Camp is foremost a highly relational experience. At camp, spiritual mentors are always present. They are visual examples of how to live when tired, how to be kind when others are unkind, how to control anger, how to discipline with love, how to ask for forgiveness, how to grow spiritually, how to deal with temptation, and how to live in community. Among all of these relationships, Christ is held as the most significant relationship to cultivate, and the relationship that brings meaning and healing to all other relationships. Youth campers often return home talking about their counselors and what they did with their new friends.
Counselors are their heroes, models, friends.
The 24-hour living relationship with campers allows counselors in a typical week of camp to have more time to minister to campers than youth pastors have in a year, and as much quality time as parents have in six months. The bonding that occurs by living, playing, worshiping, struggling, and learning together internalizes values taught and translates experience into character formation. Whereas parents are seen as a generation removed, counselors are seen as contemporaries who understand their needs. Youth and adults aspire to be like those slightly older who model success to them. When these models take an interest in them and share their lives, their behaviors are emulated.