VCF Leadership Planning Camp (Part Two)

This year’s camp was significantly different from the previous camps. Most of the old VCF executive committee (Exco) members were not around and not all from the new committee were present as well. Couple that with the East Asia Regional Conference the week before, and the resulting lack of time for the various ministries to meet up and put in some preliminary planning before the camp, it was no surprise then that this year’s LPC proceeded along a leisurely pace. Unlike previous years, where the camp was meant to help concretise and align the tentative plans of the various ministries as a corporate body, this year, the focus was definitely more reflective and didactic in nature.

This is perhaps a good thing since many of the leaders this year are rather young, Jeremy, a very dear brother who has agreed to lead the Prince George’s Park ministry, being a prime example. He only matriculated in January this year, having gotten a half year headstart on his cohort due to the reduction in national service liability.

Of course, when i mention that the leaders are young, i do not merely mean that they are young in years. It is a feature of student ministry that leaders will get younger, or, at least, not be older than a certain age, save a few exceptions. Come the fourth year for most of us, graduation is a very real and inevitable eventuality. What i meant by “young” is in terms of spiritual maturity. This is an issue that was of great concern when i was part of the Exco two years ago, as we considered the fallout that VCF would soon have to face because of the lack of proper Biblical grounding in many churches as well as the closure of student ministries in schools at secondary and junior college level.

It is perhaps a blessing then to have had such a time during the camp when the leaders were able to grapple and wrestle with what it meant to be a leader in the Biblical sense and also to be made aware of the challenges and current situations of all VCF ministries. For that i am truly thankful to our heavenly Father.

One thing about VCF camps and LPC in particular, at least within my sphere of experience, is that God always manages to raise up leaders for ministries which go into the camp lacking one. In the first LPC, it was me He handed the opportunity to. I went into the camp only seeking to be exposed to the rest of VCF and ended up being the prayer coordinator for Temasek Hall and later on a contact group leader (CGL). In the next LPC, i met Joanne who went for the camp preparing to be a CGL in the Arts ministry only then to be hijacked over by me to the Raffles Hall ministry to be the chairperson there. The year after that, it was Alvin, not at LPC but at the VCF freshman orientation camp (FOC), who agreed to be the chairperson of Eusoff Hall. And this year, God provided Jeremy.

Astounding stuff.

Sometimes i wish we could all just go into LPC with a chairperson and a committee formed already for every ministry, and though i believe the leaders should continue to try their darndest to seek out and groom leaders at the earliest, but sometimes, or rather all the time our Father knows better and His timing is just right.

I don’t know but i think with every passing year and camp, my Father helps me to appreciate a little more about the courage it takes to step up as a leader. The nature of leadership being one thing – it’s not easy to face the prospect of having to be a servant to all our Lord has placed under your care. The other thing would be the immense commitment required for leadership. It is immense because of the sacrifices that we have to make knowingly. Less time for studies, Less time for friends. Less time for family. Less time for yourself. And a whole host of sacrifices.

Of course, the sacrifices listed above can be relative. It could be that serving as a leader in VCF or in any other ministry helps you to appreciate the value of time better and you end up apportioning and spending your time more wisely and enjoying it to the fullest because you finally see the brevity and evanescence of each moment. And the paradoxical thing is that you end up having more time, qualitatively and even quantatively, for everything. Go figure. The Lord of the heavens and the earth works in wondrous ways.

My prayer for the leaders of VCF this year is that they will ever strain to dwell in the manifest presence of Yahweh and to live in the burning and glorious reality of their relationship with Him. i pray they will continue to do so even when the inevitable crunch of the second semester comes, especially for those labouring in the halls. i pray that they will not lose heart and retreat into a pitiful and sorry ministry of maintenance but they will remember that our Father is near if we would only call upon Him; that it is the Lord of Hosts, even He, who goes before us and fights for us. It is this same God, our Father, who is always with us. Even to the end of the age.

Amen.