For fifteen years, I walked alongside teenagers in youth ministry. This week, I have the privilege of leading a youth camp that gathers students in our presbytery for a week of worship, the Word, and wild games. I’ve witnessed the mountaintop moments over the years of summer camp—the tearful confessions, the arms lifted in praise, and hearts awakened to the beauty of Christ and his work on our behalf.

But I’ve also seen what happens two weeks later. What was burning becomes dim. What was fresh fades into habit. Parents (and often the students) ask, “What happened? Camp was so powerful—why didn’t it last?”

Here’s the hard truth: summer camp was never meant to last on its own.

“Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valley.”
—Billy Graham

The Campfire Needs a Fireplace

In Deuteronomy, Moses stands on the edge of the Promised Land and speaks to a generation who had not been at Sinai. They hadn’t seen the plagues. They hadn’t walked through the sea. And yet, Moses doesn’t lower the bar or appeal to sentiment. He calls them to covenantal faithfulness rooted in doctrinal clarity and community accountability.

“These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children…” (Deut. 6:6–7)

The command is not first to the elders or “pastors.” It is to the parents. Israel was not told to rely on charismatic prophets or emotional gatherings. The Word was to be engraved in the home.

And the surrounding chapters make this clear: doctrine is not a list of abstract ideas—it’s the story of God’s faithfulness, taught and embodied daily. Deuteronomy is thick with covenantal rhythm: teaching at meals, binding Scripture on hands and foreheads, writing it on doorposts (6:8–9), reenacting it in liturgical ceremony (ch. 27), and calling the whole community to live in view of blessings and curses.

In short: Christian formation was never meant to be outsourced.

Truth Witout Roots Will Wilt

Let’s borrow one of Jesus’ favorite illustrations, and use it in a slightly different context: At camps and conferences, we plant and water seeds. Sometimes they sprout fast. Sometimes they sprout slow. But unless they take root in the soil of the local church and the water of Word-saturated homes, they will wither.

Research confirms this: according to studies from Lifeway and Barna, nearly two-thirds of teens who are active in church during high school will walk away from the church in their twenties—most of them beginning that drift during late high school and early college. The drop-off doesn’t happen after graduation—it begins long before.

Why? Often it’s not because they reject Christianity outright. It’s because they were never deeply rooted in the first place. They had inspiration but lacked integration. They were moved but not formed.

A Fireplace for the Fire

Your students need more than campfire worship–they need a fireplace to keep the flame hot. When fire is kept in a fireplace, it is easy to stoke, revive, or increase in temperature. It is when you pull it out of the fireplace that the fire begins to struggle. It loses heat quicker. It’s exposed to outside elements. Once the flame loses its heat, we end up doing weird and foreign things to keep it going. We stop putting in wood. We hit it with a 5-second squirt of lighter fluid. We toss in paper trash. In short, we use abnormal means to revive the flame so it can burn at an acceptable level. But the only true and lasting remedy is simple: Put the fire back in the fireplace.

So, the question becomes: is your home a fireplace? What about your church? Or do you find yoursleves constantly doing weird things to keep your child interested in their spiritual walk? Your student needs more than campfire worship a couple times each year. They need:

• Doctrinal instruction at both home and the church that connects their identity to the story of redemption (Deut. 5–11)

• Moral worldview shaped by God’s law as wisdom and life (Deut. 4:6; 30:19)

• Ritual rhythms that habituate faith—church attendance, communion, prayer, confession (Deut. 12; 26)

• Covenant community that calls them back when they stray (Deut. 29)

You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to do this. But you do need to be present. The Word of God is not just a Sunday event—it’s a way of life. And the home is the primary stage.

A Word to Parents

If you’ve sent your kid to camp, thank you. Seriously. It matters.

But please don’t see camp as the climax of their spiritual year. See it as a spark. A moment to build on. A reminder that your child is being invited into something deeper than a one-week experience—they are being summoned into a lifelong covenant with the living God.

And in that covenant, you have a vital role. The same God who said, “I will be your God, and you shall be my people,” also said, “Teach them diligently to your children.” Camp can light the fire. But the fireplace—that’s your home. Your church. Your rhythms.

Let’s not give our kids an emotional high and then abandon them to spiritual cold–that’s just “lighter-fluid Christianity.” Let’s give them doctrine. Let’s give them covenant. Let’s give them Christ, again and again.