This is the Truth Network. A game changer in my life, in the lives of so many young people. is Christian Camp. Maybe you didn't want to go. Maybe it's a long way away.
Maybe it's a bus ride. Maybe it's a bunch of strangers, but then. You encounter the living God, and everything changes. Clayton King has been running a camp like this. 31 years, Clayton.
How does that happen, brother? We were just young guns, man, just running all over the place not too long ago in the Carolinas, man. What happened? I don't know. I was 22 years old.
Yesterday, fast forward now. I'm 51. Feels like it happened overnight, but in the course of that 31 years, by the grace of God, crossroad summer camps, we've reached about 150,000 teenagers. We've seen about 25,000 decisions for Christ. Kids have given $1.7 million to missions.
We've seen 5,000 children sponsored through Compassion International. And this summer, this is crazy. It's our biggest summer ever in 31 years. The highest attendance we've ever had. It's just a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, honestly.
Clayton, what is going on with young people, man? I mean, I'm seeing your, I can't even keep track. Like, I'm seeing your Facebook, I'm seeing people giving their lives to Christ. And I'm seeing, and you're saying over and over again, it's not you, it's not some brilliance of Clayton King. There's just the movement of God, but he's using you, brother.
What are you seeing? Like, even. From the perspective of what's happening at crossroads all across this country, man. I think it's a lot of factors. I think, first of all, it's answered prayer.
People have been praying for students, for teenagers, for this generation for decades. And somewhere there's a little old woman in her house that she almost never leaves home, but she wakes up every day. She's in her 80s or her 90s, and she just prays and intercedes for God to do a revival among teenagers. And I think that there are countless numbers of people around our nation that have been praying, and God's answering those prayers. There's another factor, though, and I think it's this.
Our culture is so rotten. Our culture is so godless. Our culture is so crazy and backwards. Students, teenagers, want something that's true. And when they hear the truth of the gospel, they believe it.
They believe it because it's true, but they also believe it because the Spirit of God quickens their heart. I think that they also want something they can build their life on. And they've seen that they can't trust authority. They can't trust the media. They don't know who they can believe.
But when they hear somebody teach the Bible and proclaim the timeless word of God, the Spirit of God makes it make sense to them. I believe all of those factors are playing into this awakening that I'm seeing right now on Montenegro. And you're seeing it firsthand. You're seeing it like this week. Like, I've already seen your post, man.
Crowded room of kids just worshiping God, kids coming forward, repenting of their sin. Clayton, God is at work. Take us into the camp. Just real quick: like, what's the secret sauce of Crossroads Christian Camp? There's a lot of Christian camps.
You know, we're calling everyone listening. To pray, to send your kid to camp, to go to camp as a counselor, to get involved, to send money to Crossroads and other great Christian camps. But, Clayton, tell us what happens. Parents drop their kids off, they pull up the station wagon, they drop Junior off and his big sister off at camp. What happens?
What do you all do to make it such an amazing time? The people keep coming back for more. You know, with our camp, really, you mentioned it, man. It's prayer. We pray.
We pray so hard for God to do amazing things. But also, we've got longevity. And because we're an independent nonprofit ministry, we don't have a denomination that funds us. We don't have a patron saint that underwrites the cost of our camp.
So we have to be entrepreneurs. And that's really the spirit of Crossroads Camps. I started this camp out of my college dorm room in 1995. And so from the very beginning, what we've been able to do as a camp ministry: if something works, we continue doing it. If it doesn't work, we scrap it and we start over.
So we're always trying to innovate and we're always trying to be creative. And I believe that that's kept us fresh and relevant. Clayton, I want you to say something to people that aren't gonna go to camp. They got so much going on. They got no margin.
They're burned out. They're worn out. Give us a quick gospel message. Call them back to the Lord. Call them back to To the God of their youth.
They heard this stuff growing up. They think they're too old. They're too far gone for this. Give us a, sneak us into the back door of one of those big sessions where maybe one of your sons is preaching, you're preaching, or maybe even one of your amazing speakers or alumas are preaching the gospel to these kids. What are they gonna hear?
And what's your message to these people listening out there? You know, America is filled with people that went to camp when they were young, but what happens is we grow up and we grow old, and sometimes we forget. We forget the God we encountered in that camp experience. And what I want to say is, God is still real, Jesus is still alive, and the gospel is good news. In a world filled with bad news where you don't know who you can trust, you can plant your feet firmly on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
And what we tell our students at Crossroads, which is the exact same thing I preach when I preach as a pastor or as an evangelist, or if I'm in another country or even preaching on the radio, Jesus Christ loves you. He died on the cross to take away the guilt of your sin. The punishment that we deserve for all the horrible things that we've done, Jesus took that punishment. And when he was killed on that cross, I should have been hanging there. But it was his grace.
It was his love and mercy that saved me. And now Jesus is raised from the dead. And if your life is filled with struggles and anxiety and fear and doubt, and you just don't know who to believe, I want to encourage you, believe in Jesus. Believe in what he did for you, that he loves you, that he cared enough to die on the cross in your place. And that because he's raised from the dead, he made a promise he's going to keep.
He will return. And when he returns, if you have given your life to him as a Christian, you will be with him forever in the new heaven and the new earth. And I cannot wait for that day. But until then, we got work to do. And that's why I'm continuing to preach.
And that's why Crossroads still preaches the gospel to kids. Amen. That's the author and speaker, well sought-after speaker. He's preached all over the world. And then the founder of this great camp, Crossroads, 31 years ago, out of his college dorm room, is still going strong.
He's on his way to more camp meetings. We're going to let him go. But, Clayton, give us a website. Folks want to send a donation to support your amazing work. Folks want to learn more about you, get some of your awesome books.
Give us how to folks reach out and learn more. Absolutely. Yeah, we're a double-based ministry.
So if the Lord lays something on your heart, or if you just want more information, you can go to crossroadssummercamp.com or claytonking.com. Both of those websites will get you there. True top. Why
