By Tony Martin
Associate Editor
Students with a special heart for Christ attended the 2022 Super Summer event July 11-15 on the campus of Mississippi College in Clinton. The annual equipping event, open to students who have finished the eighth grade, has a rigorous application process to ensure that only the most serious students of the Christian faith are chosen to attend.
This year, 700 students participated with 110 adult team leaders, 117 servant staff, and 59 adults from participating churches. Eighty-three churches were represented.
Super Summer is a discipleship-oriented camp sponsored by the Discipleship/Sunday School Department of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board and made possible by gifts to the Cooperative Program.
The goal of Super Summer is two-fold: to provide quantitative spiritual growth, and help develop youth leadership in Mississippi churches. Prospective students are closely screened prior to registration, then immersed in learning systems that ensure they are growing deeper spiritually and being challenged each year they attend.
Students are funneled into “schools” based on age and experience. The program is spread over a five-year plan, but students may enter at any point. For instance, if a student has just graduated high school, he/she would enter a first-year school, designed to cover the high points of the previous years.
Each school at Super Summer is identified by a color. Students are introduced to basic discipleship; worldview; different beliefs and character issues; how to become a leader in all areas of their lives; and hands-on ministry.
The featured speaker for 2022 Super Summer was Erik Reed. Reed is the founder and lead pastor of The Journey Church (tjclive.com) in Lebanon, Tenn., a church that exists to show Jesus as incomparably glorious.
The Journey Church is committed to making Gospel-rich theology accessible to everyday people. The church reaches a diverse range of people, and continues to grow in both numbers and ministry opportunities to make disciples of Jesus.
Reed also founded Knowing Jesus Ministries (kjmin.org), a non-profit organization which exists to proclaim timeless truth for everyday life. This ministry provides resources for Christians to grow in their daily walk with Jesus, withstand the onslaught of cultural pressures to conform, and prepare Christians for the suffering that comes in this life.
Resources includes books, daily devotions, articles, theology videos, conferences, and weekend respites for families who have lost children.
Worship was led by Kara (Young) Fincher and her band. Fincher is a singer, songwriter, and worship leader. Saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this Mississippi native now lives and works in Birmingham, Ala. She is married to Caleb and has a deep love for hymnody, theology, and congregational worship. She is a Super Summer alumnus.
Kara graduated from Samford University (2016) and Beeson Divinity School (2019), both in Birmingham, Ala. She currently serves as associate minister to college students at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Homewood, Ala., where she disciples students and leads weekly worship for college gatherings. Kara often travels on the weekends to lead worship for various events.
Jonah Bankston, Baptist Student Union (BSU) director at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, shared some of his Super Summer experiences during an interview with a reporter from The Baptist Record.
“The group I’m working with is mostly graduating seniors, some juniors,” he said. “We’re investing in the lives of students, but we want to walk them through that transition phase from student ministry to college ministry.”
Tray Hess, BSU director at Southwest Mississippi Community College, offered similar sentiments. “I was a youth minister for six-and-a-half years, and to see the growth of these students through Super Summer is just amazing.
“One thing they try to do here, and what I try to do at our BSU, is focus on discipleship. When you focus on discipling these students, they’re able to go out and make more disciples. That’s what the whole call of ministry is and our whole purpose as followers of Christ.”
Carly Lambert is a member of Longview Point Church in Hernando and a student at Mississippi State University in Starkville. She was a team leader during Super Summer.
“Team Leaders help facilitate discussions in small groups based on the preaching,” she said. “We just try to be there for the students, answer any questions they might have about their faith, and show them how to share the Gospel and become leaders.”
Lambert is also a Super Summer veteran. “The first time I came I wasn’t convinced Super Summer was for me, but my youth pastor really encouraged me. I’m an introvert and didn’t feel like this fit my personality, but then you realize we’re all called to share the Gospel. The more times I came, the more the Lord shaped my heart.”
Two students with typical testimonies are Nan Pittman, a member of Hope Church, Tupelo, and Ty Allen, a member of First Church, Rayville, La.
This was Pittman’s first year. “My friends said, ‘You need to come.’” I came anticipating how to learn to lead in my school for Christ. I wanted to be stronger in my faith and be that kind of leader as a disciple. It’s really exceeded my expectations. It’s encouraged me to be more confident in how to share the Gospel every day.”
Allen attended Super Summer in 2021, the year the gathering had to be cut short after just a couple of days due to COVID. “I was expecting just to get some better tools to share my faith, and I definitely got some things I could use.
“One of the things the pastor said that struck me was that without God there is no beauty. I can get behind that. That’s something I’d never thought about. Without God, nothing would be beautiful.”
“The people I’ve met here are amazing,” Pittman said. “You grow from each other. There is so much you can take back home.”
“This isn’t a camp for you to become a Christian,” Allen said. “It’s a whole different animal from other camps. It’s really refreshing, because you’re getting poured into constantly. It makes my soul feel good.”
