Summer Worship Festivals

Summer is one of the busiest times for youth ministry. Between summer mission trips, summer camps and regular weekly activities, there a lot of opportunities for youth to be in mission and ministry during summer.

A popular youth activity in the summer in my area of the country isSummer Worship Festivals. These are three or four-day events that happen out in a large open space where various Christian music artists and well known national Christian speakers come and hold a revival of sorts. One of the largest of these festivals, Creation, happens very close to me in Central Pennsylvania. While I have never attended that particular festival, I have attended a similar type festival produced by Salt and Light Youth Ministry, an affiliate of youth ministry within the Susquehanna Conference.

What's great about these festivals is they are usually huge spectacles that get a large number of Christian young people together to worship and learn about living life as a Christian Coming back from these experiences can be very difficult for young people. For many this is a mountaintop experience that they can not have anywhere else but in a huge event like these festivals. They come and hear phenomenal speakers that challenge their way of looking at their Christian life and encourage them to make a re-dedication to that life.

However, like most mountaintop experiences when these young people go home and get back into the regular routines of life, they forget about that experience over time. As youth leaders, is very important that we do follow up with young people who have significant experiences at these festivals. To let these life-changing experience pass them by, is not fair to them.

If you recently attended Creation or will be attending a similar type festival later this summer, do some one-on-one follow-up with the young people that went. Let their local church pastor know of the experience that they had as well with a phone call or letter, so that the they can do their own follow up. It's vitally important that when kids have a mountaintop experience, that they get some time to reflect on that experience.