Reflections on Camp McCall

This past Monday-Wednesday I took the two older boys to Camp McCall for "Lad Camp." We had a blast flying down the Sky Glide Zip Line, going on a creek walk, climbing down into a gorge to play in the Little Waterfall (where the water temp was one degree above freezing), shooting BB guns, and risking our life on the Swing. I'll post some videos when I get them loaded onto youtube.

I just thought I'd record a couple of reflections from out time. First, shared experiences with our kids create memories that can last a lifetime. We got to create a few memories at Camp McCall, but my hope is that those are deposited away into all of our memories so that years from now we can sit back and reminisce, "Remember when...." Second, going to camp forced (not in a bad way) me to spend quantity time with my boys. Quantity time leads to quality time. I think we had some good quality time.

My final observation is kind of sad. I think Camp McCall is great. They have great facilities (even though they are pretty rustic). They have great staff. They have great food. The downfall is that it's an RA camp. Most of you reading this will have no idea what an RA is. It stands for Royal Ambassadors and it is a program within the Southern Baptist Convention for teaching missions to boys. I think it's a GREAT thing to teach missions. I just think that RA's is outdated, especially for new churches like Hub City. I think that McCall could still be a missions and adventure camp, but it would really help to lose the RA label (at least for some of the summer) to make it more relevant to those of us in the church planting world reaching people who are unchurched or dechurched. Camp McCall is too great of a resource and opportunity to let fade away, but I fear it might be headed in that direction if it's focus stays on insiders.