Community
Shared Experiences
A Small Group Away from Home Seeking the First Cause
An “adventure team” is made up of trained leaders and selected followers. The leaders are called camp guides or counselors and the followers are referred to as explorers or campers. The adventure assumed is primarily one of a spiritual nature. The adventure team is seeking God. God is the first cause of all things: nature, people, and relationship.
Adventure Team
An adventure team is called a cabin group in some other organizations. We have chosen "adventure team" for our vocabulary for a number of reasons. We are concerned about starting camps. Many new camp events don't have a physical cabin at their site. Instead, they are meeting in the back of a church or at a public park. So the term cabin group in those situations doesn’t represent the team well.
Guiding the Adventure for the Explorer
The word “adventure” correlates well with the word “guide”. The guide is leading the adventure, the guide is helping the explorers navigate paths leading toward Christian maturity. The guide directs the explorer to explore what it means to know God and follow God’s direction.
Teams and Relationships
Adventure “teams” are small groups that live in community sharing common experiences. The Christian camp focus is to seek after God, have encounters with him often through the lens of nature, and build relationships with each other.
Adventure teams are designed to encourage the development of long-term lasting relationships. The burden of responsibility for relationship-growth falls to the guides. Guides who have a co-leader guide and a very limited number of explorers can address the challenge of getting to know their explorers in significant and lasting manners. The guide’s success in building relationships will bless the explorer.
Circumstances influence the ratio of guides to explorers. Age, ability, experience, and theme each have their impact on the formation of a team. The numbers can change. One example of the composition of an adventure team is two guides and five explorers, all from the same church. Two leaders (guides) to a low number of followers (explorers) forms an adventure team with potentially great dynamics. A 2 to 5 ratio of leader to follower allows for a growth environment where there is more than adequate supervision, safety, skill, and nurturing elements.
The word “team” suggests a close, coordinated, working relationship between members.
Guides
Guides in an adventure team are associates. They work as one to meet the individual and team needs of the explorers. After camp they can do follow up, also known as, discipleship.
There may be a senior guide (older and more experienced) who would more often give direction and opportunity for experience to the other guide of the team (maybe younger, maybe a counselor in training). Both are in the same adventure team. It is hoped that in ensuing years, inexperienced guides will take more responsibility and rise to become senior leading guides. This is discipleship at the leader development level.
A Bigger Purpose
Camp is a great place to do evangelism. But don’t stop there. Relationships developed at camp open the door to discipleship.
So, after camp, the event may be over, but the adventure doesn't have to be. The adventure team concept is able to be transported from the camp setting to the church. The adventure can continue in a discipleship mode.
Discipleship has an element of relationship in it. Discipleship is not only a program or material to be taught. Use the relationship developed at camp as a springboard to do discipleship at home, at church, in recreation, in life. Guides are invited to continue to work, guide, nurture, model, and influence their explorers as they do life together.
Go to the next section: Orientation/using-momentum
