Super Summer ‘is like seminary for teenagers’

They were like soldiers marching to their own beat — like fish swimming in schools of blue, green, yellow and red — canvassing the campus of Samford University in Birmingham. And they had come for one thing — a Super Summer.

Sponsored by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), Super Summer gathered more than 140 students in grades 8–12 from about 20 churches across the state who have shown outstanding leadership within their student ministries and a vivid desire to go deeper spiritually.

“Super Summer is designed specifically for students who are already leaders to become even stronger leaders, more equipped leaders,” said Kyle Wiltshire, an associate in the SBOM’s office of collegiate and student ministries.

So students memorized Scripture, maintained active attendance at youth events and shared their testimonies in order to be chosen by their student ministers to attend the state’s second Super Summer, held July 13–17 with speaker David Peacock and worship leader Brett Rutledge.

“It’s like seminary for teenagers,” Wiltshire said. “They’re in intensive Bible studies morning, afternoon and evening.” These included worship through music, teaching and small-group sessions.

In addition to the regular camp activities of recreation and free time, students at Super Summer learned hermeneutics (interpreting the Bible) and doctrine as well as practical life application of Scripture, developing a Christian worldview and leadership skills.

“It has been exciting to see the students come back, and their worldview is completely different than when they got here,” said Robert Mullins, Super Summer camp director and minister to youth at Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa.

Mullins recounted the story of an eighth-grade student who told him, “Super Summer was the most awesome week of my life because it changed the way I see the world. Now I see things not for what they are at face value but how they line up with Scripture.”

And that’s what it’s all about, Mullins said. “It’s taking leader kids and watching them grow in their faith and learn how to share the gospel effectively.” (TAB)