You’ve seen God use the Camp Hope staff in powerful ways. They are making a difference in the lives of others. They are growing disciples. They are active in mission and outreach into the neighborhood. But now that Camp Hope is over, how do you keep that going?
Here are a few resources for you:
1. Transitioning Youth Leaders Growing youth leaders for Camp Hope is not very different from growing their leadership gifts in other places in the church. You don’t do need to do this alone. Just like planning for Camp Hope, get a team of adults together to help your youth transition into other areas of church leadership. You will need to teach other adults the process of Growing Youth Leaders utilizing the Leadership Pipeline and Leadership Square.
2. Mentor Ministry After Camp Hope Keep doing cross-generational ministry! For lasting faith formation to grow in our students they MUST have significant adults in their lives. Be intentional about forming and tending to these relationships; this resource will give you a place to start.
3. Tune In
Process We encourage you to enter into the Tune In Process with LEAD (Leading Everyday As Disciples). This is a process of listening to God in scripture, in the congregation and in the neighborhood. Think about doing this with a team of spiritually mature youth. It may take all year but will be worth it as it is a discernment process to see where God is calling your youth ministry to be active with God’s mission in the world. This is much more than a youth group; it is engaging them about mission and ministry. You can purchase this or use these free resources.
4. Peer Ministry Train your youth about what it means to truly embrace a Theology of the Cross. Just as God willingly entered into our brokenness in order to walk be with us, we do the same with our siblings. Peer Ministry is a leadership training that equips students to willingly enter into the brokenness of another youth to “bear with one another” (Ephesians 4:2).
5. Curriculum Use Throughout the Year There are several different ways you can use old Camp Hope curriculum throughout the year. We’d love to hear your ideas, so please comment below or join us on Social Media using the links on the top right hand side of this page. Here are a few ideas:
- Advent: You could use Camp Hope’s past lessons on Advent and Christmas. Open with Alpha Worship, then go into Small Groups. You can use the same Manna two weeks in a row by choosing a different grabber activity the second week and asking the children to tell you the story from the previous week. With four Sundays, youth could lead using the following schedule:
- Week 1 – Advent Manna and Arts or Games
- Week 2 – Advent Manna and Arts or Snacks
- Week 3 – Christmas Manna and Arts or Games
- Week 4 – Christmas Manna and Arts or Snacks
- Lent: You could use past Camp Hope lessons for the season of Lent. Open with Alpha Worship, then go into small groups. Camp Hope staff could teach the manna time and a rotation activity that would fit into your time frame each week. One week could be games and another week explore or you could choose to do a snack each week. Just pick a Lenten Theme for a style like “King of the Jungle” or “Discovering Jesus”. With six Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter, youth could lead using the following schedule:
- Week 1 – Jesus Tempted (2012) / God comes to us when we’re tempted
- Week 2 – Nicodemus (2015) / Jesus teaches us to listen
- Week 3 – Woman at the Well (2015) /Jesus teaches us to respect
- Week 4 – Who do you say that I am (2013) / Jesus shows us that God saves
- Week 5 – Jesus heals deaf & mute man (2013) / Jesus shows God heals
- Week 6 – Palm Sunday (2014) / Jesus show us He is King
- Seasonal Themes: You could use any day of Camp Hope curriculum and spread it over six Sundays for a seasonal theme. Depending on the calendar year, you can fit 12 weeks between Rally Day and Thanksgiving, 6 weeks between New Years and Lent and 6 weeks between Easter and the end of the year. Open with Alpha Worship, then go into small groups or a rotation activity. Youth could lead using the following schedule:
- Week 1 – Manna & Tribe Time
- Week 2 – Review lesson and then do Games
- Week 3 – Review lesson and then do Imaginarium
- Week 4 – Review lesson and then do Art
- Week 5 – Review lesson and then do Snacks
- Week 6 – Review lesson and then do STEM
