It Only Takes a 'Scott'

Editorial by Stewart Pepper

The most influential camp meeting speaker I ever heard wasn’t a pastor or an evangelist. He wasn’t even an adult. He was a teenager named Scott—and he likely has no idea the impact he made on me.

It was 1972, and I was a 9-year-old boy sitting in the Junior Tent at Mountain View Conference’s Camp Meeting in West Virginia. Inside there were no fans or air conditioning—just warm air and a room full of restless kids waiting for something interesting to happen.

Then Scott stepped onto the platform.

Scott was tall, thin and unbelievably animated. Scott had stories, but he didn’t simply tell them—he performed them! He paced the platform like an actor on opening night.

When Scott talked about snakes, he didn’t just describe them, he bent low and slithered across the platform making hissing sounds. When he talked about lions, he crept slowly as if stalking through tall grass. His voice dropped almost to a whisper.

“The lion moves very slowly … very quietly … ”

Every child leaned forward.

Then suddenly, Scott threw his arms wide, roared at the top of his lungs and shouted, “And then it pounces and eats you!”

Half the kids jumped out of their chairs. We loved every second of it.

The truth is, to this day I cannot remember a single one of Scott’s stories from beginning to end. But I remember exactly how they made me feel. Those stories made the mission of the church feel real. They made serving God sound like an adventure. Somewhere in those animated stories about jungles, danger and people discovering Jesus, a spark lit inside my imagination. And for the first time in my life, I began to think about doing something big for God.

Scott probably never knew how he shaped my young heart. The people who influence us the most rarely do.

This is one of the quiet miracles of camp meeting. Yes, the preaching matters, but camp meeting is more than sermons. It is children running between tents. Families singing together. Conversations on folding chairs. And sometimes a lanky missionary kid in the Junior Tent telling stories about God’s love for us.

This summer, bring your children or grandchildren to camp meeting! Let them sing the songs, enjoy the outdoors and make new friends. Let them feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves, because somewhere on those grounds, God will have a Scott … and one spark in a child’s imagination may burn for the rest of their life.

Stewart Pepper is the district pastor of the Parkersburg and Toll Gate churches in West Virginia and an evangelist for the Mountain View Conference.