Camp Meetings

It is the season of humidity so thick people have trouble walking in it; it is the season for the invasion of black gnats so thick the sun is often obscured; it is the season for afternoon thunderstorms which come at the end of an unbearably hot day; and it is the season for camp meetings to spring to life across the the landscape of southern religious culture.  The grand daddy of camp meetings in the state of Georgia is Indian Springs Holiness Camp Meeting.  It has been meeting near Jackson for over one hundred years.  This particular Camp Meeting and others like it have their roots in another time and in another culture, but they persist in our era bringing a breath of fresh air into the spiritual life of so many.  

When I was growing up, my parents dragged me to camp meeting.  In these adult years my heart longs to be immersed once again in this unique spiritual environment.  Traditionally, a camp meeting is held in a rural area, is more rustic than convenient, and is centered around a large open air tabernacle.  People meet for prayer before breakfast.  As the traditional camp meeting unfolds into a ten day event, there is a daily mid morning Bible study and preaching services at 1l:00 am, 3 pm, and again around 7 o'clock in the evening.  

In the days of beginning, camp meetings focused on preaching scriptural holiness.  Unfortunately, in some places such a focus has been lost, but over at Indian Springs, such preaching is still the order of the day.  The preaching is strongly evangelistic and those who come are invited to enter into a deeper life of faith with Christ.  The existence of this camp meeting ministry might be regarded as a relic from the past by some, but its continued existence speaks of the spiritual hunger present in the lives of so many people in the current day.