By: Jeff Brannan, Youth Ministries Director
With summer right around the corner, the anticipation and excitement for summer camp continues to grow. Here at Hume, we love that students get to experience all the fun, energy, and excitement of camp throughout the year, in a variety of different camps, retreats, and seasons. We also love how God uses those fun and exciting pieces of camp to help break down walls, and to open up the hearts and minds of the students to understand the truth of the Gospel as we boldly proclaim the Word of God every day. Truly, the Gospel at play.
Back in the Fall of 2023, just weeks after summer camp had ended, our youth camp director team met together to pray and ask the Lord where He was leading us for the summer of 2024. We also took time to talk through what we have been hearing from youth pastors about where their students are at and some of the most pressing things they are facing today.
It was then, in early September, as we prayed, talked, read, and studied God’s Word, that the Lord made it clear. We kept coming back to the Gospel of Matthew, and the question that Jesus asks His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matt 16:15).
This summer, for the first time, all six of our youth summer camps (Ponderosa, Meadow Ranch, Wagon Train, Wildwood, Hume SoCal, and Hume New England) will all be focused on the same spiritual theme, as we look at the person of Jesus through the Gospel of Matthew. Our hope for students is that they leave more in love with Jesus than when they arrived, with a greater understanding of who He truly is, and that they honestly answer the question, “Do you believe Jesus is who He says He is?”
As we develop each summer theme, we always start by nailing down the theological and spiritual direction before we move into developing the creative side and how it will look and feel. The spiritual direction is what helps drive how the story we read in scripture will unfold creatively in both live productions and in a short film.
For Wagon Train, this theme will be set once again in the wild west where the Wagon Train staff will act out pieces of Matthew in a live production each morning, as the Jesus character is asking the students, “Who do you reckon’ I am?”
In Wildwood, we were already set to have a theology focus this summer, so a Christology theme anchored in Matthew works perfectly. No live production. No short film. Just students, their youth leaders, and the Wildwood staff out in the beauty of God’s creation each day, diving deep into the Word of God to better understand who Jesus is.
For Ponderosa, Hume SoCal, and Hume New England we took a portion of the narrative story we find in Matthew and created a series of short theme videos that takes place in a futuristic, dystopian, humanoid world. We follow Maddix, a tax collecting bot, as he encounters an unusual bot named Elyon. Maddix must overcome his disbelief and pride to discover if this bot, Elyon, really is the savior, the One worth giving up everything he has ever earned or cared about in life to follow.
In Meadow Ranch, we will use this same story and creative world, but instead of using the short theme videos, the Meadow Ranch staff will perform it live in a series of live productions every morning during camp.
Our hope and purpose for these videos and live productions is to have a creative, visual representation of the story we see in scripture, that then set the stage for each message that the speaker will be teaching on from the book of Matthew.
Please join us in praying for the ministry that will be taking place this summer, and that the Lord would use this unified focus on Jesus to draw students to Himself, and ultimately to bring Glory to His name. Thank you for all your prayers and support. To God be the Glory!
If you want to know more about each of our summer themes, check out the link below that we sent out to churches a little over a month ago to get them excited about summer camp!