Anyone who serves at a Christian camp or conference center knows the pace.
The buses arrive before the cabins are quite ready. A pipe breaks thirty minutes before guests check in. The dining hall fills faster than expected. A counselor needs encouragement. A retreat leader has a last-minute request. The maintenance radio crackles just as your phone rings.
By the end of the day, you may have solved a hundred problems—and still feel like there are a hundred more waiting tomorrow.
In an environment built around serving others, there is a subtle danger. We can become so consumed with creating meaningful experiences for our guests that we neglect the One who gives our ministry its meaning.
Jesus anticipated this temptation long before camps, conference centers, and retreat ministries ever existed.
In John 15, He gave His disciples a picture every ministry leader should remember.
“I am the vine; you are the branches.”
A branch has no life apart from the vine. It doesn’t strain to produce grapes. It doesn’t grit its teeth and force fruit into existence. It simply remains connected to its source.
The same is true in ministry.
Our calendars may be full. Our facilities may be beautiful. Our guest satisfaction scores may be excellent. We may host thousands of people each year. Yet none of those things are proof that we are abiding.
It is entirely possible to operate a successful ministry while quietly starving your own soul.
Jesus never told His followers to stay busy. He told them to abide.
Abiding means that before we serve guests, solve problems, lead meetings, or welcome another busload of campers, we intentionally remain close to Christ. His Word shapes our thinking. Prayer steadies our hearts. His presence becomes the source from which everything else flows.
Ironically, the healthier the ministry becomes, the easier it is to neglect the very relationship that made it healthy in the first place. Growth creates more responsibility. More responsibility creates more urgency. Urgency, if left unchecked, crowds out intimacy.
That is why abiding is not something we graduate from. It is something we continually return to.
The greatest gift we offer our guests is not pristine grounds, exceptional meals, exciting activities, or flawless programming. Those things matter, and we should pursue excellence in all of them. But our greatest contribution is something they cannot find anywhere else.
It is a staff whose lives demonstrate that Christ is enough.
People may forget the menu. They may forget which cabin they stayed in or who won the tournament. But they rarely forget being served by someone whose joy, peace, patience, and genuine love flowed from a life rooted in Christ.
That kind of fruit cannot be manufactured. It can only be cultivated through abiding.
As ministry leaders, perhaps the most important question we ask each day is not, “Is everything ready for our guests?” It is, “Am I remaining close to Christ?”
Because every meaningful experience we hope our guests will have begins long before they arrive. It begins in the hearts of those who serve them.
Jeff Yant
Executive Director, Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center
Developer of The Theology of Hospitality
