The NACOG Youth Camp

Every year, the National Association of the Church of God Anderson, Indiana, presents a youth camp meeting in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania (www.nacog.com). The purpose for this camp meeting is to empower youth holistically through instructional workshops, various speakers, and other camp actvitites. These various activities are also geared toward unity, worship, prayer, and other things.Youth from all over the country meet at this cand going to worship services tampground for seven days. As a one time attendee of this event, I experienced these activities. I remember singing around the campfire, going to workshops, and taking hikes which all related to prayer. It was a time in which we were away from our parents and came together in the middle of the woods in Pennsylvania to focus on prayer and a closer relationship with God.

Kenneth Hill, author of Religious Education in the African American Tradition, presents 5 models of religious education to African Americans: Kerygmatic, Holiness, Confessional, Afrocentric, Contemplative, and Liberation. In the Contemplative model, Hill states, “ Spiritual approach to AACRE emphasizes prayer, worship, and comtemplative life in action” (p. 128). Hill displays here, that this model of religious education, is effective because of its sense of community, utilization of songs, movement, and feeling. This model focuses on prayer very deeply.

The National Association of the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) youth camp meeting, seems to be an effective activity according to Hill's comtemplative model. The focus on prayer and salvation is the method to this meetings success. It allows young people to be put in a place of solidarity and community simulataneously because it takes them away from their comfort zone and brings them into a community with other young people. Through song, dance, and other forms of worship, the camp meeting aims to reach out to young people. Through the lens of Hill, the NACOG Youth Camp is a success.