Youth Camp 2023: Sin
Our youths held their annual camp from 13-15 December. Timothy, one of our Young Adults, attended the camp not as a participant, but as one who was helping out. He shares about the camp as well as his experience here.
You might have seen the posters for this year’s Youth Camp in the lift lobby, with its three foregrounded simple black-and-white images: a fruit, a human eye, and a snake. These images bring the story of the Fall to mind. Eve, tempted by the serpent, saw that the fruit “was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise” and “she took of its fruit and ate”, as did Adam (Gen 3:6). Accordingly, below the images was the theme for this year’s camp: Sin.
OUR SINFUL NATURE AND NEED FOR THE GOSPEL
As Pastor Jeremy noted in his talks, sin might seem like a curious theme for a Youth Camp. Who wants to hear about sin -- or worse, their sin? Why do we need to understand what sin is? How does it matter to how we live as Christians? Why not go straight to the Gospel, and to how we can fight sin?
Over the three days of camp, those were some of the questions the youth and the leaders explored together. Each day would have a mix of fun events – free and easy time, games – and studies on sin, led by Pastor Jeremy. Each study of sin systematically led the participants through an understanding of what sin was, and why it matters to the Christian life. Each session built upon the other, all building up to the Gospel and its implications for our lives.
Fittingly, then, Pastor Jeremy started by establishing “Why God Matters”, that God created the entire world and all its inhabitants, which means us (Gen 1:1)! That He is our Creator is evident in the world He has made, which gives Him pre-eminence in our lives – yet we often act as though that were not the case. Using the show Undercover Boss as an analogy, he highlighted how employees tend to act badly when they aren’t aware that their boss is around. Similarly, because people refuse to acknowledge God as Creator, they act as though He is absent -- to their own detriment, since He is always, ever there.
That reality has implications, which Pastor Jeremy then used to define what sin is. If God is our Creator, for one, we owe Him complete and unceasing worship (Rev 4:11). It also means that we should study and listen to God’s Word. Moreover, if God has made us in His image, then our lives are to reflect God. Sin, he taught, is the failure to live in accordance with the implications of the reality of God. In our discussions after each session, we encouraged the youth to think about their lives in light of that reality: namely, how do they spend their time? What draws their attention? What do they love most?
The discussions revealed that our hearts put other things before God: the problem of sin, which Pastor Jeremy then went through. In our sinful natures, our desires are not rightly ordered, and no one is able to live up to this standard (Rom 3:23). Consequently, he brought the youth through the grim reality that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). This session was helpful in pressing in the nature of sin, and vivifying what it meant to be a sinner – and therefore the need to rid ourselves of it.
How then do we rid ourselves of sin? We turn to the Gospel of Christ. Pastor Jeremy shared that although people try to get rid of sin by doing good works, making idols to worship, or acting as though God doesn’t exist, the only way we are free of the sin that kills us is by trusting in Jesus who “bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet 2:24). For those who believe in Him, they have “eternal life” (John 3:36). We attain this not by our own merit, but only by confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead (Rom 10:9). And, being counted in him, we are made new (2 Cor 5:17). And therefore we are able to fight sin, living lives that glorify God because we are in Christ.
LEARNING WHILE SERVING
As one of the young adult helpers, it was both exciting and instructive seeing this teaching taking place. Jeremy’s systematic detailing of how Christ saves us and why we need it pressed in two things to me about how we relate to the Gospel as a church: that the Gospel is of first importance in all that we do, and that we must not assume the Gospel.
When I was a youth, I suspect I often wanted things that would "better my life"; I wanted someone to tell me how to be more comfortable or confident, and I would see youth ministry as a means to that end. Even as I grew past that, in my mind I had a certain idea of what Youth Ministry was all about.
It was quite eye-opening, then, to see how much of a teaching ministry Youth was. In our discussions following the sessions, the leaders would focus on finding out where the youth were at spiritually, and on helping them understand the Gospel with accuracy and clarity. One moment in particular that made an impression was when one of the youth leaders asked frankly, “How many of you here would identify as Christian?” The importance of asking this question hadn’t quite occurred to me before then; just because the youth are in church doesn’t automatically guarantee that they are believers yet. In its planning and teaching, I was encouraged by the intentional striving after ways to communicate the Gospel effectively to the youth.
During the camp, I also got to see how the gospel was communicated through the way we do life together. Christ has called us to community and to fellowship with one another (Eph 4: 4–6). Different care groups graciously came to provide food for the campers, and often to stay and chat with them as well. Rather than being "compartmentalised" or isolated from the rest of the body, it was encouraging to see Christ being proclaimed in the sacrificial giving of time, effort and presence for the sake of others in His name.
Similarly, it was a great experience to be able simply to spend time with the youth. We had time not only through games like Trivia, Candle Fight, or the Water Games, but also through the pockets of free time throughout. These were fun, certainly, and it was great running around with the energetic young folks! More than that, I’m hopeful that in the happy, heartfelt interactions with the community the Gospel seeps through in what we say and how we act toward one another.
THE GOSPEL IS FOR ALL OF US, YOUNG AND OLD
Overall in the Youth Camp, we asked questions that we should always be asking ourselves: how do we communicate the Gospel in ways that are accurate and vivid? How do we hold out the message of salvation, such that its sweetness, clarity, and relevance shines through? We do so not only by clear, accurate and compelling teaching that centralises the Gospel, but also the simple act of being present in ways that reflect Christ’s love for His church. We love, always, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).