Why You Can't Stay At Church Camp Forever

posted by Erin Davis on 07/02/12 | Twitter: @ErinGraffiti
Category: Faith; ; 26 comments

Diagnosis: Mountaintop Syndrome
Symptoms:
  1. A big emotional experience once or twice a year.
  2. Feeling like you can hear God's voice clearly at camp, but cannot hear Him the rest of the year.
  3. Making a commitment to read your Bible more every year at camp but "falling off the wagon" by the time school starts.
  4. Making close friends with the people in your youth group during the summer months but returning to friendships where you are less challenged during the school year.
  5. A desire to serve God that does not last.
  6. Committing to love your neighbors better and then getting into a huge fight with your parents approximately 1.6 seconds after getting off the church bus.

I was wmountaintopriting from a college campus this week where a student camp was going on. As I sat in the student union, I kept one eye on my laptop and one eye on the end of camp festivities. Girls were braiding each other's hair. Fellow campers were signing each other's camp shirts. I witnessed a couple of long and tearful goodbyes from camp couples who had clearly met and fallen hard for each other in the past week (sigh).

It brought back a flood of memories from my own camp experiences. (I heart church camp 4-ever!) I accepted Jesus as my Savior at camp when I was fifteen. I looked forward to camp all year long for every summer after that. After college I married a youth pastor, and we took students to camp eleven years in a row. I loved watching how God could work when we retreated from normal life.

But I often got mountaintop syndrome. It's a common condition. It happens when we gorge ourselves on Jesus/the Bible/worship/Christian fellowship once or twice a year and then starve ourselves of those things during the fifty-one weeks between camp experiences. God seems so close to use during camp, but we just can't seem to keep it that way.

It's not a new phenomenon. In fact Peter had a bit of a church camp moment in Luke 9:28–35. Jesus took Peter, James, and John on a mountain retreat. While they were there, Jesus was transfigured before their very eyes. (Oh and Moses and Elijah showed up from the dead to chat with Him.) Talk about a God encounter!

Peter didn't want it to end, so he said, "Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."

Peter was saying, "Let's stay on this mountain, Jesus. I always want it to be this way." He even offered to pitch tents for Moses and Elijah. I doubt they would want to trade heaven for an all dude campout, but it was a nice thought.

We often feel like Peter after mountaintop experiences in our faith. We want to stay where Jesus is easy to see and God's voice seems loud. We want to live where the heroes of our faith such as our youth pastors, our camp counselors, or our small group leaders are right there with us to keep us from falling short. We want to live in little tents where we are protected from the pressures that make being a Christian hard. But we cannot stay on the mountain.

Jesus didn't take Peter up on his offer to pitch a tent. He and Peter walked back down the mountain that day because Jesus had work to do—kingdom work that could not be done from the safety of a mountain tent.

I hope you have great camp experiences this summer. I hope you are revived and encouraged in new ways. But avoid the temptation to wish you could live on the spiritual mountain forever. Camp isn't the feast; it's just a training ground to do big work for God's kingdom this year.

For some practical tips on how to avoid mountaintop syndrome, be sure to check out tomorrow's post. In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you. Do you have plans to go to camp or on a mission trip this summer? What's your experience with mountaintop syndrome?

Comments

HEY, GIRLS! We love hearing from you, but feel limited in the ways we can help. For one thing, we’re not trained counselors. If you’re seeking counsel, we encourage you to talk to your pastor or a godly woman in your life as they’ll know more details and can provide you with ongoing accountability and help. Also, the following comments do not necessarily reflect the views of Revive Our Hearts. We reserve the right to remove comments which might be unhelpful, unsuitable, or inappropriate.

    Mattea
    Re:
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 8:47 am
    I will pray that I will gorge on Jesus's word and truth this summer and not starve myself the rest of the year!
    Marie Sumo
    Re:
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 9:48 am
    Yes i have plans about going to summer camp. But it's at a Bible institute that by the grace of God i be attending next year,so i can always go back. But im also planing to keep my eyes on Jesus even when i get back and continue attending my secula college.
    Chey
    Cure for Mountiantop Syndrome
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 10:04 am
    Whenever I feel Mountiantop Syndrome coming on I remember Christ's sacrifice. He would have been justified staying in heaven away from all temptation. Christ loved his children more than he loved the comfortable life in heaven so he come down and died for us. So many people are lost and without God. We can't afford to catch Mountiantop Syndrome when so many people need encouragement and help to stand against the fiery darts of the enemy.

    Thanks for a great post that helped me examine my heart! :)
    Maddie
    My Mountaintop Syndrome
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 10:14 am
    This post couldn't have been better timed!! I just got back from a missions trip this past Friday. Since then I have been really depressed, missing my friends, missing the kids I worked with, etc. Three days later, I'm still depressed, but I've turned it into something else. Now, it's more of a call my life to radically live for God.
    Before my trip, my faith was definitely fading. I remember thinking to myself that this trip would revive me. I think that's part of the problem. I was waiting for a trip to come to change me. I wasn't ready to do the change myself!
    Anyway, "mountaintop syndrome" has hit me hard (I still wish I was on my trip). But now, I'm commiting to my faith. I don't want to be a "lackluster" Christian. And I never will be again :)
    Sarah A.
    :)
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 10:34 am
    Oh Erin, if I could only be half that insightful.... Oh wait, maybe I can be.
    Brittany
    Camp
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 10:50 am
    I've never been to one of these camps, though my niece has. It sounds like fun, and maybe one day I'd do it. thanks for the post! I understand it completely and it makes sense!
    R.M.
    Hmmm...
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 11:00 am
    The timing of this is rather interesting...I go to camp next week, actually. I think my friends and I feel like that a lot of the time... we have a great time at camp, but when we get home, it's kind of like..."Now what?" Thanks for this post!!
    Jenni
    Re:
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 11:33 am
    One thing that our camp pastor had pointed out thisyear at camp was that when ever we have these spiritual highs, we always come back down just a little bit higher...I have noticed this as I have been to camp, retreats and other church things...just thought I'd add! Thanks for the post :)
    Sarah
    Discovery Camp
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 11:47 am
    This summer my youth is going to discovery camp next week. I'm so glad I saw this post before I left. Two years ago we went to Extreme camps and I remember how excited I was while we were there. For the first time I felt like I could truly hear God. I didn't want the week to end. When we left all that excitement I had to serve God kind of died off and I went back to my old ways. I recently decided to do my best at following Christ and I been reading my Bible every day since May. I'm so excited for camp next week to get spiritual renewed. Thank you Erin for giving me a new set of mind before camp starts.
    Blue/Heather
    Re:
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 12:52 pm
    I've never been to Christian summer camp, but some of my friends who were raised in Christian homes said that they always had that experience at camp. There was this huge, amazing feeling at camp, and when they got home they fell back to old ways. Eventually they all made an effort to break that mold. I've experienced this in a different way- when I came to Christ for the first time last year, I felt God like I never had before. It was amazing. I thought about Jesus all day long, and I had to withdraw often during the day to praise Him. I fell so hard in love with Him, I loved spending time with Him. God was working in my life so much, I heard Him so loud and clear, and He always left me tangible evidences of His love. Unfortunately.. now I realize that all of that was a mountaintop experience. I was experiencing the "I-was-just-saved jitters", and it lasted almost the whole first year. Now I'm struggling to feel that overwhelming joy and total head-over-heels in love feeling that I had before. I can think of 20 things I'd rather do than read my Bible, and sometimes I'm afraid that I'll never return to what I had again. But I know that my feelings aren't true, and that God is still here, and He still loves me just as much as He did when He first claimed me as His!
    AnnaBelle
    Re:
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 1:06 pm
    I am going to Church Camp in a few weeks. I am already getting spiritually ready for it. And now I'm going to avoid getting Mountain Top Syndrome too.
    Thanks!
    Christina
    Mountain Top Syndrome
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 2:16 pm
    I had that syndrome the first year i went to camp (this year was my third year goin). I go to the Wilds in North Carolina, and it is amazing!! It really is life changing, and it really touches your heart. It is an entire week of spending time with God, and almost all the time. The first year i went i made decisions, didn't wanna leave at the end of the week, and when i got home i didn't keep any of the decisions. The past two years i have changed a lot, so much that everyone that has known me knows that. I make decisions, and i keep them. I am able to leave camp and be ok with it. I spend time with my Lord everyday, i have changed the music i listen to, i don't watch bad TV, i go to church and spend time at church, i'm homeschooled now, all my friends are in my youth group, and on top of that i like a good Christian guy that loves the Lord and wants to become a youth pastor. I am satisfied and ok with getting back to my everyday life. I used to be different then i am now, but i have changed and i have a fire for the Lord! I don't have a big emotional change once or twice a year, i am changed all throughout the year.
    Antonia
    Re:
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 3:11 pm
    When I was 12 I went on my first 'camp' and became a Christian there, and it became a time of high emotion followed by a slump of faith and commitment. A year later, I went with a larger group of friends and saw that they were really depressed in our church (which sings hymns to an organ) as they couldn't raise their hands, and the music had no beat. This lasted for weeks, and they failed to realise that the beats in the music, the huge guitar crescendo's were meant to induce emotion, even more so than the words they sung. The hymns we sing at church are full of beauty, but because of the dreary organ, they failed to appreciate them. This was also reflected in their prayer lives and attitudes.

    Every time, since witnessing others' reaction to their 'spiritual high' being crushed, I always pray in the weeks before I go that we will have realistic expectations of what we can do and that we will feel encouraged, but not to the point where we are living under the illusion that life can always be that easy and we can always be so close to God. It is also imperative that we ask for wisdom, so that promises we make to God at camp are stuck to, which honours God far more than those we make while tearily singing a song, but when life hits, is ignored.

    I hope you are all blessed and encouraged by church camps this year, and that you will find that your closeness to God will continue through perseverance in your prayers to God, and daily Bible readings. I once heard it said (at a camp, actually!) that you are what you eat, and that applies to the Bible as well. The more we read it, the more of it's Truth we consume, the more we can become hungry for God's glory in our own lives. This is not a guarantee, because, of course, it depends on your motives for doing so, but it's something worth remembering.

    Also, go and check out blimeycow's video on spiritual highs - I promise you it is both challenging and full of laughs!
    Emily Ruth
    Oh, yes
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 4:10 pm
    This has already happened to me this year. I was at a 10 day training school where we go out on the streets to share the gospel and then teach children's Bible clubs for a week. It can be so easy to get excited about it at camp but then not transferring that excitement to my "real" life. Thank you so much for the encouragement, and I am looking forward to tomorrow's post since I am going to be at camp for four more weeks this summer.
    Tabby
    Very relevant!
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 4:32 pm
    I thought I was the only one who had this happen. It's nice to know it's actually a normal thing. Last summer, my youth group went camping for a week and I really bonded with everyone and sort of came back to my faith; until I got home. The same thing happened at winter camp. Thanks for posting this!
    Jemma
    100%
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 7:40 pm
    I just got back from a Christian camp, and boy was it powerful! What you posted is so true, and I've found that I've done that before. I think it is really important though that you make you sure you try and do all the things you did at camp after you get home; like spending time with Christian friends, taking time each day to read your bible, listen to God and most importantly PRAY! :) I love this site, its so encouraging! Thank you! Could you please pray for my dog, Charlie also, as he had a paralysis tick and isn't looking very good. Thanks <3
    camp girl!
    Re:
    on Monday, July 2, 2012 at 8:16 pm
    oh HOW God knows when to come in!

    Guess what?

    I'm leaving off to the youth retreat from church, tomorrow.

    This article is so so so so so super duper true! And it possibly saved me. God is amazing :)
    w.w.j.d
    this is such a encouragement...
    on Tuesday, July 3, 2012 at 6:57 am
    This year i'm going in camp and i will be a counselor and as a camper ..i have been in christian's camps 5 times and i have had a great time but the problem was that i always felt like this and some times was really depressing ...i will try not to feel in the same way and to grow in my faith ..thanks for sharing..GOD BLESS YOU :)
    Emily
    Yes
    on Tuesday, July 3, 2012 at 11:46 am
    Next year I will have fun at camp and then go home and read my bible and listen to God even if i'm not at camp.
    Flora Caroline
    BWSC!
    on Tuesday, July 3, 2012 at 8:28 pm
    I went to the Biblical Worldview Student Conference last month, not exactly "church camp" I guess, but the closest I think I'll come, well, this year anyway. It was truly one of the best weeks of my life, I made so many new friends, met so many awesome speakers, as well as making many wonderful memories. I can't wait 'til next year, but until then I have enough notes to re-read and ideas to re-think to keep me plenty busy until BWSC 2013!
    kelsey
    its so true
    on Thursday, July 5, 2012 at 2:25 pm
    I've been going to Fuge camps for the last 4 years and always have an unbelieveably close connection to God while I'm there. This past week I spent at Fuge and on Wednesday night I told my youth group about how I felt that God was pulling me toward missions. My youth pastor automaticailly jumped on it and said, "Kelsey, you have to pursue that, you can't just say that then get home and go back to your life before." What he said, and this article really impacted me, so thank you! You've given me another reason to look for different mission opprotunities!
    C
    @Jemma
    on Thursday, July 5, 2012 at 3:36 pm
    Just said a prayer for your dog. :) <3
    Jennifer
    Chey and Jemma
    on Thursday, July 5, 2012 at 4:58 pm
    Thanks, Chey, for the extra advice. That's a good thought.
    P.S. And Jemma, I'll be praying for Charlie. My dog, Mandie, had heart worms a couple years ago, so I know how it feels. I hope Charlie does as well as Mandie did.
    Aubrey
    wow
    on Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 8:01 pm
    Wow this is so cool cuz I literally just got home from camp, I opened up my email and TA DA! i see this! Its really cool and helpful!!!
    K
    Re:
    on Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 12:19 pm
    I totally agree!! when you are on the mountaintop, it is so easy to get caught up in the emotion of it all (especially as girls) and forget what is the true cause of it. when i was younger, i went to camp with my church and my dad was there also. i started having the mountain top experience, and i asked him why i felt different here than at home. He said it was because i was studying the Word every day, because i was hearing the Word preached every day, and because i was surrounded by other Christians. My Youth Pastor then talked about how instead of having a spiritual high, we should gain spiritual maturity and bring home what we have learned--build those healthy habits. it is not easy to do, but getting yourself into those habits will help you to continue to be close to God in a true relationship and not just feel an emotional experience that fades away.
    Thanks LYWB!!
    Jemma
    Answered Pray for Charlie
    on Friday, July 13, 2012 at 6:06 pm
    Thank you everyone who prayed for Charlie, we took him to the vet and they gave him the required vaccination. He had to stay there for a few days, but he's been back home for a week now and is back to his old self. Praise God for his healing!

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