Assemblies of God News

Small church draws big names to impact community

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 - 1:16 PM CST

Priest River AG Pastor Michael Brooks having fun with kids during the church's MEGA Sports Camp.

Priest River (Idaho) Assembly of God probably doesn't "ring a bell" with too many people. With a congregation of under 80 and located about midway between the Canadian border and Spokane, Washington, the church has been going about its business, but hasn't really been a focal point for the country or even its community.

That is, until this past summer - when things changed.

Over the last six years or so, Priest River AG Senior Pastor Michael Brooks says he began noticing that the church's summer VBS program was not reaching unchurched kids. In fact, as he observed, the VBS programs in the entire community had really become more of a summer daycare for church-going parents, as they would move their kids from one church VBS program to the next. It seemed to him there was little or no impact on the unchurched community.

Brooks says the past few years, their church began holding its VBS program in a local park to help draw more unchurched kids in - achieving a little more success.

Then Patrick Lawrence, the church's Children's Ministries director, came to Brooks with an idea: host a week-long MEGA Sports Camp in place of their usual VBS program. "Patrick's idea fit right into our vision to reach out to our community," Brooks says.

Although many churches host MEGA Sports Camps each year, Lawrence had a challenge on his hands. Priest River is a community awash with sports addicts and fitness fanatics. A MEGA Sports Camp would certainly capture the attention of children, but there couldn't be anything "second rate" or half-hearted about it.

But Lawrence also knew a couple secrets to success. The first - giving yourself enough time to prepare - most people already know. However, the second may not be so apparent: ask a lot of questions.

What Lawrence wanted to do was bring in Christian professional athletes to help lead the MEGA Sports Camp. For some, that would seem to be a mighty big dream for such a small church.

"I just started talking to people, sharing my heart and asking who they might know who might know someone who could help us out," Lawrence says. "I asked a lot of people a lot of questions." Those questions ultimately led to what Lawrence had prayed for - some big names.

"I didn't just want athletes who 'knew' God," Lawrence explains. "I wanted athletes who loved children and acknowledged Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. If they didn't meet that criteria, I wasn't interested."

Camp Director Patrick Lawrence (center) with the baseball coaches for the MEGA Sports Camp outreach. At the far left is former Major Leaguer Lenny Randle.

Even retired Harlem Globetrotters still amaze! Here Larry "Shorty" Coleman demonstrates some of his Globetrotter skills while fellow coach and Globetrotter Michael Douglas looks on.

After a long search, Lawrence found what he was looking for: Former Major Leaguer Lenny Randle to lead the baseball camp and former Harlem Globetrotters Larry "Shorty" Coleman and Michael Douglas to lead the basketball portion of the camp. Those names caught people's attention.

As Lawrence was searching for key leaders, Brooks was preparing his congregation for both a volunteer and a financial effort. Pulling something like this off in this community would not be inexpensive (a total of $15,000) - it would take a lot of time (volunteers) and money to do things right.

The church started promoting the camp in the local newspaper and in a nearby community, even participating in two local parades while sporting MEGA Church Camp banners and handing out fliers to the event. As the effort grew larger, Lawrence got together with other churches' leaders to see if they would like to become involved. Although all but one refused, Lawrence says congregation members of other churches did see the promise of the outreach and volunteered to help.

Finally, after months of planning, organizing, promoting and praying, the time for the camp (August 4-9) arrived. Lawrence admits that there were numerous times when doubts ran high that the camp would ever get off the ground, much less experience any kind of a success. But when the day arrived, Lawrence and Brooks agree, that God took over and the camp went better than they could ever have imagined.

The camp drew 130 kids from the area. But more importantly, Brooks estimates about 75 percent of the kids were from the community, not from the local churches.

Did having some "big name" coaches help draw in the kids?

Brooks and Lawrence believe so.

"We actually had people trying to sneak into the camp - even some parents seeking autographs," Brooks says.

As with most MEGA Sports Camps, the church charges a camp fee - just like any other sport camp would do. However, as the camp ran from 5 to 9 p.m. each night, campers started the evening out with a freshly prepared supper followed by several hours of instruction, player participation and personal interaction with coaches.

"We had quite a few people tell us our fee ($35) was way too low for a camp of this quality," Brooks admits. "We had to supplement the cost, but some people in the community stepped forward and donated towards the camp, once they heard what it was all about and how little we were charging."

The criteria Lawrence set out for selecting instructors proved to be golden as well. Brooks says he was impressed with how the coaches took their time with kids, truly helping them to improve their abilities while also impacting them for Christ.

Along with the many hundreds of hours put into preparing to launch the camp, Brooks and Lawrence say that during the camp week alone, the 43 camp workers gave more than 2,000 hours of volunteer time to the effort.

"We were amazed by the results of the camp," Brooks says. "In addition to having a quality sports camp for kids, more than 200 people, adults included, heard a very clear presentation of the gospel. And, as a result of this camp, we have gained incredible favor and recognition within our community."

By "favor," Lawrence is not only talking about favor with community leaders, but with the community's future - the children. "The kids were ecstatic about the camp," Lawrence says. "Nothing like this had ever taken place around this area. Now, kids will come up to me off the street and just give me a hug. And they all want to know if we're going to hold the camp next year. Of course, we're already planning for it!"

Now that others have seen the impact the camp has had, Brooks and Lawrence believe next year more churches will want to join in and help to expand the effort, making it even better.

"It wasn't always easy," Lawrence says, "and we hit a lot of roadblocks, but we were able to take the materials and use them in a way to really focus on reaching our community."

"Now we're looking forward to taking the camp to the next level," Brooks adds. "This year, God opened many doors to our community; next year, I believe He will continue the work by opening hearts and transforming lives."

For more information about Priest River AG, see its Web site. To learn more about MEGA Sports Camp, click here.