Ministry Ideas that Work: Bible Memory Based Camp Scholarships

 

I believe in Christian Camps, especially for teens. God changed the course of my life at camp and I have seen Him do it for countless others also. Camp is more important now than ever. Kids addicted to phones and social media need to get away from all of that and focus on God for a week.

However, camp is expensive, especially for young families. So in the early years of our church, the kids would do car washes and other fundraising activities to earn at least part of their way. It got harder and harder as camps required deposits earlier and earlier.

About 20 years ago David Rowley, a church member who had been helping in the youth group, came to our youth pastor with a proposal. He promised to personally pay for camp for any young person who memorized the book of James. The memorization had to happen according to his very specific set of rules. They had to memorize at least 10 verses a week and he would lay out the schedule–no trying to cram in the last few weeks. At the end a chapter would be drawn at random for each student, and they would have to quote the entire chapter. He would train proctors in the church to listen to verses. The proctors had to face away from the young people quoting verses so they could give no visual clues. Only a certain limited number of errors were allowed (ten). If they did not get the memorization done on schedule, they would be out of the program. It was strict, but the reward at the end was great.

That year he paid for 14 camp scholarships.

He continued to do so until the number of students completing the memory challenge was so great that he needed help. God moved the Rowley family away and David is in heaven now, but the “Scripture Scholarship” program continues on to this day.

We now fund the program through a congregational offering. Young people sign up to do the program and we tell the church what it will cost if they all finish. We pay the camp registrations as a church, in advance by faith. Not all of the young people finish every year but most do. We never push or prod the congregation to give to the Scripture Scholarship program and we tell the young people that whatever money that comes in will be divided among the young people equally for their camp. We have never had a year where the scholarships were not paid in full.

The young people memorize extended portions of scripture about the size of a smaller New Testament epistle. Over the years they have memorized James, 1 John, the Sermon on the Mount, Psalm 119, the first six chapters of Romans, 1 Peter, and more. Many children start doing scripture scholarship in the fourth grade and continue every year until they graduate from high school. That is memorizing the equivalent of 8 or 9 New Testament books!

We still do other camp scholarships too, especially for young people who are unsaved or new to our church, but Scripture Scholarship is really effective for the children of regular church attenders.

God’s word does not return empty. That scripture committed to mind and heart will impact those children the rest of their lives. The immediate reward for the hard memory work is that they get to go to camp where they get a good dose of clean fun along with a spiritual focus on the heart away from the distractions of their everyday world.

It has been a great blessing to us. You might consider a Scripture Scholarship Program in your own church.