I got a flier in the mail today… perhaps I noticed it more because the post office had ripped the back cover in half, and had thus sent it to me in a special envelope with their apologies. The group was Student Life, and they’ve apparently put a new twist on your traditional church camp in the woods—now you can have your Jesus while lounging on the beach in Florida.

That’s right, “Student Life @ the Beach 2006” will provide your church youth group with a unique experience of worship, spiritual renewal, and relationship building, all at favorite coastal resorts like Daytona Beach, FL and Myrtle Beach, SC. The brochure features young and hip looking (and all male) camp pastors, along with the requisite worship leaders whose hairstyling talents that rival their musical abilities. Now, the fact that there were only two female leaders in the entire brochure didn’t really go over all that well with me, so I guess I’m biased toward the whole project to begin with. Sorry.

But you know, the predominately male leadership of this whole brochure wasn’t really what tickled my brain in the first place, nor what ultimately caused me to blog about it. What bugged me was the way in which the brochure promoted the event. On the very last page, the brochure explains that this is an experience of worship and “sound Biblical teaching” that takes place in relaxing beach settings. Fair enough. But when I flipped open the FIRST page of the brochure, you know what I saw, front and center?

“The New EMERALD COAST conference center hosts worship and sits less than one mile from beachfront condo units. The Silver Sands Outlet Mall (3rd largest in the US) and Destin Commons outline the largest tourist and shopping opportunity. Groups may putt-putt, rent water equipment, go-carts, parasail, bungee jump and much more in Destin.”

Now where was Jesus in all of that? Am I attending a Christian conference, or looking to buy oceanfront vacation property?

If we’re going to take kids to worship God and learn sound Biblical teaching, maybe we should be taking them to some of the places where we would have found Jesus if he were here today in the flesh—places like the border between the United States and Mexico, places like the rape crisis centers in our cities, places like the our dying rural communities. As much as I’m sure he had fun at times, I don’t think Jesus and the disciples held court at the Capernaum Hilton. Jesus didn’t seek to escape the ugly side of the world—in fact, he gave up his privilege as a male Jew to reach out to all people. Are we doing the same?

Even our plain old church camps in the woods, with their rustic metal bunks and communal showers, point us to something beyond the creature comforts and entertainments to which middle class Americans have become all too accustomed. They remind us that life is indeed more than food, and the body more than clothing (Matthew 6:25). And when I was a kid, a hike in the woods or a low-tech ropes course was just as much fun as go-carts and bungee jumping anyway.

The setting in which we worship God is in many ways immaterial. What matters is where we’re focused when we worship, when we study, when we come together as a faith community. It is certainly nice to have a little entertainment on the side. But when the sideshow is promoted as the main event, what are we teaching our kids and ourselves about God?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Parent knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the realm of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” --Matthew 6:31-33

Kelsey

Well, I must admit that I have been to the Silver Sands outlet and Destin Commons multiple times since it's not far from where I call home. I also must admit that I have been to one of those type of camps. It was called Fun in the Son (clever huh?), run by PFR (I found out much later), and almost literally on the beach in Jekyll Island, GA. It was a good experience, but I do see your point.

But the shopping and the beach in and of itself is not a bad thing, right? Or maybe that's what I have to keep telling myself.