HORSEHEADS, N.Y.–Call it a new twist on the summer’s trend toward “staycations.” Rather than traveling on a lengthy, gas-guzzling missions trip, First Baptist of Horseheads, N.Y. had their teens stay at home and lead a community outreach.
Last summer, Ben Finch had arrived at First Baptist just in time to lead a pre-planned missions trip to Brooklyn, N.Y., which he found to be a great way to begin his first summer in full-time youth ministry. This summer, the church took a different approach, with the teens ministering at their own church.
“My first year in ministry flew by, and before I knew it, summer was quickly approaching with no apparent time to plan a ministry mission’s trip,” Pastor Ben said, explaining how kidFUSION was started. “I decided to put on a community day camp for kids in our own community and shared the idea with the staff. They agreed and so it was full-speed ahead.”
The church chose a date in mid-July, reserved the local park facilities, and ran a day camp each morning from Monday through Friday, targeting children in grades four through seven. Pastor Finch intended the program to work as a feeder into the church’s growing youth program. Prior to the event, teams of students canvassed the neighborhoods around the park and concentrated on places where teens hang out: the town pool, public library, and local stores.
“I wanted this event to be student-run as much as possible, Pastor Ben explained. “We offered basketball and soccer sports tracks which were facilitated by our teens. Field games were also an option for those not as interested in sports. The teens were involved with teaching the daily Bible lessons and interacting with the kids and getting to know them during refreshment time.”
Despite a slow first day where only four kids showed up, the teens decided to run a full program of soccer and basketball games interspersed with Bible lessons. Nine came the next day, and 18 on the next three days.
“The kids were excited each day to come and be with us, and our teens became excited about the growth and about interacting with the kids,” said Pastor Ben, who also learned the value of a good t-shirt design. “Our red kidFUSION staff shirts made such an impression on the kids that they came wearing red shirts so they could ‘be like us,’ ” he said.
The teens from First Baptist taught all of the Bible lessons, using material on the parables of Jesus. Pastor Finch also scheduled a daily “stump PB time” in which the kids could ask him any questions about God or the Bible. Though the first questions were predictably unanswerable (“How many people are there in the Bible?”), the students came to ask questions that were powerful and personal.
“Why did Jesus have to die?” one child asked, giving a perfect opportunity to share the gospel and present the simple truth of God’s salvation.
“So often in missions work, we become so focused on the ‘uttermost parts of the earth’ that we neglect our Jerusalem,” Pastor Finch said. “I discovered that I had teens who would have given up a week of their summer job to go on another trip to Brooklyn or ‘someplace exciting,’ but were unwilling to do so for our local endeavor.” Pastor Finch added that adults sometimes are guilty of the same thinking. “It is not about me, it’s not about the excitement – it’s about being obedient to the call to make disciples wherever we go,” Pastor Ben said.
