avoiding indoctrination

Summer is in full swing, halfway over already. Many of you have probably already gone to summer camps with your students or will be heading off soon to some new adventure...whether a mission trip, a mix of mission and fun, or a sort of evangelistic type summer camp with all the bells and whistles, or maybe even a contemplative and reflective camp experience.

This Sunday I'll be leading a group of students down to Impact VA! a missional and justice oriented summer camp put on by Virginia Baptists, this time in Appomattox, VA a small town where I grew up. Whenever I prepare for any camp/retreat experience with the students, I always have the rising fear...a fear that the speaker or the worship leader is going to force something down the throats of the kids. A fear that the kids will be pulled around by a charismatic personality or a fear of hell, or an authoritative voice from the top-down. Summer trips are full of possibility, and having grown up in churches and with a strong parachurch organization background as well, camps kind of scare me these days.

If you haven't seen Jesus Camp yet, you should, and if you have, you'll know why I get scared of the indoctrination and forced fear that students often face when going to these sort of mountain-top experiences during summer camps. There is an other-worldliness to these experiences that often trap our students into believing in a fear that is stronger than love.

As we are processing and spending intense periods of time with students this summer, how do we help avoid some of the indoctrination or brainwashing that can often happen at camps? How can we foster a spirit of conversation and hope in the camp/retreat experiences that we help create for our students? I'm not scared that the speaker or worship leader will say something crazy that we can't talk about or work through as a group...I'm scared that the attitudes and arrogance of having all the right answers or the most authoritative voice will drown out the beauty of conversation amongst my group.

Obviously I'm wrestling with this whole "taking kids to camp" idea, and I don't think that taking kids to camp is bad...but how can we avoid treating students like kids who need to be told what to think, but instead help teach and invite them into a new way of thinking?