Field Notes #43: Camp Meeting

O, walk together children
Don't you get weary
There's a great camp meeting
In the Promised Land

I've sung that song before, but I had nooooo idea what it meant.

You can see and read my initial reactions to visiting the campground earlier this summer here. I won't bore you with the details again--suffice to say I was totally unprepared for the reality of Rock Springs Campmeeting.

"Tents," you say? Nope. Shacks that are worth upwards of $40,000 each. I'm talking open-air, wooden tents, sometimes two-story, usually with concrete floors (nowadays, anyway), and no AC.

But it didn't take me long during my first visit to the campground (pre-camp meeting) for the initial shock to wear off and a sense of charm and appreciation to seep in.

That sense only deepened Thursday night. They were having a special service for the youth, so I went to check it out. The band that played is called The Unworthy Beloved, and I have offered to help them establish a web presence, because they are very, very good. Musically speaking, they were tight and energetic--and now that I've been dating a drummer for almost a year and a half, I can say with confidence that their drummer is phenomenal.

Of course, it was more than that--the hour they played was a powerful hour of worship for me. They played some original worship songs but also a number of praise anthems by Hillsong ("Lead Me to the Cross," "From the Inside Out" and "Hosanna"), John Mark McMillian's ubiquitous "How He Loves," and the newly popular hymn "Jesus Paid It All," among others. It was great, and my first taste of how a very old tradition can bring people of all ages together.

The next night, I went again, this time mostly just wandering around and visiting with various church members I ran into as I made a loop. The campground is laid out in a square, with the arbor in the middle and "tents" in rows on all sides. People own family tents, but everyone is always in everyone else's space. There are kids everywhere, running free, because it's OK for them to do that.

Everyone has a swing or bench of some sort, and unless they're specifically doing something inside, they're out there sitting and talking. I had the pleasure of joining one church member on her swing for a bit, then barely making it around the next corner before being flagged down by yet another woman I knew from Hill's Chapel.

Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like our seminary education can get too focused on deconstruction, and being at camp meeting was one of those times where I felt that way. I wanted to bemoan the fact that although the campground is a little haven for Christians to be in constant, trustful community with hundreds of people, the real world just isn't that way.

But you know--I think it was a little glimpse of the Kingdom. I'm not saying I'll be looking to find that great camp meeting in the Promised Land, but there's something in what I saw there that I think is a foretaste of heaven. The freedom of children to roam, the atmosphere of belonging and mutuality. In today's world, we live paralyzed by fear of each other. But I've been reading the obscure Old Testament prophets, and Haggai 2:5 says, "My spirit abides among you; do not fear." At camp meeting, folks freely acknowledge that abiding spirit, and in it they find freedom from fear, freedom to love.