Student leadership camp to be held at UNT

Outbreak 2K4 aims to equip SBTC students for ministry leadership.

Do you feel the burn? Tom Cottar, student ministry associate of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, is praying several hundred students this July will feel it the way the prophet Jeremiah did and spread its heat when they return to their campuses next fall.

“Outbreak 2K4: Feel the Burn,” the SBTC’s student leadership event, is scheduled July 12-16 at the University of North Texas in Denton.

Its theme is from Jeremiah 20:9: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”

This is the second year for Outbreak, a leadership camp not grade-level oriented and focused on equipping students for answering tough questions in a post-Christian culture and being salt and light to their peers, Cottar said.

The event will deal with basic Bible doctrines and also include some “culturally relevant issues” such as homosexuality, creation vs. evolution, Islam, and “Jesus-style” servant leadership. It will also include character studies of Moses, David and Nehemiah, ministry to fellow students, and basic life skills.

Separate curricula are specified for first-year and second-year Outbreak participants regardless of grade level, Cottar noted.

Second-year students will be able to participate in a one-day missions project on Thursday of the camp.

“Our philosophy has always been that leadership, the fruit of leadership, always shows itself in ministry and in missions and that our students need some dirt under their fingernails,” Cottar said. “They need to get out and get their hands dirty and get involved in those kinds of things.

“Unfortunately, we’ve taken the stance that teenagers are the church of the future when they ought to be the church of right now. They ought to be involved in ministry right now?not just being told that’s something they can do down the road.”

Aubrey Spears, who was camp pastor last year, has accepted an invitation to return this year. Ross King and Band will lead the students in musical worship.

Last year’s event drew 263 students. Cottar said he would love to see 500 and expects about 400.

On-campus housing and meals are included in the enrollment fee, which is $189 per student through April 15 and $199 from April 15 – June 12.

“Of course, we’ll have the standard wild and crazy recreation during the day,” Cottar noted.

Also scheduled is a youth camp in Commerce, July 26-30; the inaugural SBTC preteen camp June 1-4 at Latham Springs; and the annual Youth Evangelism Conference July 16-17 at The Criswell College in Dallas.

Registration packets and more information can be had at www.planetstudents.org or by e-mailing Cottar at tomc@sbtexas.com.