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It’s summer camp season again! People are giving up entire weeks of vacation to go spend a week at a remote, wooded location that is anywhere from a bug-infested, poorly ventilated, not to mention poorly decorated bunch of shacks and what we politely refer to as “cabins” to at times a crowded bare-minimum outdoor hotel. (There are some nice camps…) And each of these camps is teeming with young people who are eager to spend a week away from home with their good friends whom they see annually at these familiar stomping grounds. The campers usually outnumber the staff at least 4 or 5 to one and they know it. There are the typical games at mail call time, where the campers with the most mail are humiliated in some fashion, but for the most part completely enjoy it. And don’t forget the “Ride The Broom Around The Room” frivolity.

Yes, camp is a joyous time of year. For some.

(There is a reason that we are not there…) 🙂

But camp got me thinking again about what sorts of things we do together as Christians. Yes, we have camp weeks as a fun place to get together, and get away from the routine. And, yes, some people really do enjoy the silly camp games. But really, the people who love camp love the opportunity that they have with so many kids at once who are away from all their normal distractions, and can really focus on a well thought out and well put together program that reminds them of some truth from Scripture, and the basic truth that God loves them, and offers them real life through Jesus. That is why people are so willing to endure camp.

And, that’s a good thing. People’s lives are definitely touched in deep and even magical ways at camp. Some people are changed forever. God works through summer camp. But more often, you hear of the campers who come home from an exhilarating week of God-life, thrilled to share that touch from heaven with all their friends and family back home, only to find out the rest of their world is not so thrilled to be touched. They did not share the entire experience, and so are reticent to go along for the joy ride. Inevitably, this leads to the overjoyed camper gradually diminishing in excitement over the next few days, until within a week or two at most, they are back to the same distracted life without God that they had before the intense week of Heaven on earth provided by the Christian camp.

Why does this happen? Is it the lousy folks back home who need to get a clue? Perhaps if they could just go to camp, they would get it too? Maybe it’s the camper who didn’t have enough conviction or fortitude to outlast the onslaught of their family and peer groups upon their return to “the real world”? Maybe we just didn’t pray hard enough?

It really could be any one of those things. But, more likely I think it is because camp is not real life. This one week of intensely scheduled God life, neatly packaged with all the trimmings, is not the real world. We even call non-camp life “real life”. We are practically admitting that it is all “pretend”. Who wants to live a life of pretend?

The word that came to mind was “contrived.” Listen to these definitions!

Deliberately created rather than arising naturally or spontaneously; giving a sense of artificiality.

Create or bring about (an object or a situation) by deliberate use of skill and artifice.

Whoa. That’s fairly condemning. But doesn’t that nail it? Isn’t that exactly what we are doing? And camp is just an intense version of what we do every week for our Sunday morning gatherings. We put together great music, and relevant and dynamic speakers, along with carefully matched messages through drama and song and we make sure it all fits to within 60 or 70 minutes, all while managing to create a comfortable environment in which to take it all in with minimal distraction. Even our weekly gatherings for “fellowship” are scripted. Just like the first definition, we leave no room for life to happen “naturally or spontaneously”.

It all comes back to how much we trust God. Everything does. How much can we trust him with the work of changing people’s hearts? Can people know about his love for them without us making it easier for them? Don’t we need to create an environment where they can more easily hear the truth that they so desperately need to hear?

Everything that we do as Christians definitely comes from a wonderful heart to share what we know with others. Often it is even motivated by deep love for them. Sometimes it is motivated by guilt or obligation, but that’s a topic for another day. The motive behind such contrived moments is certainly a noble one.

But it is still contrived.

And the result, as can be expected, is an artificial one. One that lasts only for a time. Until the next week, when we are together again. Until the next year when we are together again at camp. Until the next God-fix. So many people say that is why they need to attend a weekly offering from a local group of Christians. It charges them up for the week. They need to refill.

How sad! Jesus offers us Living Water, where we will never thirst again. We have complete access to him every day and everywhere. All the time. Unhindered. Personal, private connection with our Father, through Jesus. And his Holy Spirit lives right in us, working in us to transform us by renewing our mind. How much we are missing when we rely on a weekly or yearly dose of God to keep us going. He offers us so much more.

But, we continue to produce Christians dependent on the contrived. Dependent on an artificial substitute for what they really need — a relationship with the real and present God. Instead, we offer them a neatly packaged version of him, complete with a script to take home with you.

I am not trying to belittle any individual or group of individuals. I speak as one who has done these very things. I was really good at it, actually. I could put together some pretty amazing programs. An hour or a weekend or a week that would flow together seamlessly, leading us all on an amazing journey of thoughts and emotions that revealed to us at just the right moments the heart of God for us. The truth that he has revealed in scripture, offered in a relevant, and easy to digest package. And it worked! People genuinely connected with the living God. For a moment. In that place. For a time.

It was contrived. It was pretend. When they left, it was over. Perhaps it lingered for even a day or two. But with no basis in reality, it was only something for a compartment of our lives.

No, I am not saying this in condemning judgment. I am offering perhaps an emporer-is-naked kind of truth. We try so hard, pouring our lives into these incredible systems and structures we have created to “make disciples”, but in reality we are only feeding the system. We create people who are reliant on the system for their weekly dose of God. Even when we preach relationship from the pulpit, we deny our own words by the very environment we have created to convey them.

Summer camp is nice. It’s fun. And people who like bugs should do it. 🙂 But it’s not real life. What we create there is contrived. It will not last. The only thing that will last is a real relationship with a real God who is a real part of every moment in our lives. Every one.

That is reality. That is where God wants to meet us.