"One of the best camp meetings ever. I was so blessed!" "I am so excited to see the potential of all the laypeople of Alaska getting involved in this program. Now! Let's get to work!" These were some of the comments following Alaska's Camp Meeting 2007.
Alaska Camp Meeting had a twofold strategy—to help churches build a strong community-based ministry program and to train church members how to do lay-led evangelism.
A pre-camp meeting training session started with an 18-hour orientation for trainers in depression recovery. This intensive seminar is designed to prepare people to conduct this dynamic program in their local communities.
Then the highlight of the initial four days of camp meeting were evening meetings and afternoon seminars on what depression recovery was. Neil Nedley, M.D., is the speaker and author of a community-based eight-part mental health education series on video or DVD.
Nedley noted that Alaska has the highest rate of depression in the country and believes this program would pay rich dividends in ministry.
The weekend follow-up was a Momentum evangelism training program that built on Robert Folkenberg's ShareHIM program of lay-led evangelism, launched a year ago in Alaska.
Camp meeting participants were encouraged to build their own local evangelistic teams and launch evangelism in the local community. The initial training will be followed by local church-based volunteer evangelistic teams. These teams will choose the dates for their reaping series, pick a speaker and while the speaker is being trained, plan entry events like depression recovery seminars for the community.
"God has given us the privilege of narrating His story in our own words in order to tell others the Good News," said Cory Jackson, a Detroit area pastor. Jackson spoke nightly in the Collegiate tent during Camp Meeting 2007. (John Kriegelstein)
Alaska Conference administrators, Edward Dunn, Ken Crawford and Sharon Staddon serve free pancakes Sunday morning following the close of camp meeting. (John Kriegelstein)
Ed Kraft and Kent Sandvik do some "catching up" during the Grand Reunion Potluck following the morning church service. (John Kriegelstein)
Robert Folkenberg encourages the attendees to participate in ShareHIM, an initiative involving lay members in active evangelism. More than 900 adults and kids attended Camp Meeting 2007 in Palmer, Alaska. (John Kriegelstein)
Mark Biggs tells a story around the campfire Saturday "night" following the closing meeting. Even at 11:30 p.m. the daylight has not entirely left the sky. (John Kriegelstein)
Dottie Tremont, Kindergarten leader, assists the attendees in making large bubbles. Attendance in the kids' departments was up over previous years. (John Kriegelstein)
