From the Mountaintop to... The Mundane?

A common cliché that is often used to characterize an intense spiritual experience at summer camp is that it was a “mountain top” experience. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, to name a few, all had their ministries defined on mountaintops. Many of us who have attended summer camps growing up can recall religious experiences that brought us closer to God, and for some of us, contributed significantly to our call to ministry. But just as those in the Bible did we must also descend from the mountaintop to the more mundane world in which we live day by day.

In the camps that I lead, youth often comment to me, “Why can’t worship be like this in our churches the rest of the year?” It is easily seen that they are lamenting going from the informal, upbeat, worship experiences of camp, to what they experience as the more staid and predictable worship they find back home. There is nothing new about this dichotomy. Remember at the Transfiguration Peter wanted to stay on the mountaintop, so he offered to build shelters. What he experienced there was something he didn’t want to see end, so he didn’t want to leave. But leave they did, and leave we must as we go from the mountaintop to the everyday life with which God has blessed us.

I am not saying that all worship in our congregations is a mundane affair, but youth often experience it as such, and if we are honest with ourselves we would have to say that more often than not we leave worship uninspired for anything except eating lunch.

So, why is it that we most often have these mountaintop experiences at camp? By design, camp gives us a chance to get away from the normal distractions of life. Where coming to church is at most a two-hour affair, camp is a weeklong experience that has been prepared for us. We have little to worry about or to distract us, we just show up and let the week’s program take us. Furthermore, our mountaintop experiences usually come near the end of the week when a carefully prepared program reaches its pinnacle. It is hard to do this in a one-hour worship experience. Also at camp we are worshipping in a community that is comprised primarily of people who are close to us in age. I find it much easier to prepare worship at camp for a tightly grouped age range because I can focus in on a style of worship that fits that age range. This is much more difficult to do on a routine basis with the wide generational range that we see in of our congregations.

With all this in mind, I offer the following suggestions.

To camp planners, please use the Book of Worship as often as you can. For the last few years the Senior High/Post High Camp at Hope has used a Liturgy in its morning worship almost everyday. I have done this because I remember one of the highlights for me as a Junior High camper at Laurel Ridge was having Bishop Ed Mickey lead us through the Litany in the Red Hymnal. He had staff members serve as the choir and we campers were the congregation. Before we actually prayed the Litany, the Bishop had the whole camp practice it. He went through it line by line explaining the origins of the prayer petitions and musical components. Then we used the Litany in our worship time, and it meant so much more. After returning home, every time I prayed the Litany in worship it brought back memories of the mountaintop experience at camp. We, as camp planners today, need to do a better job of using worship elements that our campers will be experiencing at home. This is our chance to introduce it to them so they can have a greater appreciation for it when they return home.

Just as camp can do a better job of incorporating some of church-life into its daily fare, so the church can incorporate some of the passion of camp worship into its weekly service. Most of us pastors plan our worship services to meet the expectations of our older members. While I am not advocating throwing out all notions of what is seen as a traditional worship experience, we can do a better job of putting together a worship experience that can meet the needs of all the generations found in our worship services. If a “camp song” fits the worship theme and can be done well, it should be used. Our Caribbean brothers and sisters have a tradition in their worship to sing a youth hymn each week, perhaps we should do the same. The key is that the song must fit the theme and be done well. Many of our congregations now are moving to blended worship experiences. This is where we take the best of our traditional worship elements and the best of what contemporary worship has to offer and use them together to allow all of God’s people to worship passionately.

The seeds of faith are planted in the mountaintop experiences most often found at camp, but we can’t remain there. Those seeds need to be watered, and nurtured, and the plant that grows will need to be pruned and cared for. That is the job of the more mundane, everyday life of a worshipping congregation. Camp and congregation are merely two sides of the same coin and each needs the other. We need to listen to and respect one another. In so doing we will grow disciples together.