Parting Words to NMC Parents

As I make my transition this summer from the Student Ministries team to the Adult Ministries team at NMC, I thought I would take some time to share a few parting thoughts with the parents of the preteens and teens at NMC from my 10 years of experience in youth ministry at Nappanee Missionary Church...

Summer Camp Talk - Part 2:

As I said before, if there is nothing else you here me say please here this: Based on my first-hand experience of helping lead NMC Student Ministries camps for the past 10 years, what happens at these camps has the distinct possibility to change and/or set your child’s spiritual trajectory for a life-time!

And yes, students have a ton of fun at NMC Summer Camps but that fun is created intentionally, just like every other aspect of camp, to better position your student to be receptive to the voice of God. However, it isn’t just about fun and games. It’s life changing. And if it’s life-changing, it worth your best effort as a parent to make sure you do everything within your power to get your student to camp each year.

If I had a 2nd great frustration over the years, it has been to see students miss summer camp for reasons such as:

• Optional summer football workouts
• Cheerleading competitions
• Family vacations
• 4-H Fair preparations
• Work
• Simply because, "I don't want to go" or "I don't know that many people going"

Please hear me on this: I'm not saying these things are bad or wrong. I am saying, though, that in light of the fact that the alternative could be to get your student to an event that has the "distinct possibility to change and/or set your child’s spiritual trajectory for a life-time", that these other options just seem, at best, to be really poor ones.

I know for many of you as parents to commit to getting your student to summer camp every year will take courage because it will mean going against popular sentiment and expectation as a parent in your own community. However, if NMC’s Summer Camps are truly life-changing and have the opportunity to set your child’s spiritual trajectory for a life-time, then it’s worth it!

As John Stott states in his book The Radical Disciple, "We are not to be like reeds shaken by the wind, bowing down before gusts of public opinion, but as immovable as rocks in a mountain stream. We are not to be like fish floating with the stream (for ‘only dead fish swim with the current,’ as Malcolm Muggeridge put it), but to swim against the stream, even against the cultural mainstream.”