This summer, from July 5-12, a group of 50 high school students will gather on campus and take part in the Kerusso Summer Preaching Camp.
The “Kerusso Experience” is led by Assistant Professor of Bible and Preaching Devin Swindle. Swindle said he has a passion for training these young men.
According to Swindle, recent studies show there is a shortage of preachers in Churches of Christ, which caused former university President David Burks to form a panel of preachers and professors who could help solve the problem.
The Center for Preaching was created in 2012, and Swindle said the next step was to recruit young men to pursue careers in preaching. Dean of the College of Bible and Ministry Monte Cox came up with the idea of a preacher training camp that would give high school students a taste of campus life while putting them through a week-long preaching skills program.
The camp is open to ninth through twelfth grade boys who are sponsored by their home congregations. Swindle said the goal is to show them they can earn a living working for God.
“We teach them how to study the Bible; we teach them how to write sermons; we surround them with examples of good preaching,” Swindle said.
The camp’s first session was last year, and Swindle said it was a success. Thirty students from four states and Belize attended.
Freshman Riley George attended last year and said he was thankful for the skills he learned and the experiences he had.
“I really enjoyed the camp, and it was a really good way to experience good preaching techniques and communication techniques along with some Bible classes I wouldn’t have otherwise had,” George said. “You got to hang out with a bunch of guys who were passionate about what they did and who really expressed a love for telling people about the gospel.”
Although George is a biology major, he said the camp was helpful because it provided him with tools to serve.
“At first I didn’t know what to think of it, because preaching wasn’t really a career goal of mine,” George said. “It wasn’t just about preaching as a career; it was about preaching as a role you take with you in any career you pick.”
Swindle said several students decided to major in Bible due to their camp experience.
One of these students, 15-year-old Josh Moore, suffered a fatal accident last semester. As a result, his family decided to create a Bible scholarship in Josh’s name.
“His dad called me a couple of weeks ago and said ‘We want to do something to make sure that what Josh wanted to do, somebody does,’ ” Swindle said. “There were a lot of really amazing things that came out of the first year, and we think the sky is the limit for what can happen.”
The total cost of the camp is $700 per student, but Harding usually covers $500 of it. Congregations sponsor students by paying the remaining $200.
Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible Kevin Youngblood recently published a commentary for the book of Jonah through Zondervan Publications, prompting this year’s theme: “The Scandalous Love of God: Preaching from Jonah.”
The camp has expanded to include a smaller session at the Ne-O-Tez Christian camp in DeSoto, Mo. Swindle said he plans to host sessions in different parts of the country to make the camp accessible to students who live far away.
Swindle said he plans to expand to include a separate camp for girls.
“We do very seriously see adding a girls track in the next 3-4 years,” Swindle said. “We are just trying to get it off the ground, so we are not there yet. But that is certainly on our radar, and we intend to do it.”
Swindle said the qualities he looks for in applicants are “willingness and desire to serve.”
