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Teen EXTREME Camp

176 Comments

Here’s an ad on the back page of the Sword of the Lord for PCC’s 2011 Teen Extreme Camp. Because nothing says “extreme” to a young person like dressing up in culottes and a helmet and riding on a Segway.

176 thoughts on “Teen EXTREME Camp”

  2. What’s the deal with these fully-clothed teens surfing and water-sliding?

    Even in the Bible, people took their clothes off to bathe.

    I was also surprised to read that bowling and racquetball are “extreme sports.” I didn’t realize just how daring I am.

    Anybody want to play some extreme Scrabble tonight?

    1. I was just in a store run by the Amish, and they were selling an inflatable raft for a swimming pool, but they had the woman’s body in the picture on the box completely obscured by spray paint! All you could see was her head and hands resting on the float. The rest of her was obliterated under blue paint.

        1. Usualy it’s the fundamentalist men who are ‘dirty’, they just like to blame it on the girls. πŸ™

      2. now that’s just hilarious..lol I thought you were gonna say the lady was dressed in Amish garb or something lol

    2. I was just thinking the same thing! I am surprised they didn’t list miniature golf as an extreme sport.
      Perhaps they don’t know what extreme sports are.

      Point of inquiry: is body-checking allowed in extreme Scrabble?

    3. The swim wear regulations are particularly amusing when you realize all the water sports are going to be also subject to mixed bathing rules (now allowed). I’m 99% certain.

  5. Does it strike anyone else as funny that both a Pope and a Bishop are speaking at that camp?

    After a few years of going to camps like this I began to dread them. I knew from experience that all the fun stuff shown on the brochures was so heavily regulated and the lines we so long I’d only get to do those games a few minutes and in a situation so safe I couldn’t possibly have fun. Tubing at the Wilds? How about carrying a tube down a rocky stream. Swimming at Woodlands? How about a condescending counselor who wouldn’t let me jump off the high-dive even though I’ve been swimming since before I could read. Horseback riding at the Bill Rice Ranch? How about a long, slow trot through the woods behind a flatulent pony.

    Nothing sucks quite as much as manufactured fun.

    3. Does it strike anyone else as funny that both a Pope and a Bishop are speaking at that camp?

      πŸ˜† I didn’t even notice that one until you mentioned it! If that’s not the “appearance of evil,” I don’t know what is! πŸ˜‰

    4. The Fundy school I used to teach at had a Spirit Week, and the staff always had loooooong meetings describing these games we were going to play. The games occasionally worked well, but not usually in the way they were planned, like the water games where the kids. didn’t. get. wet. Seriously. On a tropical island, in the 90 degree heat, to play with water and not get wet … that’s just mean.

      But my favorite part of those meetings was the inevitable reminder from our administrator that we needed to “fake happy” to the kids during the week because we needed to show them that being a Christian makes you happy . . .

      1. You mention very long explanations… At the WILDS, we counselors were instructed to explain a camp game to our campers 3 times before they actually went to the field and heard the “official” explanation. Not that competition wasn’t the main thing or anything.

        I was a counselor for the BLUE team, and our team was consistently losing the competition every week. Finally, our lead counselor (and this was back in 2009 😈 ) got us all together and said that the reason we were losing may have had to do with our spiritual lives. 😐 Not that the team’s losing would reflect back to the lead counselor or anything. πŸ˜›

        1. If winning a game depends on your spiritual life, most teams are wasting their time practicing. They should just pray to win.

    5. oh yes to this and then some. Wilds camp: every activity was 10 minutes of actual activity followed by no less than 45 minutes of indoctrination, from beginning prayers to being yelled at TO CROSS OVER THAT SHAKY LOG OVER THE RAVINE NOW, FOR JESUS!!!!!! To being forced to play after an 18 hour bus ride from NJ with NO SLEEP in a weird giant ball soccer game and when I couldn;t keep up from fatigue, have my dedication to Christ seriously questioned by some punk assed 20 yr old BJU student and their underlings to not being able to get a shower for two days because shower time was 20 mins long followed by the big nightly chapel and there was 90 girls and 4 showers and then complaining and then AGAIN having my dedication to Christ and the saftey of my soul brought into question by bipolar BJU cabin mother to NOT throwing in the stupid stick to dedicate my life to Christ because I friggin HATED these people and once again, having my soul’s destination brought into question to returning home to a detailed report to my mom and church leadership and their kids and being shunned by them all. The End. F. Fundy camp.

        3. P.s. You forgot the “i” in “Georgie” I’m sorry but first your friend tries to get me to work at the WILDS and then you forget how to spell my name? You Calvinists are all alike πŸ˜‰

      3. Ah the wilds… The thing that chapped my ass the most about it was the mandatory hour long devotions in the late morning. What did they call that, “God and I time?” I hated the Bill Rice Ranch 1000x more than the wilds though. Having to wear jeans while playing outside sports in 100 degree heat with 90% humidity. I thought I was gonna die.

        1. I hated the Bill Rice Ranch 1000x more than the wilds though.

          Ditto. I have to admit a lot of fun memories from the Wilds, despite the mandatory devotions, etc. But I think it’s telling that all of those memories involve my friends and I–without counselors–playing games, doing the ropes course, and generally doing our own thing.

        2. You just had to bring up BRR. So here was our family experience. My mom and dad took a church group there when I was 11. Since I hadn’t turned 12 yet, BRR wouldn’t let me stay there. My dad took me to a camp owned by Tennessee Temple (which was a whole other can of hygienically-challenged worms). As for BRR, Mom and Dad both said the dorms were filthy. And then there were these Fritos. The Fritos were served at dinner and lunch daily. They were served in bowls, and then bagged back up and the end of the meal, and then served again at the next meal. Everyone in their group got food poisoning that week. The only edible meal they had the entire week was the “trail ride breakfast.” Needless to say, that was the last trip to BRR.

        3. I went to the BRR for years. I honestly don’t remember doing anything except sitting in the pews and a few breaks in between hanging out at the old west town before we went back in to hear preaching again.
          Got a tape of the Kelly Sisters there at the back table. whoo hoo.

        4. “Everyone in their group got food poisoning that week. The only edible meal they had the entire week was the Ò€œtrail ride breakfast.Ò€”

          I forgot about how bad the food was! I remember thinking the same thing about that breakfast.

          “I honestly donÒ€ℒt remember doing anything except sitting in the pews and a few breaks in between hanging out at the old west town before we went back in to hear preaching again.”

          That’s about all I remember too – my main memory of the one time I went to BRR was trying to impress this girl from my youth group. It didn’t work. 😳

        5. You enjoyed your time without a counselor?!?! πŸ˜• We were explicitly told NOT to leave your campers alone, but hang out with at least ONE. They only had 1 week of No-Wi-Fi camp when they could hear the Word preached by Tom Farrell, have God-and-I Time with the counselor, and sing majestic hymns. After that week, they’re pretty much on their own… When we counselors talked about “going back home” we meant full exposure to pornography and Calvinism 😈 . This is why we needed to be a leech to at least one camper.

        6. Oh wait, I do remember something besides sermons and cowboy town. Climbing the steep hill to look at the biggest private shrine east of the Mississippi. Lordy that was gaudy. Big BIG crosses over Rev John R Rice and his wife’s tombs. It was confusing if it was supposed to look like the crosses on Golgotha or just really big crosses over the grave sites.We were encouraged from the pulpit to go up and look at them.

      4. I meant to add that I didn’t throw a stick in the fire either on my last trip to the Wilds. That night, after “lights out” I got called outside our cabin by our counsellor.
        “Hey, Seth, I noticed you didn’t throw a stick into the fire tonight.”
        “Yeah, I heard Rand say how we needed to give up our rock music and surrender to God, so I didn’t do it because I don’t see anything wrong with rock music.”
        …guess how that went…after about 20 minutes of going back and forth with Scripture, and explaining to him how my church and parents didn’t care about it, he prayed with me and we went to bed. πŸ˜‰ (Note: this was after we left our Fundy church, but before I went to BJU πŸ˜‰ )

    7. Actualy I like John bishop:) he’s alot more down to earth. Still preaches crazy sermons lol but he’s pretty cool personality wise 😎

    9. OMG! The flatulent pony remark made me choke on my drink! It reminded me of the episode on Seinfeld were Kramer fed beano to a horse that was pulling a carriage and it farted the whole time making the customer’s ill! LOL!

      On a more serious note, my teenage son was supposed to go to a festival with his younger brothers a couple weeks ago. It is a day long affair and includes lots of “fun” activities along with preaching. It’s a very long day that goes from 8 in the morning to 6 at night. Anyhow, he refused to go (and as a result the younger brothers wouldn’t go either). I reminded him how many “fun” things they would be doing and he informed me it was all a big scam to get them to hear preaching because most of the “fun” advertised last time either didn’t exist or the lines were really long so he didn’t get to do them. :sigh: πŸ™

  6. I must be rotten becasue when I saw the Segway circled, I thought it was going to be a reference to the Segway company owner riding his Segway over a cliff 😯

    3. That was what came to my mind too! For the owner, riding a Segway WAS an extreme sport–the most extreme in fact.

    4. And apparently this is causing governments to re-examine the safety of Segways, apparently to determine whether people should still be allowed to ride them. Did they never hear of cars going over a cliff? It makes me think Fundies have nothing on the government when it comes to ridiculous rules.

  7. Several years ago I was involved with putting together a teen camp with the director of a “Nation wide ministry for troubled teens” . The director (who is no longer on speaking terms with me because I wouldn’t preach against myspace) wanted Ken Baldwin to come and preach. He called and called but Mr. Baldwin never called back. One day Mr. Director came to me and told me that Kenney would be there and was all excited.

    Well, the prized pastor showed up all right. Brought his teens and everything….and ran his own camp! He kept his teens separated from ours for everything but the preeeechin services.

    Mr. Director made many excuses. They were all very lame.

    1. Ken Baldwin the Washington, DC area Ken Baldwin? He spoke to our teens for the AACS Youth Legislative Training Conference when I was an intern for the AACS. He is an awesome pianist.

      Why do you think he kept them separate?

      1. Wasn’t sure at the time but I’m guess it may be the same reasons that Mr. Director and I are no longer on (his) speaking terms.

        At the time I was a youth group leader and our group made up almost 60% of all the kids at the camp. I just don’t think he liked my kids. He had church kids, I had street kids.

        As for his piano playing skills he was very good. In all honesty he was a pretty good preacher as well, at least I always enjoyed him.

    1. I love how Fundyland churches aren’t supposed to look like the world, but there’s an awful lot of them out there whose ministers aren’t wearing ties on their websites.

  10. Wait a minute….is the person in the skating photo and the wall climber on the left wearing jeans???? The devil’s sackcloth? How unscriptural. I’m sure Paul never wore jeans when he skating.

    And what about the camp speakers? Not one tie between the 5 of them. I guess that is to give the appearance that this camp is so extreme, the speakers can’t wear a tie.

        2. @ Susan. Yes. There are people who won’t believe snopes because the Mickelsons (who run the site and debunk all those urban legends) are “liberals”. πŸ™„

      2. πŸ˜† I had a relative in all seriousness, email me that article. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her it was the best laugh I’d had in days.

  13. Wow. Sounds…extreme =/ But really, for a camp like that, how much can you expect?

    OK, so it’s worldly and evil for girls to wear pants at any time, yet such unladylike pursuits as surfing and rock climbing are just great. It makes perfect sense to me, I don’t know what your problem is…

  14. Dumb question but what is the young jean wearing rock climbing man wearing on his feet? Are those boots? Maybe its the angle/lightning of the picture but if he is those are NOT safe to be wearing on a rock wall!

    There is this radical concept out there for young people who want to experience this sort of thing in a safe setting. Its called SCOUT CAMP.

  15. Ah, yes. EXTREME camping.
    All of these fun activities where, if you’re lucky, you have about 30 minutes to an hour each day to enjoy before you are required to go to some team game, swim testing, afternoon picnic, “hard preachin'”, etc.

  16. I’m not convinced there’s any time for any of those listed fun activities what with that line-up of speakers. =P And sometimes I wonder how fundies approve of any “fun” at all during youth camp. My ex-pastor would grudgingly consent to us going to a fellow fundy church’s youth camp every summer, but would take every opportunity to trash all the teens attending (including us) for being more excited about fun than about getting on fire for God. Try enjoying camp with that hanging over your head! Ha

    1. For many of us, it’s definitely more fun to BE the speaker than to be listening to the speaker. (Note I said “speaker” not “preacher” because I’m a woman! πŸ™‚ )

  17. XTREME!!!1!!
    I remember the days of XTREME preaching, XTREME pizza and soda in the fellowship hall, and XTREME mandatory fun to keep teenagers from making eye-babies with each other.
    “Who knows, teens, maybe next year if you love Jesus enough, we may let you have ONE XTREEEME HOUR of free time before the three-hour-hard-preachin’.”

    Amazing how fundies always seem to steal their teen outreach materials whatever advertising campaigns sold snack foods ten years prior. πŸ™‚

  18. Teen camps, VBS, Cola Wars and all other “evangelistic” endeavors that are marketed as F-U-N, are nothing more than a Bait & Switch. And yet fundies *hate* pragmatism and seeker-sensitive movements. Please. πŸ™„

    2. F is for Fire, that burns down the whole camp!
      U’s for Uranium-BOMBS!
      N is for No Survivors!
      When we indulge in Fundy Camp!
      😈 :mrgreen:

  20. I was at a water park in Wisconsin dells this summer and a whole group of Amish kids were on an outing…all the women were wearing ( I promise you) full length blue dresses while going down the wedgy inducing extreme straight down water slide…their dresses acted as a parachute on the way down. πŸ˜€

  21. I like the line “…and life-changing bible preaching”.
    I’m not sure they realize that the life-changing may not be what they had in mind. Almost all of us here have been exposed to “life-changing” preaching (or so we were told, especially by the traveling evangalist) and look how we turned out πŸ˜›

    1. I opened this site, but went and did something else for a few minutes. When I came back and saw the post, I thought I WAS on Failblog!

  23. I wonder if they will be having a camp fire for everyone to throw their “here are the worldly things I am going to sacrifice for God’s service” sticks into?
    Talk about Wild, extreme, camp(I’m on…)fire for gid, performance sanctification. oh, yeah! πŸ™„

    Camp Manipulation!
    You will assimilate, resistance is futile!

    1. I always wondered where the bad tapes and cds came from when we all burned them at the end of the week at campfire.

  24. I saw the skirt people in the library today. Apparently it’s ok for them to borrow movies from there. The thing about the goofy dress-code is, that it makes “the world” indeed watch your behavior. I admit I tried to peek at what they were renting.

    1. Yep, I agree with that one – I always felt like I was part of a cult when I went out on Saturdays to Walmart in my khaki skirt, t-shirt, and keds.

  25. Never been into the whole “EXTREME” thing. Except maybe the occasional extreme nap or extreme flesh-eating disease

    3. Hey Reader Mo, I wasn’t here before you left but I do enjoy reading your comments on this site. When did you get back?

      Or possibly an extreme meal? with prayer taking up most of the time you really have to gobble fast.

    8. Reader Mo! We all told you not to pick up that candy bar from the floor and eat it! So happy to see you back, brother. Prayed for you frequently and am rejoicing at your recovery.

    9. Hey, welcome back!

      I have this feeling you’re going to manage to work “flesh eating disease” into every conversation from now on πŸ˜€

      (and I couldn’t be happier that you’re around to do so)

    10. “Hey Reader Mo, I wasnÒ€ℒt here before you left but I do enjoy reading your comments on this site.”

      The same goes for me. Good to see you back, Reader Mo!

    14. Welcome back, Reader Mo! I think all of us having been praying for you. It is great to see you back. Lord have mercy continually on your servant Reader Mo.

    20. reader mo – good to see you back in your place where you belong. After all, the SFL doors are open and you know where you are expected to be πŸ˜†

  27. I got guilted into making so many ‘decisions’ as a kid where I wasn’t even sure why I was making them. I just knew whoever stayed in their seat was ‘evil’.

  28. Sword of the Lord is going to take you off their mailing list for this Darrell. Not to mention what PCC is going to do. No more Cristmass cards from the Hortons. πŸ˜›

    Also, I recognize some of those speakers. Those kids are in for some EXTREEM guilt rides.

  30. I’m curious about why they need an indoor water park in Pensacola. Pensacola is on the real Gulf of Mexico, isn’t it? So … isn’t the real beach and the real ocean more exciting than a fake one?

    1. Because it’s always better to have your own facilities away from the rest of the world.

      Separate Separation that Separates.

  31. I see Johnny Pope and John Bishop were invited. How come I didnt get my invite to speak at this teen extreme thing. I could have took my preaching to the extreme for these young uns, gotten them all saved I would have

    your brother in Gid
    Johnny Cardinal

  32. I rarely say anything particularly nice about fundy camps, but I did have one good experience.

    Anyone else here attend Camp Joy in Wisconsin? I have to say this, that for all the forced service attendance, odd rules, “separate swimming”, fundy guilt-tripping, and insistence that showing guys your knees would biologically turn them on, we had a great time.

    We played capture the flag in the dark with flour bombs, had canoe races that ended up with accidental mixed swimming (but that was probably okay with God, since He allowed the canoes to tip), mud-pit tug o’ wars, and the best: lining up in a gym and shooting each other with rubber ball cannons almost point blank. They actually allowed us to get pretty rough sometimes, and I’m not just talking about guys, either.

    I went to snow camp at Northland when I was older, but that was wayyy lame compared to what we did at Camp Joy. IJS.

    :

    1. My church and school marched us off to Camp Joy. I thought the name was very misleading. I went voluntarily the first time because they told me it would be fun. It was a little more fun than a prison farm, I’ll give them that.

      Send a fundy high school to a fundy camp for a week and you have that super fun experience called school camp. Stuck in a cabin with boys who hated me, and harassed me constantly, and I have to shower with them too? I thought I had it made when I got out of school camp my senior year to attend The Summit instead (my dad was big on the deacon board). That turned out to be even worse, I spent a couple weeks learning how the homosexuals and the commies were destroying the sacred, God-given American culture.

      Maybe it was easier for kids who weren’t gender variant?

  35. It’s so awesome to have such extreme sports offered in a Christian atmosphere! To be able to do that is just amazing! I can’t even imagine being able to ride a Segway and feel the wind rushing in my braids.

    We go to the best and most God-centered camps all summer long (The Wilds, Northland, Bill Rice Ranch). I wish we could do it all year ’round since we’re homeschooled family. I guess we would fit school in between Big Ball Volleyball and Chapel Services.

    I will never forget trying to get a frog out of my culottes as I was swimming in the lake! Oh, and all five of my brothers got pink eye that week. I’m pretty sure, judging from the smell in the family RV, they also forgot to bathe. My father had to put in the CD of Tom Farrell’s sermon series, which has over 100 sermons on it, to take our minds off the odor.

    I am always amazed at the number of salvations there are at camp every year. And just when you think someone in your youth group is saved, they go to camp with you and REALLY get saved!!! I am thankful for the presentation of the Gospel and the stories of teens who denied the Gospel and then met with death by car fire on the way home. That is always so touching.

    This is making me so nostalgic. It makes me want to open a can of corn and sing The Hash Chorus.

    1. don’t forget the single sex swim armor. Dangerous enough to get you drowned but good, you best be saved. Ours went something like this: One piece old lady skirted suit. Inside of suit, BIG clunky bra inserts safety pinned inside (on my a cup skinny 13 yr old frame, I looked like a Thai Lady Boy, google at your own risk, evangelicals.) Finish off this ensemble with a men’s XL Tshirt, dark color, almost down to knees. Now, try to pass the swim test in that. I tried, and failed a few feet away from the dock, when I panicked and held a hand out to one of the strident lady counselers, she looked at me with disgust and at first refused to help me. Yep. Wilds camp, I totally hate you. 😑

        2. I actually liked this one:

          http://www.wholesomewear.com/culotte-a.html

          because where I live, this is what you want to wear while swimming in the lake if you don’t want to turn blue within five minutes. Plus it will keep the leeches away from your really tender bits. (To surf without getting hypothermia, OTOH, you need a drysuit. Not a wetsuit, a drysuit.)

          Granted, that wasn’t what it was designed for, but the double layering and long cut do serve a useful purpose.

      2. So how exactly is that get-up modest? Isn’t the point of modesty so people don’t stare at you? Didn’t Jesus say not to make a spectacle of your piety (specifically one’s appearance while fasting)?

        1. The point of modesty is modesty. It’s not shouting your piety to the whole world like the people fasting in the NT.

          There aren’t any admonitions for Christians to dress like everyone else. That’s not what modesty.

          Also, some of us (like me) have pretty bad skin problems. If I had to choose between people staring at a weird swimsuit or the boils on my legs, I’d prefer the suit.

        2. I sort of liked the one on the little girl. It takes FOREVER to slather on all that sunscreen on my pale little girl’s skin and having more skin covered means less sunscreen. It also protects her skin from sunburns and eventual skin cancer. But I dislike thinking that I would be holier or a better Christian if I were to use such a suit.

        3. I violently loathe the entire idea of mandated female-only ‘modesty’, and yet I must admit that I’m seriously tempted to get one of those suits for aquarobics at the local pool. Though my desire to spare others the sight of my body has more to do with cellulite and wobbly bits than carnal lusts.

    2. I always loved the baptisms that happened after camp. My mother used to joke that she hoped so-and-so’s salvation “took” this time, since his family had a place at the lake, so he didn’t need to go swimming. It was always hilarious.

    3. ROFL about the guilt trip stories. . .”Joe thought he was saved because he had prayed the sinner’s prayer five hundred times before that night. However, he didn’t heed the call of the evangelist that night, and go forward during any of the fifteen versus the organist played of “Just As I Am”. Unfortunately for Joe, on the way home, he ran into a train with his car, and now he is burning in hell, because he didn’t really mean it the other times he prayed the sinner’s prayer, and he had resisted the call that night.”

  37. What about
    (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
    And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
    And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
    Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
    And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

    2. LOL! O…K… That was amazingly random. Care to elaborate on how this verse pertains to the conversation? Or would you prefer that we fill in the blanks for you? Seeing as this is a humor site, I think I’d prefer the latter rather than the former, but if you’re a troll you’re probably not even reading this. πŸ˜†

      2. Not a Troll…dont even own a trolling motor.

        I am referring more to the comments than the Ad.

        Many of the talk backs seem to, and some certainly do, ridicule the very concept of being “set apart” and “sepaarate” itself as if it wasn’t biblical.

        Just a warning to be careful

        1. Define “unbeliever”. A fundy will define it as, “anyone who doesn’t agree 100% with every jot and tittle my pastor/fundy university teaches” and separate himself accordingly.

          Darrell has already commented on this in previous posts. That’s the “separation” we ridicule.

    3. Now, you see, this is an example of fundies preferring Paul to Jesus. How exactly is this supported by Jesus’ actions in the Gospels?

    4. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) Ò€œBe ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

      One more command to fundies to throw those apostate, child molesting preachers out of their pulpits and their churches, and yet the fundies won’t do it.

      1. Most Churches do–and long before anything get’s remotly close to so bad–its the high profile ones who have put a hudge security system around them that stay.

        Also, the problem is much worse in NON fundamental Churches-not just Catholic–it’s just os much more obviously worng there because they are fundamental

        1. BTW, John, you’re tangling with the wrong person on that issue. BASS has been doing a lot of research on the topic of abuse in Fundamentalist churches. Let’s just say that what you’re saying doesn’t match up with reality.

          FTR, both the United Methodists and the Unitarian-Universalists have far more comprehensive ways to keep children safe in church than any Fundamentalist church out there. Several Lutheran groups and the Christian Reformed Church have standards in place as well. Many Vineyard churches won’t let people work around kids without an FBI background check. I haven’t heard of even one IFB church that will screen potential workers, much less call the cops and support the victims properly when abuse is uncovered. The closest I’ve heard of is a pastor ran the guy out of church. Whoo. No cop call, no ministry to the victim, nothing else. Not good.

        3. Most Churches doΓ’β‚¬β€œand long before anything getÒ€ℒs remotly close to so bad…

          Care to back that claim up with real world examples?
          Ever hear of David Hyles?
          Bob Gray?
          Trinity Baptist Church?
          Rome has nothing on the IFB.
          Fundyland has NO oversite, no accountability
          The “Ministry” trumps everthing else,
          “Blame the Victim:Save the Ministry!”

        4. I work in a United Methodist Church. We have what’s called “Safe Sanctuaries” practices. Anyone working with children and teenagers has to have a background check – staff have to have a very comprehensive check. There is also a “5-year rule,” which stipulates that a new high school grad can’t chaperon a youth event unless they’re 5 years older than the oldest person they will be chaperoning. So much for students have spiritual leadership over other students. Mmm. Methinks a certain university in SC could adopt that one.

        6. @Dan Keller

          it’s called accountability and common sense. I wish more churches would be more transparent in that area. It’s easy to use a broad brush on all catholics, IFB and other categories of “Christians” but really it is a church by church issue. Some churches are better than others. Hopefully the people in the church will speak up about this if there is not a clear accountability policy in place.

          Background checks are beneficial. Unfortunately background checks will not show if we are dealing with a sheep or a wolf πŸ™

          I agree that a certain university in SC should revamp the way student leadership is exercised. And last I heard they are revamping it in a better way (I know many of you don’t believe that BJU can have good changes but it is true).

        7. My experience is that IFBs are so desperate for “ministry” workers that any warm body will do. I never doubted the sincerity or trustworthiness of the people that volunteered (myself included) but it certainly leaves the church wide open for legal action if anything bad ever happened.

        8. VERY familiar with Bass and those DOn mentions, and aware that the statistics are accurate.

          The independent Churchs don’t have the denominational safeguards that weed out many….but many are weeded out in the mainline–many not reported to anything but HQ until later when forced.

          The famous cases are always of or associated with big names in big Churches–members in the thousands, TV ministry etc.

          Be careful with only hearing what you listen for

        9. The small churches are worse. The M-O-g acts as though he is god very often. He and his family control every aspect of ministry and there are none who dare oppose him.

          I know I have seen it happen in three of the five ministries that I have sat under in 47 years. The last one was a real doozy. And we all believed him because we were so utterly conditioned by the “touch not the Lord’s anointed,” extra biblical myth about pastors being some special class of Christian, that are somehow superior to everyone else, that we just knew it was demonic what all he was having to go through. We believed no one could possibly make this stuff up… but in the end we found out he made it all up, and lied about it all.
          So it is not just the mega ministries, it’s just they are too big to keep all their members in-line the way a small ministry can. When you have that much control concentrated in the hands of one man it is a cult.

          Jeremiah 23:14, “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.”

          Too many of the so called pastors in the small rural churches and the splinter congregations who have separated from the crowd that separated from the original separated ones that separated from…etc., etc, etc. …are unqualified to stand and preach, and do not rightly handle the world of God. But no matter how mean the salary they would never give up their “ministryÒ€ their congregation, their pulpits, and their control.

          I realize there are well meaning men who in their heart of hearts believe they are doing right and some are, but anytime a single man has that much control over a group of people, at some point, he will succumb to the power seduction and will misuse his position for his own means.

  41. actually i went there last year. shes wearing that because by the time service and dinner was over it was 12:00 at night and a lot of people still wanted to ride the segaways. plus girls have to wear capris to be able to rock climb. and almost everyone has rock wall climbing competitions with the guys. its actually a really fun camp. and they really arent to stressed about the guys. so dont make fun of it unless youve been there. πŸ™„

    1. so dont make fun of it unless youve been there

      Oh, I’ve been there. Believe me.

  42. I am considering sending my kids to Teen Extreme camp this summer. Any reason not to? Tell all!

  43. My story beats them all… I traveled for a Bible college (oh the Bible College) one summer recruiting students. My summer was almost over, 10 weeks of church camp in 100+ degree weather wearing jeans and suits… Then it happened,the last night of the summer for me, and the camp burnt a cross! Yes, I was at a teen camp in southern IN and they set a cross on fire!

    All the adults seemed to think it was spiritual…

  44. They advertise the segways, because not everyone has had the chance to actually ride them before. The purpose of the activities is to offer the children a chance ot do the things they can’t do at home. They have rescrictions on the Flow Rider because with all of the water, a wardobe malfunction is highly possible. They encourage modesty because it’s a Christian college. People are telling stories about Bible camps gone wrong, if it was such a tramatizing event then tell someone other than strange people on the internet

    1. You’re missing the point. Riding a Segway, while it may be unusual, is not extreme. Using ziplines while upside down and blindfolded is extreme.

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