Ep. 21 - The One Where We Go To Camp (Part 1)

I was skipping down the hallway dressed like a hamster. I'm 53 years old — and I love getting to do this 'cause it keeps me young.

Camp season is here. In this special episode of The Leader Lounge, Chris and Emily  kick off a three-part series for leaders getting ready to take kids to camp. This first installment is the big-picture conversation; your walk with Jesus, thinking like a leader instead of a camper, why relationships are central, how to honor the surprise and the flow of the week, and practically what to pack and how to prepare. 

Chris and Emily share their own stories from WyldLife and Young Life camps. A must-listen for first-time camp leaders, returning leaders, and anyone in youth ministry preparing kids for a week away.

"When I get on the bus on the way home, I wanna be completely physically exhausted because I've gone all out the entire week being in it with kids."

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• Emily's reminder to not neglect your time with the Lord during a packed camp week
• Praying before camp, and during club, during the talk, all day long
• What it means to think like a leader, not a camper (especially for high school leaders)
• The three types of leaders: the buddy, the authoritarian, and the adult friend — and why the middle one is what kids actually need
• Why Young Life calls it "leader-centered camping" and how everything at camp is designed to put leaders with kids
• "Pray for no wasted time," making the most of lines, walks, and in-between moments
• Cabin time ground rules: everyone on the floor, same level, safe space, and how to handle disclosures
• "OGK — Only God knows": honoring the surprise of camp without spoiling the wow factor
• Why the flow of a Young Life camp week intentionally slows down toward the end of the week
• Bringing extras for special nights so no kid feels left out
• The backpack vacuum, the goldfish, and the ants - Chris's unforgettable cabin-time story
• Chris's final encouragement: go all out, no matter how old you are

FOR YOUTH LEADERS

• Build in non-negotiable time with the Lord at camp; wake up early, sit on your bunk while kids get ready for bed, whatever it takes. Camp is exhausting; lean on him more, not less.
• Be the adult friend, not the buddy or the authoritarian.
• Set cabin-time ground rules out loud the first night, including the disclosure rule ("if it's about your safety or someone else's, we have to tell someone who can help"). Don't promise total confidentiality.
• Honor the surprise. Don't spoil the wow factor for first-time campers — and have a conversation with your second-time campers about keeping the magic for the new ones.
• Walk onto the bus home physically wrecked. If you have energy left at the end of the week, you weren't all the way in it.

Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our's.

Contact Us: leaderlounge@gmail.com

Emily's Instagram

Chris' Instagram

Chris' Substack - Love, Life, and Lampoonery

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is the Leader Lounge Podcast, a place where we have conversations about scripture and ministry in hopes of helping us all put God's word in our hearts and in our minds so that we can share it with others. And I was skipping down the hallway, dressed like a hamster. I'm 53 years old. And I just thought, I love getting to do this because it keeps me young. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Leader Lounge Podcast. My name is Chris Storms, and I'm your co-host. I'm Emily Storms. Also your other co-host. Yep. And we're so excited to be with you today. This is a special new type of podcast that we're doing. So so far, all of our podcast episodes have been Bible stories, but we are young life and wildlife leaders, and we're getting ready to take kids to camp. And so we are doing a three-part series on camp. And so today we're gonna I'm gonna throw out some categories for you, Emily, and for me. We'll both we'll talk through them. But um, I'm just gonna throw out like a word or phrase, and then I want you to tell me what it makes you think of with camp and um in terms of the the idea behind this would be that somebody who's going to camp as a leader can listen to this um to kind of get prepared for camp. And um, so the first one is when you go to camp as a leader, um your walk with Jesus is important, right? So you what does that make you think of when I say your walk with Jesus?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Um I think just remembering the why, why we go to camp. I think some kids that go are going for so many different reasons. Um maybe their parents sign them up, maybe they just want something fun to do over the summer or a random weekend in the school year. But we know as leaders that like the whole purpose is to introduce kids to the gospel and help them get closer in their walk with Jesus if they're already following Jesus and just kind of see where they're at in their faith and help them experience full life. And so I think just remembering that, I also think practically not neglecting your time with the Lord when you're at camp. Young Life Camp, Wildlife Camp is so busy and packed, and you want to be with your kids the whole time, but there is so much value, and I think it's important and very necessary that you also take time away, whether that's waking up earlier or sitting in your bunk when the kids are getting ready for bed, to just really spend time just you and the Lord and not neglect that at all when you're at camp, but honestly lean on it more because camp is exhausting and it's the most fun thing ever, but it also requires a lot of you. And so I think allowing yourself time to be replenished by the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

I agree with that. That's really good. I think just to keep in mind, and you kind of this is what you alluded to, that like this is a spiritual thing, right? And I think a lot of times when we go to camp, we just get in the routine of, you know, but to really realize like there we have to pray and not just pray like you know, I love getting up early and having my quiet time in the leader lounge, and and but to be prayerful all day, you know, like sitting at club during the talk and just praying over the speaker, you know, and praying beforehand before you go to camp. Yes, that's huge. Yes, um, to make sure you're you're in a good spot and to to hold the other leaders accountable for that as well, you know, and make sure everybody is doing that. Okay, the next here's the next phrase or word is um think like a leader, not a camper.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Um, I think this one can be hard sometimes because, like we said, camp is so much and it's so much fun, and you just want to have a blast with the kids you're leading. Um, I think it also can be especially hard. I know for wildlife, like we have college leaders, we have adult leaders, we also have high school leaders. And so our high school leaders are absolutely amazing, and they're also in the stage of life where they're also going to camp as a camper. And so it's definitely a switch in um our minds of like, okay, I'm a camper when I'm in this setting, but I'm a leader in this setting. And I would say the difference is like no matter how old you are, like you're the adult in the room. Um even if even if you have like another adult, like you're still that leader, you're an adult friend for the middle schoolers, and so I think lifting them up in everything, and just like the campers are there to experience Jesus in every way possible, and it's our job to get to serve them and show them Jesus in everything, and also be the responsibility in cabin time, um in any setting, really, and help other leaders lead their kids instead of making it harder for them.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Right. Um yeah, I agree with all of that. I think and it's okay to say no to kids. Yes. We had a thing, we had a thing last night at our at our house with fifth graders. It's so much fun. And so it was like we did like a um welcome to wildlife night at our house. But there was a little boy there who I think he was a sibling of somebody, so he was a little bit younger than fifth grade, and he was standing up in the middle of your talk, and I leaned over to one of our high school age leaders and I said, Hey, tell him to sit down. And I could tell she was kind of uncomfortable doing it, but she she kind of tapped him and she's like, Hey, sit down. And he sat down. You know, it was her being an adult, but she was uncomfortable being that adult. Um, but it's okay, like it's it to step into that adult role and to to actually tell kids like, hey, this is not appropriate or this is appropriate, or you know, we're gonna do this and we're not gonna do that. And um, and so for what that means for us as leaders is to think like a leader and not a camper means to me means that we're kind of setting the standard, we're setting the boundaries, we're we're being the adult friend. And that's what we, you know, that's kind of how we do this training. There's three kinds of leaders. There's the buddy leader who is just like the kids, right? He's the one or she's the one who's like doing all the pranks and just acting like a kid and trying to be funny and kind of making trying to get people to like him. All right. And then there's the authoritarian leader on the other side, and that's the one who's like yelling at the kids to be quiet or go to bed or whatever it is, and that doesn't work either. Um, we want to be adult friends. We want to come alongside our our teenage friends and uh but be adults and kind of guide them. Um and so there's times where we can be have fun, and there's times where we need to be serious, but we need to not let that pendulum swing too far either way, if that makes sense. All right, the next one is relationships are central.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

I think back to what someone told me before camp one time of just praying for no wasted time. And I think like when you're at camp, there's so many fun things to do. I think this applies, this applies to any camp, not just Young Life. Like, there's maybe some rides that you can go on at Young Life Camp. There's typically a giant swing or a ropes course sometimes at Southwind specifically, which is where we get to take our middle school kids. Um, we have like kayaks and canoes and lake things to do. And there's also like a snack bar. So there's times when you're waiting in lines or walking to a place, and I think just making the most of every moment of like instead of just standing quietly with this kid while you wait in line, like have a conversation with them. Ask them, you can ask them about their lives at home if you're not super close with them back there. But usually we bring kids who we already have relationships with. And so ask them how they're feeling about camp. Ask them about their thoughts about the club talk, just anything that you can to continually build deeper relationships. And camp's an easier place to go deeper instead of uh shallow conversations, like how's your day at school? But like we can go deeper at camp. Um, and it's just more natural to do that. I also think intentionally being with the kids, it's so easy. I know our um leader community is super close, and so it's easy to want to be with our friends and just send the kids and be like, go have fun in the pool. I'm gonna sit here and talk with my best friend. But in reality, we should be taking time to be with the Lord, taking time to be filled up, but then being with the kids the whole time pretty much. And it's five days, it's maybe seven days, it's not that long in the grand scheme of things. And so just like pouring your energy into them and wanting to be with them. And we call it being an oh-boy leader of just like someone asked you to do something. I remember weekend camp, one of our leaders, Isabel, was sitting talking with this girl and she was like, Will you go in the pool with me? And Isabel's fully clothed, didn't even bring a bathing suit because the pool was freezing. And she jumped right in and went down the slide with her because Lucy wanted to, and it was just the coolest thing ever. And I think that that's just a great example of like being all in with your kids all the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Yeah. And Young Life Camp, we call it leader centered camping, which might seem weird to somebody who from the outside, but when you really understand how Young Life functions, you know, leader, it's leaders spending time with kids, right? And so if you go to, I I love I'm I'm gonna be an adult guest host this summer, and I'm so excited to take adults and get to show them camp and to point out one of my favorite things to point out is how everything at camp is intentionally designed to set up leaders to be with kids. So at Southwind, for example, if you look out at the Adirondack chairs that are there, there's always there's they're in pairs of two or three, you know, and and so it's all designed for everything, every little aspect. And even the games we play, the the you know, the the rides that we have, all of that stuff. I think when I think traditionally, I've been to like traditional camp and um with adults as leaders, you know, and um, you know, like a church camp or whatever. And what ends up happening is the kids have all the fun while the adults are on the outside, kind of watching them. And what we get to do is different. Like we get to lead them, we get to be in it with them. And so that's one encouragement I would give. If you're going to camp as a first-time leader, or even if you're just listening to this and you've been a lot, just to keep in mind, like it's we need to be in it with them. And um, and so do everything with the kids. I tell, I tell my leaders, like, when I when I get on the bus on the way home, I want to be completely physically exhausted because I've gone all out the entire week, you know, um being in it with kids. Talk a little bit about cabin times.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Um, yeah, if you're listening and you're not from like a young life background, our cabin times is just what we call the time that we get to be together with our girls, guys, um, in the cabin and usually directly after a club talk, sometimes later that night, and just talk about what did we hear? What are your thoughts? Um, and open the Bible together. I think something really important is to keep in mind that sometimes you have a cabin of kids who aren't friends and don't all know each other, and there can be these odd dynamics. And so I think at cabin time it's so important to get everybody on the same level, on the same page, even physically. So, like nobody's sitting on a top bunk, nobody's under a bed, like we're all um on the floor in a circle together. We can all see each other, everyone feels seen and known and heard. And then I think that first cabin time, it's funny, like head leaders at camp will usually tell us like, just try to have five minutes if you can, because the first night of camp is always crazy fun, exciting, super late, usually. And so the kids want to go to bed. But it's important to set aside at least five or ten minutes to sit down, explain how cabin time is gonna go. And some ground rules I usually lay are we're gonna sit on the floor together, we are going to listen to each other. This is a safe space, so we're not going to share what someone else says outside. But practically speaking, I do add in that if someone shares something that might be dangerous to them or to someone else, like we're going to, I forget the exact wording I use. Um we're not going to tell everybody, but we're going to tell someone trusted who can get help and they will be involved in that situation, just to not shock someone if they were to share something. And I had said we're not going to share anything in this circle, and then I have to. But yeah, practically speaking, that's something I would definitely add in.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Did you say kids want to go to bed? Because that's not my experience.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

My girls, okay, kids want to shower and then sit in bed and talk.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Um girls and guys' experience at camp is quite different, also. It's always funny to wake up and have our like leader meeting in the morning sometimes and be like, how is Cavit time? And the girls are like, It was so fun, like it was so sweet. This isn't always the case, but the guys are like, it was insane. We were up until 3 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Like, yeah, so funny. Yeah. All right. Here's here's one honor the surprise and the flow of the week.

unknown 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

I think this applies to leaders. This also applies to having a conversation with second-time campers because there's so many surprises and it's so fun. And it can be different from summer to summer, but there's also some stuff that's oftentimes included every year. And we want it to be a surprise. Something I actually worked at Windshape camps all last summer, and something we would say is OGK or only God knows. And the girls would get so annoyed. But it was really funny of like they would ask, like, what are we doing? What are we doing? And we're like, OGK, only God knows. I usually say, like, oh, that's really that's really hard to say. But camp is more fun when there's a wow factor and they're surprised and they're excited. And so as a leader, I think the information that I would give my kids if I know, girls like to know what to wear a lot of the time. So it's like, oh, if you know they're gonna get messy, or if they're gonna need to be running, like I do tell them, hey, you probably want to change shoes, or hey, you probably maybe want to wear a different outfit, or would mention that there might be some messiness involved just because they could get sad or annoyed if an outfit gets messed up. But yeah, second-time campers, just letting them know the excitement that they had is what we want the new campers to have as well. When it comes to flow of the week, Young Life's very intentional of having a lot of activity at the beginning of the week and then slowing it down and lifting up and glorifying the gospel towards the end of the week, more so gospel's glorified the whole time, but giving leaders an option or a chance to have one-on-one time with every kid and just talk about their faith and talk about um their thoughts about camp and about the Lord. And so I think really honoring that, like have that one-on-one time with kids, Young Life's offering it to you. Be all in and crazy at the beginning and still at the end, be all in the whole time. But yeah, does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

That's great. Yeah, you did a good job of explaining that. You're doing a great job, by the way, Emily. I don't feel like there's much to add. Thank you. So um let's talk about this. What how to prepare practically before you go, and what to bring as a leader? Like, what are some things you would say?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Pray. Practically.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Pray a lot.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

A lot. Um, I would say rest up. You're gonna be exhausted. Um, what to bring? Bring everything. A packing list would be provided, so bring everything. Bring for young life camps, most of them specifically, bring sheets, pillow, towel. I would say bring a bathing suit, even if it's freezing weekend camp. Kids will want you to go. It's fun to bring like rainy day activities, I think, especially Florida in the summer afternoons, rain often. And if kids are stuck in a cabin, that can be a lot and overwhelming. So games are fun, board games, card games, bracelet making is very camp. So that's always fun. Some leaders, there's also different opinions on this, bring snacks. Some leaders are absolutely no snacks. You lean more no snacks. Yeah. During cabin time.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Oh, I can't stand the crinkling of if you know your kids can handle it.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Snacks sometimes help focus, sometimes it distracts everything. So just know your kids, know the cabin.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Um there was one time, Emily, when we had we had ants in our cabin. Oh my gosh. And uh we were having cabin time. We're sitting around a circle, and there's ants, and so it's distracting. So I go out to get find a head leader, I get a head leader. He comes in, he was wearing one of those backpack vacuums. Um, and so he goes to vacuum up something like that where the ants were, and he's kind of pointing the vacuum at a kid, kind of where uh in front of this kid, and he turns on the vacuum, but the hose was on was not on the vacuum side, it was on the blower side. Oh so it blew like I mean like instantly, like dust and goldfish, you know, like the the pretzel goldfish all over this kid. Like, I mean, it was I I can't even describe it, it was one of my funniest things.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

But um that's so great.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

It was uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Also, if there's special nights at camp that you know about, bring something for that, obviously. Maybe even consider bringing extra um if that's a possibility for you, just because sometimes kids don't have anything and they can feel left out. And so always be willing to obviously give up whatever you brought, even if you're super excited about it. Give it up for a kid so they don't feel left out and instead you feel left out, but that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yeah, that's great advice. All right. I think that that's basically it for this one. So we're we're this one was more kind of general, like thinking about big picture um camp stuff. The next episode, we're gonna get into kind of the nitty-gritty, and the plan is just to go through every like location kind of at camp, and we're gonna like give some some thoughts and things about so like the dining hall or like cabin or the club room. And so hop back on for our next our next podcast. I'm just gonna end real quick with a uh an encouragement, and you already said this the oh boy leader deal, but um go into camp with a ton of energy, expecting to um to go all out. I mean, have fun. One of the things that I love about young life, I think the uh the the other day we we were doing a thing and I was dressed up as a hamster, and um I finished and I was skipping down the hallway, like we left the the group of kids in the room we were in, and I was skipping down the hallway, dressed like a hamster. I'm 53 years old. And I just thought, I love getting to do this because it keeps me young. You know what I mean? And and so uh however old you are, if you're in high school or if you're in your 50s or 60s and you're a young life or wildlife leader, just go in and go all out and have fun. So would you pray us out?

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yes. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for camp. Thank you for um whatever camp these listeners are involved in, whether that's Young Life Camp or any other camp, I just pray that you would bring um the gospel to the forefront of our mind the entire time we're at camp and preparing for camp. And um just remind us consistently that you are why we do what we do. Um, I pray for anybody preparing actively to go to camp that you would just provide them with energy and joy and um passion for you and for the kids that they're bringing. Um, I thank you so much for the intentional way Young Life sets up their camps to glorify you and to lead kids to you. We love you so much, Lord. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Amen.