GAP Youth Preaching Camp

This past June, I again had the opportunity to work as a staff member at the GAP Youth Preaching Camp, held each year at beautiful Camp Wakatomika, located in Danville, Ohio. The GAP Youth Preaching Camp was an initiative of Kevin Yeager, an outstanding preacher familiar to many of our readers. I had the immense privilege to team with Kevin in June of 2007 to start this camp, and the preaching camp has continued, except for 2008, each year since. Without doubt, camp week has become one of the highlights of my year.

For the staff, this year truly had a nostalgic atmosphere. As many of you know, Kevin went to be with the Lord in late May, less than two weeks before camp convened. Kevin was a tremendous man of God and had a profound influence on me and my development as a preacher of the gospel.

I first met Kevin in the early 2000s when he preached a revival at the Northampton Church of Christ in Hampton, Virginia. I was still an active-duty Naval officer, yet to even consider a full-time preaching ministry. For the revival, Kevin preached through Colossians. Possessing a brilliant mind and being fluent in biblical Greek, he unpacked Paul’s letter remarkably and powerfully.

Paul, in Colossians 2:7, exhorts us to be “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught” (NKJV used throughout). That week, we were genuinely rooted, built up, established, and taught. Kevin was a master at teaching deep and complex Bible truths in a practical and relevant way. As I listened to him bring Colossians alive, I was moved to seriously contemplate committing myself to the preaching ministry.

Kevin loved preachers, and it was this love that motivated him to start the GAP Youth Preaching Camp. I vividly remember the fall of 2006 when he asked me to help him start the camp. We were in the dinner buffet line at an event when he approached me, stating he wanted to ask me something. I recall being confused as to what he could want from me. Obviously, I consented to help with the camp—a decision that is probably the single best decision I have made in ministry.

At the camp, I teach hermeneutics — the mechanics of how to properly interpret God’s Word. I confess that when Kevin first asked me to teach this, I thought his idea was crazy. My thinking was that it wasn’t possible for young men to be interested in such a topic. I confess that Kevin was right, and I was wrong. Teaching hermeneutics during camp week has been a blessing to the young men and to me.

The young men who participate in the camp understand what is at stake when one publicly proclaims God’s Word, and thus, they want to know how to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). For example, we cover the grammar behind such verses as Mark 16:16 and Acts 22:16 to show that, yes, baptism really is for the forgiveness of sins. As we examine numerous passages from both the Old and New Testaments, the campers are introduced to the mechanics of how to properly interpret the Bible.

Several years later (I guess in the 2008-time frame), Kevin preached at the Delmarva Camp Meeting and made a statement that altered my approach to ministry. He commented on how he was tired of hearing preachers say that they enjoyed preaching but didn’t like “all the other ministry stuff,” especially the time needed to personally minister to those in the local congregation. Then he exclaimed all we have is time! That one phrase caused me to reevaluate my approach to ministry. I soon realized the truth of Kevin’s exclamation; in the end, all we have is time to pour into our brothers and sisters in Christ. As much as preachers enjoy studying and crafting sermons, the greatest blessings arise from time spent with the saints, ministering one-on-one.

As I travel, I speak to many who are concerned about the lack of preachers in our churches. It is not just the need for a man to fill the pulpit, so to speak, but the need for doctrinally sound men who preach baptism for the remission of sins, understand biblical church polity, and are committed to the many facets of located ministry. People sense the need for men who are all in for New Testament Christianity and are willing to take that message to a lost and dying world.

From where will the next generation of preachers come? We may not know exactly, but one thing is certain: the Lord will raise the men He needs. He always has; He always will. At the GAP Youth Preaching Camp, we are laboring to do what we can to encourage and to prepare the next generation to preach the Word.

Kevin Yeager is one of the finest men I have ever known. I’m grateful for his commitment to the Lord’s church, vision to raise young preachers, and impact on me personally. King David once said, “Do you not know … a great man has fallen this day in Israel.” Yes, indeed, we have lost a great man.