a mouse for one day? What would you do if you could be the size of the tallest tree in camp for one day?
Question 9
What is the best food you have ever tasted? How would you describe it in a creative and unique way? What is the worst food you have ever tasted? How would you describe it in a creative and unique way?
Nature Activities
Color Hunt
Invite campers to take a walk around camp to look at all the different colors in nature. Non-nature things don’t count. For example, don’t use the buildings, or the sidewalk, or telephone poles.
Bring campers back to your meeting space. Give each a piece of paper and pencil and tell the campers to write down the color you designate on their papers. Then ask them to take a walk again and note all the natural things they can find that are the color you have chosen. Bring campers back and compare lists. Remind them of God’s creativity and attention to detail.
For a variation, have the campers sit outside just as the sun is setting, but when there is still plenty of light. Have them watch how the colors change as it gets darker and darker. Ask: Which ones can you see for the longest time? Which ones fade quickly? Can you see shades of gray and black? What do you see at night that you usually don’t see during the day? What animals do you think see well at night?
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist
Supplies: Paper, pencils
Nature Bracelets
For each camper, cut eight-inch-long pieces of quarter-inch, clear tubing; and cut one-inch-long pieces from the three-eights-inch tubing (for fasteners). Slide both ends of the eight-inch tube into the fastener and have the camper try on the bracelet for fit. Trim the tubing to size, remembering that it will need to slip over the camper’s hand.
Have the campers remove one end of their bracelets from the fastener. Using their fingers to stop up one end, they are to drop in tiny pebbles, dirt, bits of leaves, pine needles, or any other small bits of nature they can find (without destroying anything living). When they are done, they carefully slide the free end into the fastener as far as it will go. This should create a snug fit that won’t come undone.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist
Supplies: Enough clear plastic tubing (sold in most hardware stores) with a ¼-inch inner diameter for each camper to have about eight inches, one inch of clear plastic tubing with a 3/8-inch inner diameter for each camper, ruler, and scissors
“Iron Chef” Campers
Divide the campers into teams of two or three each. Give each group the same five or six nature “ingredients” and a paper plate. “Ingredients” should be any natural things found in your camp (not anything alive that can be harmed): pinecone, a rock, an acorn, a leaf, some dirt, and so forth.
Challenge each team to make a creation with their “ingredients.” It could be a sculpture or depiction of an animal, a monster, an abstract of a counselor—challenge them to be creative. When all groups are done, have them present their creations to the judges. Creations will be judged on creativity, use of “ingredients,” theme tie in, and presentation.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist
Supplies: Paper plates, glue, items from nature
Photo Scavenger Hunt
Have a counselor take a digital photograph of something natural in camp. (Don’t use something that will move.) It should be small enough that it is not quickly obvious where it is (for example, a small wild flower, a group of rocks, a close-up section of a tree).
Let campers view the photo on the camera screen and ask them to try to find the object. Encourage them to look closely at their surroundings. Ask: Did you notice things you had not seen before? What made it hard to find what was in the picture? What made it easy to find?
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist
Supplies: Digital camera or phone camera that allows campers to view the photo
Creation Meditation
Slowly read the creation story in the book of Genesis (chapters 1 and 2). Ask campers to spend a few quiet moments individually observing the nature around them. Remind them to experience nature with all their senses. What do they see, hear, smell, feel, and taste? Ask them to think about what this experience tells them about the nature of God. In what ways do they observe the creativity of God? The loving nature of God? The thoughtful attention to detail of God? How does all the nature around them speak to them of God?
Together discuss these questions: How does it make you feel to know that God has taken such care in nature for us? If God has taken such care in nature, what does that say about God’s relationship with us? Point out that nature is a visible and tangible reminder of God’s love and presence with them always.
For older campers, you could also read John 1:1–5 and talk about Jesus being the Word, and the Word being a part of creation from the beginning. Jesus has been part of God’s plan from the beginning of time! The loving Creator sent the Real Thing to teach, heal, guide, and save humanity.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist
Supplies: Bible
Making Crosses
Ask the campers to name some symbols for Jesus. One will certainly be the cross. Challenge campers to make crosses from items they find around camp, including from nature. Collect their crosses, and save them for preparing the space for worship on Day 6. After worship, invite the participants to take home one of the crosses.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist, Spatial
Supplies: Tape, glue, string, scissors, items found around camp
Multi-Day Projects
Grateful Journal
Have campers use half sheets of paper, fold them over onto themselves, and staple the middle to create books (or simply provide composition books). Have each camper decorate the outside of his or her journal with the words “Grateful Journal.”
Inside, each day the campers are to write or draw something for which they are grateful. Give them time at worship or at cabin time to work on their journals.
Take the idea further by providing prompts that take the campers beyond being grateful and tie in with the daily theme:
Day 1 (Who Do You Say I Am?): Tell about how your name was chosen for you. If you have a preferred nickname, why do you like it? Of all the names for Jesus, which is your favorite?
Day 2 (Jesus Is God with Us): Tell about a time when you felt Jesus with you. How did that make you feel? What are some things in your life that get in the way of feeling close to Jesus? What are some practices or things you do that help you be more aware of Jesus?
Day 3 (Jesus Is Friend): Have you ever found out someone you thought was a friend was faking friendship? How did that make you feel? How does it feel to know Jesus is a real friend? How are you a real friend to others?
Day 4 (Jesus Is Teacher): What was it about Jesus that made him a good teacher for us to follow? Where can you or do you show those qualities in your life?
Day 5 (Jesus Is Healer): Tell about a time or two when other people helped you feel better. How did they do that? Is there someone in your life who needs to feel better? What can you do?
Day 6 (Jesus Is Savior): What things in your life do you need to ask forgiveness for? How does it feel to know Jesus loves us despite our mess-ups? How does it feel to know that nothing we do or fail to do will ever separate us from Jesus’ love and forgiveness? How does it feel to know that accepting Jesus’ love and forgiveness frees us to live joyfully and with peace in our hearts?
Day 7 (Jesus Is the Real Thing): What will you tell your friends and family about camp? What one thing will you try to do differently because you were a part of this week of camp? Write yourself a letter about your week and look back on it often to help you remember what you have learned and felt.
End of Week Discussion
You may also wish to have a discussion related to the journals. Ask:
• How does it make you feel to take count of the many blessing you have in your life?
• What does seeing all those blessings say about God?
• How does it change your thinking to focus on the good things you do have in your life as opposed to thinking about the things you do not have?
• Can you see how God used any of your blessings to teach you something? to help you heal a hurt? God does not promise to give us everything we want in life, but God does promise to love us and be with us always.
Point out that keeping a journal about the blessings in their lives is a spiritual practice that can help the campers stay close to God.
Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal
Supplies: Paper, scissors, stapler, markers other decorations, pens or pencils, (optional: composition books)
Friend Chimes
Leader Note: Ahead of time, remove labels from the cans, and punch a small hole the size of the string in bottom of each can.
Have campers paint empty cans of a variety of sizes and allow them to dry over night. On the next day, have them use permanent markers to write names of friends and qualities of good friends all over the cans.
String together several cans of descending sizes and knot the string at the appropriate places to hold the cans together. Depending upon the size of your group, make one or more sets of chimes.Hang the chimes in your meeting space. Tell the group that when they hear the cans making noise in the wind, they are to use that as a reminder to pray for their friends.
On the last day, cut the string and give one can to each of the campers to use as a reminder, or to begin a new set of chimes, and have them to keep up the praying at home.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial
Supplies: Clean cans (of the same number as campers in your group) of a variety of sizes, string, paint, brushes, permanent markers
Heal Your Camp
With permission and direction from your camp leaders, find a place in camp that needs “healing.” It might be a trail that needs realignment and cleaning, an area that needs trash removed, or a section that needs new seedlings planted. You may want to take on something as big as making a new trail, painting a room, or planting a camp garden.
Give your campers the chance to plan and prepare for this project. Help them think about all the details of the project, the supplies needed, and what it will take to get the project from start to finish. Be sure to celebrate the accomplishment with the entire camp upon completion.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist, Interpersonal
Supplies: As needed
Make a Butterfly Feeder
Have campers decorate a ceramic or glass pie plate, plastic or terra cotta plant saucer, or any other dish with a sloping rim. With the guidance of the camp leadership, find an appropriate place to suspend the plate. The best place to hang the feeder is from the bough of a shady tree in an area that can be observed from a little distance.
Use a flowerpot hanger or a macramé-style holder made from household twine. Decorate around the hanger with the stems of silk or plastic flowers to make it visually appealing to butterflies. Place brightly colored yellow and orange kitchen scouring pads in the dish with the liquid butterfly food solution. Use small rocks or sticks to provide butterflies a resting place while they drink. Butterflies like a variety of food sources, especially overripe and rotting fruit.
Visit the feeder often (at least daily) during the week to watch for butterflies. If you happen to spot any eating, comment on their delicate beauty and ask campers what they think the existence of butterflies says about the Creator and the world God created.
Multiple Intelligences: Naturalist
Supplies: Dish with a sloping rim, hanger, artificial flowers, yellow and orange scouring pads, liquid butterfly solution, small rocks and sticks, fruit
Worship Plans
Worship Leadership
Look for ways to involve campers in preparing for and leading worship. Consider assigning a different team of campers each day to take charge or at least assist. What better way to teach leadership skill than to let them lead! Print out each day’s worship plan for your leadership team.
Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal
Supplies: Bibles, copies of the day’s worship plan, pens or pencils
Visuals for Worship
Providing visual representations of the lessons can be great ways to help your campers internalize the message. In the set up of your space consider the light (especially for evening worship), the energy, and the scenery. Be creative with where you hold worship; perhaps you can mix up the locations to “shake things up” to help the campers see things in new ways. Incorporating visuals effectively will take some preparation; allow the time needed.
In the daily plans below are visuals suggested for each day, but let your imagination play as you consider your own spaces, places, and supplies.
Multiple Intelligences: Spatial
Supplies: As determinded by the planners
Closing Prayer
Each day the suggested closing prayer will be a “season of prayer.” The format is for a leader to start the prayer and then open it up to the campers. The leader should invite campers to pray out loud if they feel so moved or to pray quietly in their hearts. A different designated person should close after an appropriate amount of time. You may want to encourage leaders to fill in if campers don’t respond at first.
This type of prayer provides the campers an opportunity to pray out loud in a nonthreatening way. It will be even more effective if it is done at night when the darkness provides more “safety” to pray out loud. You may find participation starts slowly, but by the end of the week you may need to plan on extra time for all the prayers. Remind counselors to be listening to those around them, and if they hear any prayers that need follow up, they should be prepared to help that camper as they can.
Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal
Supplies: None
Skits for Worship
Getting your campers involved in worship is important. The more you can make it a participatory experience, the more they will be engaged and learn. Skits that teach and cause persons to think are an easy way to do that. Several of the daily plans below suggest a skit for worship.
Invite groups of campers to present the different skits. Give them time to prepare. The skits should be planned and rehearsed, but can be improvised rather than scripted. The more the campers get into the preparation, the better the skit will be. These presentations don’t have to be super-serious. Encourage the campers to be creative and have fun.
Below are a few examples of possible skits. Copy the page and cut apart the skits. Give the instructions to the skit team for the day.
Multiple Intelligences: Bodily/Kinesthetic, Interpersonal
Supplies: As determined by each skit team
Skit for Day 2: A Day in the Life of Jesus
Make up a short story about what a day in the life of Jesus would be like when he was your age.
— For a twist have the story take place in modern times.
— What are some of the struggles of being your age?
— Do you think Jesus faced the same kinds of things?
— How does it help to know that Jesus went through the same kinds of things you are going though?
Skit for Day 3: Jesus—Your BFF
Make up a skit in which Jesus is your best friend.
— How would you interact with him in your typical day?
— How would you wake up if you knew Jesus were in the next room?
— How would you treat the new kid at school if Jesus were sitting by you
in class?
— How would you react to the homeless man if Jesus were in the car with you?
— What would your language be like at practice if Jesus were playing on
your team?
Skit for Day 4: Jesus the Teacher
Look at these examples in scripture of Jesus teaching. Act out these scenes from Matthew and Luke; try to highlight the teaching aspects of the story:
— Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:1–12)
— Teaching by example: The story of Zacchaeus (Lk. 19:1–10)
— Teaching with demonstrations: Jesus heals a paralyzed man (Mk. 2:1–12)
— Teaching with stories that make a point: parable of the good Samaritan
(Lk. 10:25–37) or parable of the sower and the seeds (Mt. 13:3–13)
Worship for Day 1: Who Do You Say I Am?
Preparation
Cut out large letters for a variety of names for Jesus and hang the names on fishing line (or other thin rope) above the seating space. Examples: “Son of Man,” “Savior,” “Emmanuel,” “Messiah,” “Christ,” and so forth. (Do not use the “I am” statements from John, as those will be read later in the service.)
Ask eight volunteers each to read a scripture. Write each of the “I Am” statements on a slip of paper and give to a volunteer before service starts. Let the readers know you will prompt them when it is time to read.
“I am the living bread.”—John 6:51
“I am the light of the world.”—John 8:12
“I am from above.”—John 8:23
“I am the gate.”—John 10:9
“I am the good shepherd.”—John 10:11
“I am God’s Son.”—John 10:36
“I am the resurrection and the life.”—John 11:25
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
—John 14:6
“I am the true vine.”—John 15:1
Supplies: Various names of Jesus on paper in large letters, fishing line, scissors, slips of paper with “I Am” statements, sheets of paper or journals, pencils
Gathering
Call to Worship: (This will be a call and response: Campers should echo the leader’s enthusiastic call.)
“It’s a great day!” (echo)
“For being alive!” (echo)
“Alive in the Lord!” (echo)
“The Lord—whom we name as Creator, (echo)
“Friend,” (echo) “Teacher,” (echo)
“Healer,” (echo) “Savior,” (echo)
“And the Real Thing!” (echo)
Song: “Jesus, Name Above All Names” or a selection from the Song Suggestions lists at the various age-levels.
Opening Prayer: Lord, we thank you that you have called each of us here to this place. Open our hearts this week as we seek to know you better. Help us draw near to you and know you as the real thing in our lives.
Proclaiming
Scripture Reading: Matthew 16:13–17
Engaging the Message: Ask, “Do you have a nickname?” (If your camp uses camp names, this would be a good place to talk about that tradition.) Tell a story about a nickname you have and what that has meant to you. Be sure to remind campers that names help identify people and set them apart.
The same is true for the names of Jesus. Slowly read the names of Jesus, which are hanging overhead. Ask if they have ever heard those before. Ask campers if they know what any of the names mean. Explain the meanings. Explain that Jesus referred to himself in many different ways:
“I Am”: Have volunteers read the “I Am” statements from John.
Responding
Journaling: Ask, “Why do you think Jesus was called by so many names? Which one means the most to you?” (Allow for campers to respond verbally to these two questions.) Then on a piece of paper or in their journals, have campers write one or two of the names that mean the most to them. Ask older campers to also write why they chose those names.
Communion: The first and the last nights of camp are especially meaningful times to experience communion as a camp community. If appropriate for your camp, share this holy meal in a way that works for you. Be sure to work in several names for Jesus throughout the liturgy.
Songs: Choose from the Song Suggestions list or from the traditions of your camp.
Closing
A Season of Prayer
Worship for Day 2: Jesus Is God with Us
Preparation
Decorate your space with typical Christmas decorations. Go wild and over the top to make the point. Hide a few representations of Jesus (for example: a cross, a picture, a crèche) among the Christmas decorations. Leave one tree (or more if you have a large group) near your worship space undecorated for campers to help decorate later in the service.
Ask a group of campers to have the skit “A Day in the Life of Jesus” prepared. They may want to come early for one final rehearsal.
Supplies: Lots of secular Christmas decorations, a few representations of Jesus, an outdoor worship space with trees nearby, edible decorations for a Christmas tree in your space (You may want to ask another group of campers to prepare these. They can use strung popcorn, cheerios on pipe cleaners, orange slices threaded and strung, and birdseed-covered pine cones. [Cover the pine cones in peanut butter or shortening and sprinkle the seeds on.])
Leader Note: Beware of possible peanut allergies among campers.
Gathering
Call to Worship: (This will be a call and response: Campers should echo the leader’s enthusiastic call.)
“It’s a great day!” (echo)
“For being alive!” (echo)
“Alive in the Lord!” (echo)
“The Lord—who is with us” (echo)
“Here at camp and always!” (echo)
Song: “Have You Seen Jesus, My Lord?” or a selection from the Song Suggestions lists for each age level.
Opening Prayer: Loving God, we celebrate that you are always with us in this place and everywhere. Help us to tune in to your presence today. Help us to see you all around us and hear your voice. Amen.
Proclaiming
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 9:6 and Luke 1—2
Engaging the Message: Ask, “Does your house look like this [over the top, crazy with decorations] at Christmas time?” Tell a story of a time when you lost the meaning of Christmas and what happened. Remind campers that sometimes it seems like Christmas becomes a competition to see who can have the most “spirit.”
Follow this by asking, “Do you know what the true point of Christmas really is?” (Allow campers to respond, but be sure you bring them to the point that Jesus is God With Us.) Point out, “Sometimes we forget that Jesus is always with us.” (Uncover the Christ reminders hidden earlier and talk about each one.)
Continue with, “Sometimes at camp and even in our daily lives we can also lose sight of the fact that Jesus is always with us. Let us remember that Jesus is with us when we are worshiping, when we are playing, and even when we are just hanging out with our friends. No matter where we are, no matter what season, Jesus is always with us.”
Skit: Introduce the skit with, “Let’s see a skit that our campers have prepared for us that will show us how it might look if we remember that Jesus is always with us all day every day.” Present the skit.
Responding
Decorate the Tree: Invite campers to come decorate the tree in your worship area using edible decorations that the birds and other animals will enjoy.
Songs: While you are decorating, sing favorite Christmas hymns. (See the Song Suggestions lists.) Talk about what those hymns mean.
Closing
A Season of Prayer
Worship for Day 3: Jesus Is Friend
Preparation
Cover one wall of your space with large sheets of paper. If you don’t have a wall, provide several poster boards that can be displayed. Have markers for each camper ready.
Ask a group of campers to have the skit “Jesus—Your BFF” prepared. They may want to come early for one final rehearsal.
Supplies: Large sheets of paper (or pieces of poster board), tape, markers
Gathering
Call to Worship: (This will be a call and response: Campers should echo the leader’s enthusiastic call.)
“It’s a great day!” (echo)
“For being alive!” (echo)
“Alive in the Lord!” (echo)
“The Lord—who is our companion” (echo)
“And our friend!” (echo)
Song: “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Free to Be Friends,” or a selection from the Song Suggestions lists for this day.
Opening Prayer: Jesus, we are glad that you are our friend. We know you listen to us and you care about us. We thank you for your love and for your example. Help us to show true friendship to the people we call our friends. Amen.
Proclaiming
Scripture Readings: John 15:9–17; John 11:1–45
Engaging the Message: Begin with, “I know you all have friends. Have any of you made a new friend in the time we’ve been at camp? That is one of the best parts about camp! Friends are so important.”
Tell a story about one of your friends and your relationship with your friend. (Invite other stories from the campers.)
Ask, “Did you know that Jesus is your friend? Does that sound crazy? What does it mean to you that Jesus calls us friends?” (Encourage responses.)
Skit: Introduce the skit with, “Some of our campers have a skit for us that will show us what it might be like to have Jesus at our best friend.” Present the skit.
Responding
Thank You for Friends: Give the campers each a marker and invite them to come to the wall or poster boards and each write the name of at least one friend. When all are finished, have each place his or her hands on the friend’s name, and the leader should offer a prayer thanking God for good friends and ask God to strengthen those relationships.
Songs: Sing or play “Friends,” by Michael W. Smith.
Closing
A Season of Prayer
Worship for Day 4: Jesus Is Teacher
Preparation
Do what you can to set your space up like a classroom. Use table groups if you have the space. Have a whiteboard or chalkboard with the date and the “teacher’s” name on the board.
Ask a group of campers to have the skit “Jesus the Teacher” prepared. They may want to come early for one final rehearsal.
Supplies: Tables, chairs, chalkboard or whiteboard, chalk or dry erase marker, note cards, pencils, and envelopes
Gathering
Call to Worship: (This will be a call and response: Campers should echo the leader’s enthusiastic call.)
“It’s a great day!” (echo)
“For being alive!” (echo)
“Alive in the Lord!” (echo)
“The Lord—who is our guide” (echo)
“And our teacher!” (echo)
Song: “Teach Your Children,” “Teach Me Thy Way,” or a selection from the Song Suggestions lists for this day.
Opening Prayer: Jesus our Teacher, we want to be the best students we can be. Help us to live by the examples you showed us. Give us opportunity and courage to share the lessons you taught with others. Amen.
Proclaiming
Scripture Readings: Matthew 7:15–20, 24–29
Engaging the Message: Tell a story about a great teacher from your past. (Remember, this does not have to just be about a school teacher.) Tell also about someone who taught you about Jesus and what that meant in your life. (Invite a few campers to talk about a great teacher in their lives.)
Tell the campers that Jesus was a great teacher; share a particular teaching of Jesus that means something to you. Ask, “Can you think of a lesson Jesus taught?” (Invite responses.)
With older campers especially, you may want to acknowledge that lots of people and media are competing to “teach” people how to live. Ask, “What are some examples of what others would have us learn?” (Invite responses and note how those messages from “false prophets” contrast with what Jesus teaches (for example: being rich, famous, or beautiful is what counts).
Skit: Introduce the skit with, “Our camp actors want to show us some of the many ways that Jesus taught us.” Present the skit.
Responding
Thank You Notes: Ask campers each to write a thank you note to someone who has taught him or her about Jesus. Provide note cards and pencils. Younger ones may need help. Offer a prayer of thanks for all the great teachers in your lives.
Song: Choose from the Song Suggestions lists.
Closing
A Season of Prayer
Worship for Day 5: Jesus Is Healer
Preparation
Display a large first aid kit at the altar area and a large box, labeled “First Aid” with the cross of Christ on it. On slips of paper, write ideas and phrases that show healing (for example: a caring friend who listens, a shoulder to cry on, someone to stand up for you, a hand to hold, a therapist, a doctor). Place the papers inside the box.
Supplies: First aid kit, large cardboard box marked with “First Aid” and a cross, slips of paper with healing ideas, a stone for each camper (preferably ones that are not smooth), one large bowl of water (if you have a large group, you may want to have more than one bowl to make the process go more quickly)
Gathering
Call to Worship: (This will be a call and response: Campers should echo the leader’s enthusiastic call.)
“It’s a great day!” (echo)
“For being alive!” (echo)
“Alive in the Lord!” (echo)
“The Lord—who knows our hurts” (echo)
“And is our healer!” (echo)
Song: “Trading My Sorrows” or a selection from the Song Suggestions lists.
Opening Prayer: Healing Lord, help us open ourselves to your love and allow you to strengthen our lives. Give us the courage to be healers for others around us, that we might share your healing love with them. Amen.
Proclaiming
Scripture Reading: John 5:1–9a
Engaging the Message: One by one, remove items from the first aid kit and ask campers to explain how each can bring healing. Then tell them you have a different kind of first aid kit and remove the phrases from the first aid box. Ask campers how those can help to bring healing as well.
Tell about a time when you gave or received healing. Remind campers that Jesus and his love and forgiveness bring healing to your lives. Point out, “He has called us to be there for others and bring healing to their lives, as well.”
Responding
Invite campers to participate in this guided mediation. Before you begin, have leaders hand a stone to each camper. Ask the campers to hold onto their stones and wait for directions.
Take some slow, deep breaths, and relax. Begin to let go of the tensions in your body. Feel the pressure and tiredness slipping away. As you draw breath, think of how your body is using oxygen. It is being carried to every part of your body. Feel the life it brings. As you exhale, you breathe out the carbon dioxide that you don’t need. Trees and plants take this in. They then produce the oxygen that sustains you. You are an integral part of God’s mysterious and wonderful creation.
Each of you was given a stone. Hold it tight. Squeeze it. Feel it. Imagine that all the things that give you pain are in the stone. Quietly, to yourself, name in your mind your hurts…your worries. (Give campers some time with each word.)
One row at a time, I will ask you to come forward and hold your stone over the bowl of water. When you are ready, let the stone go. Watch your hurts and worries fall. Imagine them falling into Jesus’ lap. (Wait for all to have a turn to release their stones into the water and take their seats.)
Jesus is willing to receive all your pain. You can trust Jesus. How does it feel to release the stones—the things that are heavy on your heart? How does it feel to know that Jesus can take away all your worries and hurts?
Imagine Jesus’ loving arms around you. Feel him giving you a big hug. Jesus is helping you to heal. Rest for a moment in the company of Jesus, who loves you and is always there for you. (Begin the music, keeping it in the background at first, as you transition to singing.)
Song: “For Those Tears I Died,” or choose from the Song Suggestions lists.
Closing
A Season of Prayer
Worship for Day 6: Jesus Is Savior
Preparation
Decorate your space with as many different kinds of crosses you can find. Try to find a variety of sizes and materials. It would be very dramatic to have a life-sized cross at the front of the worship space. Add any crosses campers have made throughout the week.
Supplies: Many crosses, markers, a pair of popsicle sticks for each camper, several rolls of tape (at the appropriate time campers will be asked to make a cross with their sticks; it may help to precut pieces of tape to have them ready), fishing line or string to hang popsicle stick crosses
Gathering
Call to Worship: (This will be a call and response: Campers should echo the leader’s enthusiastic call.)
“It’s a great day!” (echo)
“For being alive!” (echo)
“Alive in the Lord!” (echo)
“The Lord—who came to the world” (echo)
“As the Savior for each of us!” (echo)
Song: “I Love You, Lord” or a selection from the Song Suggestions lists.
Proclaiming
Scripture Readings: Romans 5:1–11 and Luke 24:36–49
Engaging the Message: Begin with, “Earlier in the week we talked about the story of Christmas; today we are going to talk about the story of Easter. Do you know the story of Easter?” (Allow campers to respond.)
Continue with, “The story of Easter is the story of Jesus dying on a cross for us. The cross was what the Romans used to kill Jesus, but it was what God used to save us. It might seem strange to some that we use the cross to represent our faith—after all, it was a torture device. But the cross is more than that. The cross reminds us that Jesus is not dead, but that he defeated death and rose again to make a way for us to be with God always.
“Jesus is our Savior. He died on a cross for us, but he lives again so that we too may live fully in the love of God.”
(Leader Note: If it is appropriate for your tradition, this might be a place where you would like to invite campers to make a commitment to Christian discipleship. If you choose to do this, make sure you have leaders ready to help campers and someone prepared for follow up after.)
Responding
Give each camper two popsicle sticks, and ask him or her to make a cross with the tape provided. Have each camper use the markers to write a name for Jesus on one stick and his or her name on the other. Hang the crosses around your worship space.
Song: Choose from the Song Suggestions lists.
Closing
A Season of Prayer
Worship for Day 7: Jesus Is the Real Thing
Preparation
Make a poster with the title “Jesus Is the Real Thing” for the front of the space. Have an open suitcase and some clothes strewn around. On each of the pieces of clothes tape a paper with one of the daily lessons and scripture verses.
Supplies: Large sheet of paper or poster board, marker, sheets of paper, pencils, envelopes, stamps, someone willing to mail camper letters back to them in six months, suitcase, clothes, daily scripture verse papers, tape
Gathering
Call to Worship: (This will be a call and response: Campers should echo the leader’s enthusiastic call.)
“It’s a great day!” (echo)
“For being alive!” (echo)
“Alive in the Lord!” (echo)
“The Lord—whom we celebrate” (echo)
“As the Real Thing!” (echo)
Invite campers to celebrate!
Song: “Praise Ye the Lord, Hallelujah” or a selection from the Song Suggestions lists.
Opening Prayer: Lord, we thank you for this time together—for the fun we’ve had, the friends we’ve made, and the lessons we’ve learned. Help these great memories to burn bright in our hearts forever. Amen.
Proclaiming
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14–21
Engaging the Message: Begin with, “It’s packing day! Have you gotten all your dirty clothes packed yet? As you can see, I have a few things left out here to pack.” (As you pick up each item, review the daily verse and scripture with the campers.) “I hope you are going to take home more than just some dirty clothes. I hope you will take home with you some great lessons. These are reminders that Jesus is the real thing and that he goes with you no matter where you are!”
Responding
Have leaders pass out sheets of paper, pencils, and envelopes. Ask campers to write letters to themselves reminding themselves about the great week they have had, including all the things they have learned. Have them address the envelopes to themselves.
Collect the envelopes. Tell campers they will be mailed back to them in about six months as reminders of this great week of camp. Some younger campers may have trouble with their addresses. If so, have them simply write their names and later get the addresses from the director from the registration list.
Communion: The last day of camp is an especially meaningful time to experience communion as a camp community. If appropriate for your camp, share this holy meal in a way that works for you. Be sure to work in several names for Jesus throughout the liturgy.
Songs: Choose from the Song Suggestions list.
Closing
A Season of Prayer
Camper Cards—Younger and Older Children
Camper Cards are to be helpful handouts to guide campers and counselors throughout the day. Use them for any of the worship times and for quick reminders about the daily themes during appropriate activities. Campers can use the additional “Notes” spaces for other reflections, questions, and prayers throughout the week. As take-home mementos, the cards can become bookmarks or journal or Bible inserts.
Leader Note: Camper Pages for Younger Children and Camper Cards for Older Children are already integrated into the Daily Plans for those age levels. The cards in this section provide leaders with an additional option. Use either set, as you choose.
Day one
Who Do You Say That I Am?
Focus: Reflect on who Jesus is. Take the freedom to explore and commit to getting real about who Jesus is.
Scripture: Matthew 16:13–17
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for who you are to me. Thank you that you come to me in so many ways. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day Two
Jesus Is God with Us!
Focus: God is with us in Jesus. Following Jesus may call us to do difficult things, but God will always be with us! Jesus is never far off in the distance.
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1—2
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for always being with me. Help me to tune into you everywhere I go. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day Three
Jesus Is Friend
Focus: Jesus is our model for real friendship.
Scripture: John 15:9–17; John 11:1–45
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for being my friend. Keep my friendships strong, and help me be a good friend to all those around me. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day Four
Jesus Is Teacher
Focus: Jesus is a great teacher. He leads us with authority, and we can trust him.
Scripture: Matthew 7:15–20, 24–29
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for being my teacher. Give me courage and strength to follow your lead. Help me know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day FIVE
Jesus Is Healer
Focus: Jesus heals broken hearts and hurt feelings. He calls us to bring comfort to others too.
Scripture: John 5:1–9a
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for your healing forgiveness. Let me be that healing touch for someone else in my life. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day six
Jesus Is Savior
Focus: Jesus offers us forgiveness. When we claim his gift, we have freedom from sin and we can live joyfully in his love.
Scripture: Romans 5:1–11; Luke 24:36–49
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for always loving me no matter what. Help me to love you more deeply. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day seven
Jesus Is the Real Thing
Focus: Jesus calls us to take home what we learned at camp and make our world a better place.
Scripture: Luke 4:14–21
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for camp. Help me to put the lessons I learned to good use at home. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Camper Cards—Younger and Older youth
Camper Cards are to be helpful handouts to guide campers and counselors throughout the day. Use them for any of the worship times and for quick reminders about the daily themes during appropriate activities. Campers can use the additional “Notes” spaces for other reflections, questions, and prayers throughout the week. As take-home mementos, the cards can become bookmarks or journal or Bible inserts.
Day one
Who Do You Say That I Am?
Focus: Reflect on who Jesus is—and the person you want to be. How do we get real about who Jesus is and who we are in him?
Scripture: Matthew 16:13–17
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you that you love me just the way I am and that you will continue to help me grow into the person I can be in your love. Help me know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day Two
Jesus Is God with Us!
Focus: Sometimes life is hard, but Jesus will always be there, supporting us! God is not far off in the distance, nor a stern judge. The gift of Jesus was to show us God’s great love for us. Jesus is God with us!
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1—2
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for walking beside me when life is hard. Help me to see your support and love. Help me know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day Three
Jesus Is Friend
Focus: In Jesus we have the model for and the demonstration of real friendship.
Scripture: John 15:9–17; John 11:1–45
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for showing me what it means to be a good friend. Give me the courage to follow your example and teaching. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day Four
Jesus Is Teacher
Focus: Jesus is the great teacher. He leads with authority, wisdom, and truth. We can trust him.
Scripture: Matthew 7:15–20, 24–29
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for all you have taught me. Give me the courage and strength to follow your lead. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day FIVE
Jesus Is Healer
Focus: Jesus brings healing in many ways. Jesus can use us to bring healing to those around us.
Scripture: John 5:1–9a
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for all the ways you bring healing to me. Let me be that healing presence for others. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day six
Jesus Is Savior
Focus: Jesus did not come to make us feel guilty, but to give us freedom from our sin! We can celebrate God’s freeing grace, given to us through Jesus, the Christ.
Scripture: Romans 5:1–11; Luke 24:36–49
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for your gift of joy though your forgiving grace. Strengthen me to extend that grace to others. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Day seven
Jesus Is the Real Thing
Focus: No matter how old I am, Jesus calls me to be an agent of change in my world. He gives me courage to stand for what is right.
Scripture: Luke 4:14–21
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for calling me and empowering me to speak and act with love. Help me to know you are the Real Thing!
Notes:
Tell Us What You Think…
Each year the Committee on Outdoor Ministries of the National Council of Churches convenes to dream and create a theme and outline for upcoming editions of InsideOut. Their starting point is answering the question, How can this curriculum serve camps most effectively? To answer that question, we want to hear from you. Please complete the following survey and e-mail or snail mail it to the address below.
1. What role does curriculum play in your camp experience?
2. How much or little is the theme expressed at camp?
3. Describe your experience with Get Real.
4. What changes or updates would you like to see in the future?
5. How can InsideOut serve your camp most effectively?
_______________________________
Your name
_______________________________
Your e-mail address
May we contact you for research or testing new materials? ____ yes _____ no
Are you interested in applying to write for the new camping materials? ____ yes _____ no
• E-mail to info@. Or, mail it to
InsideOut
483 E Lockwood Ste 100, Saint Louis, MO 63119
“Get Real” is part of a four-year cycle of camp resources developed for InsideOut Christian Resources for Outdoor Ministries.
Themes include:
God the Creator
“All Things New: Look What God Is Doing!”
Jesus the Christ
“Get Real: Finding Your True Self in Jesus”
The Holy Spirit Working within Us
Power Up! Living in the Spirit (available fall 2014)
The Church in the World (available fall 2015)
Sneak Peek at next year
Power Up!
Living in the Spirit
Campers will experience Christian community at camp and discover its source—the Holy Spirit! They’ll also claim the gift of a new spirit within, bearing fruit, as they choose living in the Spirit for themselves. They’ll realize they are never alone—the Holy Spirit empowers them to live with grace and forgiveness, joy and peace.
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