No air-conditioning, no cell phone, no sleep... Count me in.
There is something unique about summer church camp you won’t find anywhere else, and Ignite is no exception. I am incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend Ignite as a student. Ignite has provided countless opportunities to step away from life’s everyday distractions to focus on my relationship with Christ.
I’ll be the first to confess, however, that some of those opportunities were more fruitful than others. As an eighth grader, based on my current—and admittedly vague—recollection of who even spoke that year, I was probably more interested in what was going on in the gym afterward than what was being taught each session. I remember other years thinking more about the cute girl at camp than what my cabin leader was teaching during nighttime devos. My experience and takeaways from Ignite were always relative to my maturity level that year, but somehow God still managed to place the right people around me at the right time.
One of my favorite moments at Ignite actually had very little to do with a speaker or any of the programmed activities. I remember hanging out on the front porch of another group’s cabin with Brad Langebartels, a cabin leader that year, and one of my closest friends, Tucker Hood. It was late, and most other cabins had settled in for the night. I don’t remember what happened before or after our time together, but I vividly remember the substance of that conversation and how it went late into the night.
I think there is something powerful about sharing stories of what God has done in our lives, and Ignite provides the space and community for those conversations to happen. Several years after that conversation with Brad and Tucker, I was presented with one of my most humbling experiences of my life. During the summer of 2015, I was given the opportunity to step into Brad’s shoes as a cabin leader and share my own story with a group of young men eager to know more about how real our God is.
My memory of Ignite camp is full of humbling moments of conviction, passion, and grace—all of which I will cherish for the rest of my life. I would strongly encourage anyone willing to be used by God to get involved at any level. Send your kids, give money to the scholarship fund, or be a leader.
It’s worth it.