Short, pithy sayings abound in our world, such as, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The repetition and juxtaposition of going and tough make it catchy and easy to remember. Its lesson is meant to encourage us and “buck us up” when circumstances are difficult. The expression is most often heard in the athletic world. However, while it may be encouraging, there is much that it leaves out.
It is easy to want to be tough during adversity. Grit is needed when we are down, but there is more to being tough than grit alone. When one says, “the tough get going,” inherent in the statement is what it takes to be tough. A team that does not engage in hard practice is not likely to overcome, no matter how much its members try to talk themselves into being tough. We see that sayings rarely tell the whole story. They have a value and a place, but they need analysis if we are to fully live by them.
Consider a saying that has been around our summer camps for decades: “God’s way works.” Easy to remember, yes, and true. But is this the whole picture—or are we missing something? What is it about God’s way that is meant? Or, to put it another way, what is the way of God we hope to instill in our Church youth? I’ll do my best to answer this question—but first let me address some history of youth programs within the Church of God.
Summer Camps Begin
A summer camp was held in Big Sandy, Texas, in 1962. My wife was one of the pioneers of that camp, which lasted for eight weeks and had no air-conditioned dormitories. Mrs. Kathryn Ames was a counselor that year. Mrs. Suzanne Pyle, who works in our Human Resources Department here in Charlotte, attended the shorter six-week camp the next year. There are, no doubt, a few others still around who remember those pioneering days. In 1965, the annual camp was moved to Orr, Minnesota, where a lakeside property had been donated to the Church.
Some congregations also began to hold informal sporting activities. My first congregation was Santa Barbara, California. The more athletic among us—and some not so athletic—would meet at the beach on Sunday mornings to play informal volleyball games, with no referees needed as we called our own net violations and other infractions. As our Ephraimite friends would say, it was a “jolly good time.”
As the number of teens and children increased in many congregations, the idea was floated to start a sports program for Church youth, and Youth Opportunities United (YOU) was established in the early 1970s. Since many schools’ extracurricular sports programs conflicted with the Sabbath, the idea was to give our teens an alternate outlet for their energies, with the hope that they would attach themselves to the Church. Basketball was the chief sport played at Ambassador College, and many young men who were sent into the field ministry had played basketball at the college, so it was logical that they would introduce a basketball program. But something was also needed for the girls, so volleyball was introduced for them.
Teams from one congregation would play teams from another, and multi-congregation tournaments soon popped up. They were often called “Family Weekends”—but they were not really for all family members, unless you enjoyed being a spectator over a long weekend. Adult teams were also introduced. There were opportunities for fellowship, and, in some areas, there were activities for smaller children, but the emphasis was on basketball and volleyball, and later on softball and track and field as well. In Canada, the big sport was hockey, and in other parts of the world activities were introduced based on local customs.
To maintain order, men were appointed over different regions. Congregations got involved in money-making projects to buy uniforms for players and cheerleaders. For the larger tournaments, professional referees were often hired. There was a lot of talk about sportsmanship, teamwork, excellence, and perseverance—and, yes, it was not uncommon to hear the phrase, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
The success of a program very much depended on who was overseeing the region, and cracks began to show. Good sportsmanship was not always present. Too often, even parents became emotional and tempers flared. Some teams “recruited” outside players who were willing to attend services for a short time during the sports season but were never a real part of the Church. There was also financial strain on families due to gym rentals, long-distance travel, meals away from home, and motel stays. Fatigue caused some parents to send their teens off with the team on overnight trips, where behavior occasionally became problematic. So, instead of drawing teens and congregations closer together, the opposite was too often the effect.
Nevertheless, many teens had great experiences with YOU and at camp with the Summer Education Program (SEP). The programs were very successful in giving teens experiences that most of their non-member friends never enjoyed, such as wilderness canoe trips, a cross-America bike trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and a New Zealand biking excursion that brought teens together from distant countries.
There were many well-run sports programs, but we must ask, Why did so few of those teens remain with the Truth? I was an enthusiastic supporter of the YOU and SEP programs, having been heavily involved in both. But again one must ask: What were the fruits of these programs? Why are so many of the thousands who attended SEP and participated in YOU not with us today? Did God’s way not work?
The answer is not singular. The WCG apostasy took a toll on adults and children alike. Many young people, perhaps most, followed their parents back into the world. But many who had participated in YOU and SEP were, by the time of the apostasy, baptized adults who had to choose for themselves. Clearly, something had been missing from their education—and this, of course, cannot be blamed solely on either parents or on the Church’s programs.
Things to Consider
The slogan “God’s way works” was often the refrain of SEP, and it is used even today in some of our teen and preteen camps. But what does it really mean? Having been involved for nine years at the program in Orr, Minnesota, and for another year in Big Sandy, Texas, I can speak about the programs from considerable experience. When it came to the quality of instruction and unique opportunities for our youth, it would be hard to find better programs. Most of the staff members had been trained at Ambassador College. They gave excellent instruction, and almost all counselors were top-notch. The facilities, both at Orr and Big Sandy, were designed and constructed by the Church for its programs. When we look back at the WCG youth programs, we must honestly say that they were started with the best intentions, and that no expenses or efforts were spared in developing these programs. So, what went wrong?
“God’s way works” only if it is defined clearly. To most teens, I believe the slogan simply meant that God’s way was a lot of fun. And, while certain godly values were taught, there was an effort to avoid the feeling of a “Church camp” like what would be commonly seen in the world. It was agreed that SEP was not to be what some would call a “camp revival” or a place for sentimental religion.
Yes, there was a Bible Study and a Sabbath service each week, and there were Christian Living classes. But a close look at those Christian Living classes is quite revealing. Topics varied over the history of the camps, but during my time at Orr, we had four classes scattered over three weeks, with titles I remember well: “Your Relationship with Rules,” “Your Relationship with Money,” “Your Relationship with Others,” and “Your Relationship with God.” Again, we did not want to have the feeling of a “Church camp.” All of these were profitable topics—but was this the best use of the precious time spent at camp?
When Dr. Meredith appointed me as North American Youth Development Director in 1999, I realized that we needed to make some course corrections as we moved forward. We had to ask ourselves hard questions. We had to think through our mission and our goals.
Now, before I go further, let me point out some of the obvious. The ultimate responsibility for training children belongs to their parents. It is the Church’s responsibility to support parents. We do this in sermons and magazines by passing along biblical and experiential wisdom to help parents. When children are temporarily turned over to our custody at camp, we therefore emphasize what should be commonly agreed-upon biblical values.
One point that I always emphasize to our staff is, “These are not our children.” Parents have a reasonable expectation that we will return their children in a condition at least as well as—but preferably better than—the one they were in when they were dropped off at camp. Of course, a teen or preteen who is rebellious, or uncooperative, or simply not mature enough, is not likely to benefit from the programs at our camps. And, even aside from that, the truth is that camp is not for everyone. Another obvious point is that all children are different, and God must be involved in their lives during their youth. We must not leave God out of the picture, and that should go without saying.
Our Global Church of God camps struggled. Finding qualified staff was a problem from the start. In 1995, that first summer at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, was a learning experience. It was obvious that we needed to begin training staff at an earlier age—so, the next year, we added a high-school-staff component to the program. And we needed to have clear expectations, such as curfews that were enforced for staff as well as campers. This did not happen until after the Global disruption, when several of us made that change and many others. But, ultimately, we always emphasized with our staff that “if we cannot trust you, we have no basis on which to work with you.”
Defining Behavior
For my early camp leadership experiences, which involved swimming and water polo, I had to become certified as a lifeguard and water safety instructor. One evening, during a lifeguarding class, two or three of the girls were talking when they should have been listening and paying attention. Our instructor called them out by saying, “You are talking while I am—that is rude.”
That was a perfect example of what we refer to as defining behavior. It is one thing to say, “Don’t be rude,” but what does that mean in real terms to a young person—or, for that matter, to any person? Certainly, “talking while I’m talking” defines one form of rudeness.
It is the same with “God’s way works.” Unless we clearly define what we mean by “God’s way,” individuals are left to define it as they see it—and, for far too many young people who passed through SEP and YOU, “God’s way works” meant “God’s way is fun.” While it may indeed be fun, that is hardly the entire point that we intend to pass along to a younger generation.
This is why we strive, through various instructions, mechanisms, and traditions, to reinforce what we mean by “God’s way.” We instruct our youth to show outgoing concern for everyone, and one way we reinforce this instruction is through the mechanism of varying who they sit with during meals. They must stay at their assigned tables for each meal, and not get up and mix with teens at other tables. This way, they avoid sending the teens at their table the message, “You are not important to me. I’ll go talk to someone I’m more comfortable with.” When teens are allowed to sit with whomever they choose during mealtimes, cliques are unwittingly promoted, and that is why we do not let them pick and choose. Rather, we mix up seating so they spend time with many other teens over the course of the camp, whom they would not otherwise get to know.
This is only one of many mechanisms, traditions, and points of instruction that we lost for several years. Frankly, the LYP was going off the rails and needed to be set back on track. The camps were being taken in a different direction, and our mission was being cast aside.
Here is the mission statement that was formulated many years ago, at the beginning of the Living Youth Camps: To bring teens together in a learning environment for the purpose of recapturing true values; and to further the creation of a culture of purity, honor, and respect among the youth within the Living Church of God.
These might be nice-sounding words, but what exactly do they mean? What are the true values that we seek to recapture? What is a culture of purity? What does the word honor mean in this context? And how do we teach teens and preteens to respect one another? These words must be explained in easy-to-understand language, which we strive to do in both Staff and Camper Orientations. And our traditions and mechanisms help staff and campers put these values of God’s way of life into practice.
Defining Our Mission
A culture involves a group of people. We are not shy about telling campers and staff that we are trying to sell them a better way of life. We hope that enough of them will buy into God’s way that they can create a significantly large positive peer group within the Living Church of God. They should be able to go to the Feast and find others sharing the same godly values.
We know that the prince of the power of the air is directing the course of our world. Profanity, immodesty, cruelty toward the weak, sex outside of marriage, and narcissism (Hey, look at how cool I am!), abound in youth culture. But the purity we seek is defined by the biblical principle of modesty (1 Timothy 2:9), by taking your mind off yourself and seeing how you can help others (Philippians 2:4), by reserving sex for marriage (1 Corinthians 6:9–10, 18), and by avoiding crass, profane, and inappropriate language (Colossians 3:8).
Honor in our context means an internalized code of conduct. It is what you do when no one is watching. Only the individual can choose to live a life founded upon internalized godly values, but we encourage each individual young person to choose this better way and not to drift with the wind. Our youth must prove what they believe and have the backbone to stand up for it.
And respect refers to how we treat others. Our young people are taught to show deference to those who are older. They must also respect one another by not putting others down. Boys need to show respect for girls by not selfishly attempting to satisfy their own desires, and girls must do the same.
Defining Our Goal
What do we expect we will gain from carrying out our mission statement? The answer is found in our goal statement: We expect that out of this culture of purity, honor, and respect will come godly relationships that will lead to loving marriages and strong families that will provide stability and future leadership in the Living Church of God.
Not all teens will buy what we are selling. Sadly, some will cast aside the precious pearl offered to them. However, it is our hope that through the LYP we can inspire many to find treasures hidden beneath the soil of today’s corrupt culture—and we have many fine examples of young families who are doing just that. If you haven’t noticed, we are experiencing a “baby boom” in the Church in some of our larger congregations. Young people are building their lives, and their families, on a foundation of purity, honor, and respect. They are forming godly relationships that are leading to loving marriages and a future generation of strong families.
Yes, it is true that “God’s way works,” but God’s way must be defined. Slogans can be good, but they must be more than catchphrases—they must be taught and reinforced clearly. It is then up to those we teach to buy what we are selling.