LEADership Camp is Legit

This year's camp was incredible. Hard to beat last year's, but this year might have.

LEADership Camp Director is about 10% of my role with FCA. It is the best ministry I get to be a part of throughout the year.

I am blessed to work with incredible staff to make this camp what it is. We have Tanja as Registrar, Huddle Leader Coorindators in Amanda and Draper, program guys Jonny P and Erik, Competitions Coordinators Ben & Adam, good friend and assistant Director Russ, "The Other FCABrent" who does so much that most of us don't realize, Emily who organizes all of our worship and Scott from UNW who makes all the logistics so simple.

This is the purest example of a team effort. I'm blessed. Thank you all.

Camp wouldn't be camp without these 24 huddle leaders. Nearly all of them in college. Some of them with an FCA background, others not. Some having come to this very camp as a camper, but most not. These are the ones most in need of your prayers during camp. They are on the frontlines, 24x7 for five days. Their role is so demanding, and they do it like champions. We don't pay them anything (though I'd love for that to be different). One leader says every year, "I'd pay to come here to serve at this camp."

I shared with the huddle leaders during training, history is littered with organizations, missions, companies who began with a clear and determined focus on Jesus, but over time faded away to looking nothing like their founders intended. Not so with FCA. We staff and volunteers are called to guard the Gospel. It's not enough to preach, teach, train and disciple if we have a false or skewed gospel, so we guard it with all we have. We chose this year to make Gospel Clarity one of our key targets. We had Pastor Sam from Eau Claire come in and open the camp with a message explaining what the Gospel is and what a Gospel-centered culture is. I love these notes that one of our campers took during Sam's talk:

We were blessed to have six huddle coaches from MN and WI join us for Camp this year. Parker from Woodbury served as a huddle leader. Hannah from White Bear Lake and the four WI huddle coaches helped out in several capacities while also getting the benefit of listening in on the teaching sessions.

Camp feedback from staff teammates, huddle coaches and campers:

• From a camper: "Hey Brent! I just wanted to send a quick email to say thank you! Thank you for all the work you put into this camp. It was my first time going and was a life changing experience for me. This camp allowed me to open up and share my testimony for the first which allowed me to connect with so many people. I could just tell God was moving so much at this camp and I am so thankful for it! So to you and your staff and everyone else, thank you so so much! "

• "God is so amazing, and camp was SO GOD FILLED! Even simple interactions with you and other staff… you can just tell, “these people have been with the Lord. Can’t WAIT for next year!"'

• "It was a great success, praise God!!!! thanks for all YOU do Brent! "

• From our speaker, Fe Comeaux, chaplain coordinator for the WNBA, Houston Dash chaplain in the PWSL and Houston area staff member for FCA: "It was such an amazing experience to be with you this weekend, thank you for your hospitality and welcoming spirits, it was an unbelievable opportunity and grateful for your trust. You guys are doing an amazing job with this camp. It's thoughtful, intentional, focused, and detailed. If your desire is to hit the mark on creating kingdom builders, you all did that around every turn. What an amazing team! Thanks again for letting be a part of it."

• "Camp has turned into an amazing blessing for many! Let's continue to develop!"

• "I’ve heard from many that Leadership Camp was tremendous and from my perspective it looked great. I like many of the little adjustments you’ve made over the years – one speaker, practice times, My story, a planning team, etc. Great job"