This past Sunday, Grace Bible Church celebrated our annual camp wrap-up — one of the most energizing Sundays of the year. After a week at West Coast Grace Youth Camp at Palomar, our students and leaders returned home raved up, exhausted, and transformed. It was a powerful reminder of why we invest so heavily in the next generation — and why the call of 1 Corinthians 15:58 matters more than ever.
The Culture Our Kids Are Swimming In
Pastor Josh White opened up about what he observed at camp this year — and it was sobering. He described 2021 as entering “some kind of a time warp” where the culture has shifted, and not for the better. The struggles kids are facing — especially around identity — have intensified dramatically. Sexual identity, gender identity, confusion about who they are — it’s not just “out there” in the world. It showed up at camp.
He pointed to a striking statistic: since the iPhone was invented in 2007, teenage isolation has skyrocketed. Kids are alone in their rooms on phones and computers for hours a day, absorbing whatever the world tells them they should believe about themselves. The world has an agenda — and it’s pushing identities that have nothing to do with who we are in Christ.
“The world has an agenda, and it is forcing these kids to think that they have to choose some kind of identity right now — and the identities that the world is propping up are not the identities that we find ourselves who we are in Jesus Christ.”
Why Camp Is Like 2-3 Years of Church in One Week
Here’s the reality that makes camp so critical: in a given year, a student might get 50-100 hours of influence from church — Sunday services, small groups, Sunday school. Compare that to camp: 156 straight hours surrounded by godly leaders, worship, devotions, and truth. Take out sleep (which at camp, let’s be honest, wasn’t much), and you’re still looking at roughly 120 hours of non-stop ministry in one week.
That’s the equivalent of two to three years’ worth of church impact — compressed into seven days. And unlike a normal Sunday, there’s no whole week to undo the influence of that one service. It’s relentless, immersive, and life-changing.
Be Steadfast and Immovable
With all this in mind, Pastor Josh turned to 1 Corinthians 15:58 — the theme verse printed on the bulletin that morning:
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:58
Paul writes this after an entire chapter unpacking the gospel — the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and the future resurrection we have to look forward to. In view of all that — in view of our certain future with Christ — this is what we’re supposed to do in the meantime.
Josh highlighted the two策略 at play in this verse:
- Our defense: Be steadfast and immovable. Don’t give up the ground God has given us. The truth of God’s Word doesn’t change based on the culture. It’s fixed, and so are we.
- Our offense: Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Not just meeting the minimum — abounding. Exceeding the measure. Not quitting even when it’s frustrating, even when we wonder, Is any of this making a difference?
He illustrated it with a lighthouse. A lighthouse does two things: it warns of danger (showing the rocks and the stakes of sin) and it shows the safe passage — the way home. That’s what the church is called to be in the world.
“The world needs us to be that lighthouse. We show people: there is truth. It’s not moving. And this is the way, as Jesus says in John 14:6 — I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“
The Work Is Not in Vain
Pastor Mike McFadden shared camp statistics that painted a vivid picture of what God did that week: 187 people attended camp from six churches, 83 from GBC Phoenix alone. There were 42 counselors and staff — 27 from our church. Four first-time counselors from GBC, most of whom were saved at camp and have been discipled through our ministries for years. That’s the generational domino effect in action.
There were stories of miracles — students who arrived aggressively atheistic or deep in identity confusion, and left with walls torn down. Wednesday night, known at camp as “cry night,” was exactly that for many: a raw, emotional encounter with God. One counselor, Derek, described sitting with a student whose mother struggles with addiction — and how God clearly orchestrated the conversation.
Campers shared their own testimonies too. One said she finally understood that camp is not the event — camp is the training. The real world, real life, that is the event. Camp is supposed to train us up and send us back into the world to make an impact. Another first-time camper said he didn’t think he’d be able to affect any kids — but God used him to plant seeds of grace in their hearts.
So What?
The ministries we run here — AWANA, Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, small groups, camp — they matter more than ever. Once kids hit junior high and high school, the ungodly influence of the world skyrockets. It’s easier for a teenager to be led astray if they haven’t already spent their youth being rooted in the truth.
That’s why we do what we do. That’s why we ask you to give, to serve, to pray, to send. The labor is not in vain. Every song, every lesson, every late-night conversation at camp, every counselor pouring into a student — God uses it. We just have to stay faithful to the work He gave us.
Be steadfast. Be immovable. Abound in the work of the Lord — because in Him, our labor is never in vain.
Scripture References
- 1 Corinthians 15:58 — Steadfast and immovable in the Lord’s work
- John 14:6 — Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life
- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 — His grace is made perfect in weakness