This summer, high school and middle school students got a taste of college life a few years early. “James University,” the theme for the 2007 Summersalt youth camp, transported students a few years into their futures when their faith will most certainly be tested.
Chan Carroll and the Summersalt band lead worship during the evening session.Centered on the book of James, the summer’s Bible study and activities focused on apologetics and what it takes to be sure of one’s beliefs.
Youth were ushered into what a typical freshman year would look like on a university campus. Students are divided into “study groups,” hold daily quiet times or “advisor meetings” and participate in “intramurals.”
Daily “study groups” help attendees to unpack the foundations of the Christian faith together with a Summersalt staff member and other students from around the state.
“What people will try to do is take out your core (beliefs),” Stephen Rutland, a Summersalt staffer, told one study group. “They will try to challenge what is most important to you.”
Rutland demonstrated how people could observe one common event differently. He entered the room, did a silly action and asked members of the group to describe what they saw. Though all accurate, no one described the event the same way. Rutland tied the exercise to the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life.
“Did any of them lie? Even though there were differences, no one lied,” he said.
During the afternoon, study groups competed against one another in intramural water games such as paddle boat contests and canoe races.
Later in the evening, the Summersalt drama depicted college freshmen as they are forced to make decisions about their faith and what they truly believe through the testing of college life.
The characters struggle with secular professors, roommates and making tough choices. Attendees found themselves as participants in “848,” the university’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry meeting on campus.
Camp pastor Matt Rogers encouraged students to live a life where what they say matches what they believe.
“Most of you here at James University have heard what you should do, but the question is do you do it – . What do your actions say about what you believe? Faith and obedience go together. “
Rogers challenged students to think about what their lives would say if they could not speak a word.
“The world around us cannot see Jesus, but they can see you,” he said.