As we launch into our 30th year of ministry we are evaluating what to keep, what to get rid of, what to add, & what to improve on. One improvement we have committed to make on EVERY GTD EVENT going forward is to give our participants an opportunity to ask Jesus into their hearts, rededicate their lives to Christ, and/or make any recommitments to better their lives or better their walk with God. Unfortunately we became inconsistent with doing this over the years. God convicted my heart to make this a regular part of every event we do. I grew up in a Baptist church where every week they gave an altar call at the end of the service for salvation and rededications. On February 4, 1979, at the age of 8 years old, I responded to one of those altar calls, walked down the aisle, and prayed with Pastor Hammond & asked Jesus into my heart! It continues to be THE BEST decision I have ever made!! Through my middle school years I "backslided" here & there and started drifting away from Christ. At a Christian coffeehouse in Savannah, Georgia my cousins gave a similar altar call at the end of their concert, and I walked down the aisle and rededicated my life to Jesus. Since that time I have rededicated my life to Jesus a few more times after seasons of drifting, and there have been many times through the years that I have committed and recommitted to a variety of Godly standards outlined in the Bible. Almost all of these - salvation, rededications, & recommitments - were a direct response to an altar call or invitation publicly given. As I reflect back as a believer in free will, I don't think I would have made many of those life changing decisions if I didn't have someone provide an invitation through some form of an "altar call". I'm a living result of God using an altar call. Because of this we are recommitting as a ministry to an "altar call" on every trip. On our swamp hike last week Pastor Justin supplied the altar call. A few of the men wanted to make recommitments to be better husbands, better fathers, and more consistent in their daily walk with Jesus. I know from personal experience that those kind of public recommitments often change the trajectory of your life towards good & Godly things. God is always ready to meet us where we are at - especially in the mess - and take us to a more abundant life in Him. The beautiful thing about camp ministry is that God uses them to cut through the distractions of life and quickly get down to the heart of the matter so that a sensitivity to spiritual things is authentically cultivated.
"for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” - Romans 10:13-15
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