Our “Family Photo” from Preacher Camp 2022
Another year of Preacher Camp is over. Maybe you followed our exploits on Twitter, #PreacherCamp22 or on Facebook. But perhaps you have heard about it and wondered what is this?
The Cliff Note version is that it is a group of ministers who have gotten together for 19 years to plan worship, offer support, and just be together. It has been a lifeline to many of us and I can’t imagine doing ministry without them.
But last week in his newsletter from Park Road Baptist Church, Russ Dean gave a much fuller and richer account. I want to share it with you.
I had just come from Camp Prism a few years ago, and one of my Preacher Camp friends had heard talk of my Prism songs, so he said, “We need a Preacher Camp song!”
I didn’t write out the melody, so I couldn’t sing it today, but as I sit on the deck of a house overlooking Lake Gaston, home for “PC ’22,” I’m thinking of those words, which speak of my 18-year experience with these friends:
Gonna share my wisdom, share my troubles
Gonna share this life that you share with me
We will catch a glimpse of eternity and find
Love in caring, hope in daring,
faith in bearing the truth that sets us free.Looking for a Word, we come to the table
Bringing scraps of all the life we’ve known
We put it all together, something bigger, better,
Shows us a Truth to own!Each morning after breakfast the Preachers gather at a table. The individual “check-ins” we share are restorative: a year-in-review of our hearts, our homes, the experience of ministry we share (the joys and challenges are common to us all). And then we review the lectionary texts for the coming year, providing an overview of preaching opportunities.
Someone reviews Advent, then Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide… This year I’ve prepared an overview of the Ordinary Time texts for Year A (Sep – Nov, 2023). Coming into 22 years at Park Road, we’re now in the 8th rotation of this 3-year cycle of texts. We maintain a thoroughly-Baptist approach (i.e., we’re liturgical as long as it suits us, and then we just do whatever we want to do!), but, generally, we still find that the structure of this cycle of texts provides a worthy discipline for preaching.
After supper, we’re back together, laughing, commiserating, often sharing sermons with one another (yes, preaching them out loud!) During the afternoons… free time!
Because our friendships were real, the sharing so important, 6 years into this PC venture, we started bringing families along. That first year there were about a dozen children and spouses in the mix. While the preachers worked, the kids played, watched movies. We’ve managed to secure a lake house each year for our retreat, and since one of us owns a boat, there’s always a lot of skiing and tubing, along with floating and sun-worship that goes on for the afternoons.
Yesterday I posted a video of Leo’s first ski run. This beautiful 2-year-old is the son of one of the PK’s who attended that very first Preacher Camp, Family Style. It does my heart good to get to bring my passion for that water to a third generation of Preacher Camp!
Thank you for allowing me this important time of retreat and renewal. As I type, the sun is decorating the water. Don is sharing headlines from his news App. Jim keeps interjecting words from Isaiah, part of his daily Bible reading. Dorisanne has joined with her cup of coffee.
I’m catching a glimpse of eternity…. I hope I can share some of this with you when I get home.
Below is a video of the week, pictures that I took so we can remember. And a few pictures through the years. We have grown older, maybe a bit wiser. But the friendships…. Russ was right. It is glimpse of eternity!
