Video Transcript: Designing Summer Day Camp

We now come to the event that for the Emerging Leader, is one of the most  dynamic events that takes place in their lives, and that is the designing of the  summer day camp all year long. Ideally, the emerging leaders have been  working with elementary kids. They've met with them weekly. They've taken  turns leading. They've evaluated and they've looked at what they're doing. How  effective were they? How? How did the kids respond? They've learned through  this experience. But then something happens in January of the year that's about  four or five months before the event happens. Four or five months before the  event happens. They apply and are accepted into the staff for the summer day  camp. It is not a given. They have to apply and be accepted into it. They have to want to do it, because that is going to occupy their time over the next four or five months, just as a comment, I have been in churches that have wanted to do  youth development and develop youth leaders. One of the challenges I think  they have is that they don't give it enough time. They don't give it enough time.  You can develop leaders. Leadership can can take place. They can emerge,  actually, young people who don't believe they can lead. Once they discover it,  they are excited, but they're not going to discover it a day or a week or even a  month before you're asking them to do something, they have to grow into it, and  that involves time. So for the emerging leaders who are going to going to be  developing the summer day camp, we start four or five months ahead of time.  We recruit them in January. Toward the end of January, they all come together,  and they decide on a theme, they pick a theme, and then they begin to work.  Once they've decided on a theme, the theme is determined by can we do all the  components of a summer day camp using this theme? And once they all agree,  then they move forward with the planning. They plan by putting together they  have to put together a curriculum. They have to decide on the various activities.  They have to decide what classes are they going to teach each of them, or each team will be leading a class. We'll split the summer camp into as many classes  as we have, and kids will rotate through all of their classes. And so their great  responsibility is to design, is to design those classes. And so it's a major, major  thing you if you see up here these little stickies, that's the first meeting we have.  Let me step back for a minute. They continue to meet with their elementary kids  once a week, and they continue to meet as emerging leaders. They meet  together weekly for Bible study and life study. They do all of that, but something  else is added, starting in January, and that is, they meet once a month, usually  it's a Saturday morning for three hours, and that's when they devote their time to developing the summer day camp. Let me tell you about this. We start off with a  activity called stickies. They've already talked and decided on the theme, and  now they have to think about, what are the components of the camp, and so  some different we take certain different sheets and put them up on the board.  There'll be a sheet there that says, here's a summer camp, and we'll have  names of an of different aspects of the camp. Could be crafts, media, sports, 

history, photography, books, cuisine, different kinds of classes. Things they  talked about. We put them on a piece of paper, and then we blow it up, and we  put it on on the wall. Then we discuss a little bit. This is the first meeting. Talk a  little bit. What kind of things should we do in the classroom at the at the day  camp, what activities should we do? What classes can we teach? What subjects can we teach, what would be of interest to them? So they talk about it. They  discuss it amongst themselves. And then they're each given a stack of stickies.  And then they they they begin what is really, in essence, a 10 Minute brain  dump. They have to spend for 10 minutes, and they're timed. Every idea they  have, they have to put down the sticky and set it aside, one idea per sticky. And  during this time, myself or another leader will be walking around the table,  picking up their stickies, their ideas and putting them on this sheet. Then 10  minutes is up. Pencils are down. We look at all of the we pull each sticky off. We read it. And then everybody decides, well, I think it goes here. So we have a  second sheet, and we take that sheet and we put it, we put them where they  belong. We also have a camp. We have a camp component sheet, and we have a learning center sheet. And any idea where we all decide where it fits the best,  and then we put it on there, when all is said and done. You're looking at those  sheets, and we all see that about 80% of the guts of the camp program there,  they've already been decided. And the beauty is, it is by their design, so they  walk away way, saying, We just designed this. We have just designed a three  week, four week summer day camp, and now the work really begins. But the  idea for you as a leader is that you sketch, they color you map out the general,  the general idea, the framework of the day camp. And then when you do that,  excuse me. Let me get to let me get to that. See later. Okay, after you've done  that, they're the ones that color it in. And so that is that first Saturday morning  meeting sets the tone for what happens after that. After that they spend every  every they continue working with the kids, but now the most important thing they do is to prepare for their learning centers. They will each teach anywhere from  12 to 15 classes in the summer. Now they'll only be about 25 minutes long, and  then they re and because the camp is, is they're cycling through their their class, but they each get a room, and they design that room, if their if their theme is  poetry, then that room is there. They have to decorate it so that when that when  kids walk in there, maybe they'll see poetry on the on the walls. Maybe they'll  see pictures of poets on the wall. They're encouraged to be creative, but they  have to decide on what that learning center, what those classes are, and then  those are the ones that they need to lead. So we train them, because you must  know exactly what you're going to do. From the time the first kid walks into your  classroom to the time the last kid leaves, you must know exactly what you're  going to do, because if you are not prepared for those classes, you know a kid  knows they can sniff fear. They can tell when you're not prepared. And for third  through fifth graders, when they sniff that, we tell kids you might get tarred and 

feathered in your class. And guess what? Here's the key. No one will save you.  You are the leader in that class. No one is going to take that leadership away  from you, which means, if you fail, you will fail. Now it's only 25 minutes. You can you can brush the tar and feathers off and try it again, and then you can always  start again the next day, but it is your you are responsible for that class, and so  this is what happens. They sketch this out. This small picture here. You can't see it. It's in the book, but this is a week at a glance of what the entire camp will look  like, the schedule, the flow of the camp and the emerging leaders are  responsible for making sure that all of that works. When you go through all of  that, they when they go through all that, when they complete the summer camp.  They have gone from the beginning of the year being perhaps, if they're new,  being lethargic, not sure they can lead, but they want to give it a try. And they  come in and they try, and they begin to slowly learn from working with the kids,  learning how to work with the kids coming in mid year and saying, Okay, I'll try  being I'll try being an emerging leader and lead the summer day camp. And so  then they get encouraged. They come up with crazy ideas. Sometimes they'll  say, Well, what if we tried this for a class? And they laugh as if it's not going to  work. But those of us that are leaders say, wait a minute, let's think about this.  Maybe it will work. So the idea is to take their ideas and make them come to  fruition, make them come alive. So we do that. We tell them, do not lecture. Do  not lecture. You need to be creative. Use, illustrations, stories, music, whatever.  But your classroom for 25 minutes needs to be an exciting time, and it's  amazing. You'd be amazed. As creative as they are, at the end of each day of  summer, they can't we would ask the kids, what did you learn? It's amazing the  things that they learned, and the key is they're learning them from the emerging  leaders. Many, many a kid has come up and said to an emerging leader, I want  to be like you someday. So it really is amazing. So this is the the summer camp.  It doesn't have to be a camp. It could be a vacation Bible school, it could be  whatever you want, but it has to be something where your high schoolers are  working with kids who are younger than them, and that they have the ability to  map it out design. It is their ideas that have come, that have come to life that's  important. Then there is the missions trip taking leadership on the road. And as I said before you complain you have no shoes, until you meet someone with no  feet. So you need to be involved in some you want them involved in some kind  of activity where they can take their skills and apply them in another place. I  have taken emerging leaders to another site, to a ministry, and I've just said,  Hey, leave this place. And by the time they get to the place to where they're  doing the missions that they can do, exactly that they are, they know how to  lead and they and they're anxious to apply their skills to another context that  they might serve others. It really is amazing. I want to end this with some  exhortations to an emerging leader. One summer, as I looked at our emerging  leaders and I thought through the different things we were saying to them and 

encouraging to encouraging them. I wrote those down, and I wanted to share  them with you. The first expectation exhortation is, you are the leader. It's your  class. If you need something, inform the adult sitting in the corner, we'll get it for  you. If a child is disruptive, ask your adult partner will remove the child from your class. We will follow your instructions to assist and support you, but you are the  leader. We will and we will not undermine that leadership by rescuing you. Do  not worry, win or lose, succeed or fail. We'll be there afterwards to advise and  prepare you for greater success tomorrow, a classroom focus where there is no  vision or direction. The people perish. They are unrestrained. Your job emerging  leader is to give directional leadership to your class. People are less likely to  look sideways if they are focused on what is in front of them. So own your  classroom, give it directional leadership, and you will remove 75% or more of  the potential discipline problems before they even start. Know your role at any  given moment, you are either leading or supporting the leader. You are modeling one of these two roles at all times, always identify the leader. If you are the  leader, lead, we will support you. Courageous love. How does love seeking the  other person's highest good impact, our response to the problem child? Can we  convince them to change their behavior for their own good as well as the good  of the group if we cannot, or if they are unable to change, do we love them  enough to make the tough decision? If our context is not working for them, then  let's courageously and lovingly direct them to something better. And then finally,  principled leadership, curriculum, planning, discipline problems, games, leading. Where is God in all of this? Must the name of Jesus be spoken for him to be  present, his presence should run deep. God is in the principles and motivations  that determine your actions. Jesus is in the details, because he is behind the  details. So be principled in carrying out your responsibilities. Then when you  speak God's name, you give the children you serve, something tangible, they  will see him in you, your actions and the program that you lead.