Camp Issues

Our church attends a church camp that I think is really worthwhile. Lives are changed there and friends are made for a lifetime. I met Shannon at that camp when we were 15 and I've been on staff there for 10 years or more. This is where I want my boys to go to church camp in coming years.

But I'm concerned about the way things are behind the scenes. Nothing seems to be progressing and we're steadily losing the support of both individual volunteers and supporting churches – mostly due to burnout, inter-personal conflicts, and lack of leadership. The students don't see this but the staff does. The pool of ministers that want to help is shrinking and it's difficult getting them to come back. As great as the programming is at the camp, the organization itself seems to be slowly sinking.

I fear two things: first, that the camp will slowly go under if we don't do something; and second, that it may be too late to do anything about it.

My instinct as a minister is to continue to try to work with what we've got. Let's make things work and find a place where everyone can fit in. But I find myself repeatedly pleading with people to "stick with it" and "give it another chance," sometimes unsuccessfully. Someday, we're going to run out of help.

Personally, I want to stick it out until the bitter end (which I hope never comes). But I can't help but feel a responsibility to prevent this happening in the first place; to refocus the faithful back on the task at hand and to put an end to the factors that are causing division. The problem is that it sounds like a suicide mission: if it's already too late, the guy that tries to take the helm in the end looks like the one who drove the ship aground. If it's not too late, it still could involve hurting people who are at the root of the problem. And I don't want to make enemies; I want to live at peace with everyone, as much as it depends on me.

It sure feels like nothing will happen. Nothing will be fixed. No one will be confronted. And nothing will be salvaged. I'm feel like it's a lose/lose situation and I'm just sick about it.