Camp: A Life Changer

This week on Solid Start, Greg and Brian are joined by Family Pastor Roy Lanten to talk about one of the most impactful experiences in a student's spiritual journey—church camp. Together, they discuss why camp matters, how God often uses these focused weeks to transform lives, and why investing in your child's spiritual growth can have lasting eternal significance.

They also dive into this year's camp theme, "The Greatest," inspired by the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20. In a world where students often struggle with doubt, insecurity, and questions about their worth, this year's theme reminds them that their hope is not found in themselves, but in Someone far greater. Through Christ's authority, presence, and mission, students can live with confidence, purpose, and faith.

Whether you're a parent considering camp for your child or simply want to hear stories of life change and encouragement, this episode will inspire you to see how God can work in powerful ways when students step away from the distractions of everyday life and lean into Him.

Listen now and discover why camp could be one of the greatest investments you make in your child's faith journey.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Solid Start, a podcast designed to get your week off to a solid start by focusing on life from God's perspective. I'm Greg Reed, life coach with Meryl Bros up in Cokewood, Indiana, joined by my ever popular and amazing co-host Brian Herzog. Brian, good morning. Happy Monday. Happy Monday morning. Man, it is June 1st.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

I know. That's not possible. I know graduations are pretty much over. Um, I think there may be a few more schools that still have graduations, but wow, it's it happened.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yes, and all yours are graduating from high school already. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yep. I had one high school graduation for a granddaughter. I thought, man, my wife must be old because I couldn't, I cannot be that old possibly. So uh yeah, it was awesome. It was great. So we went to Atlanta, Georgia and got to celebrate. So that was uh that was fun. So well, good to have you back on our podcast. Seems like it's been a while. Yeah, we you've been on the red.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

So proud of our team, the way they uh came together and put on that event. It was an a just an amazing event, a beautiful day.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yes, a lot of people too from all over the all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

We did, we did. We had uh over 200 people, I would say. Uh-huh. Uh, and a lot of media coverage as well. So we're looking forward to what's going to happen next. Okay. Out in Washington and beyond.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yes, Washington. We can't do go too much further west, otherwise we get dumped in the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

But uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Well, hey, introduce we have a guest today, so go ahead and introduce our uh special guest.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Yeah, this morning, uh Roy Lanton, the family pastor at Upper Deer Creek, is joining us this morning. He spoke this morning, and uh I'm excited about what he's gonna say on the podcast this morning. So welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Hi, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah, good to have you here, Roy. And your uh your your building where your church meets is just around the corner from where we're doing this podcast to Indiana. So yeah. As the crow flies, it's about a mile away. Very far away. So tell us a little bit about how you got to Indiana and a little bit of your story, and then we'll talk about uh teenagers.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Well, uh, so I got into ministry when I was 18 years old and uh surrendered to the ministry when I was 18. Uh so that's been about 25 years ago, actually, in May. So I've been in ministry for 25 years. But a wee child, Roy, come on. I know, I know, it's pretty crazy. Uh, my pastor here at Upper Deer Creek was my pastor um in uh Oklahoma, where I grew up. And uh he was my pastor, actually my youth pastor uh when I was a freshman in high school. And so uh we after he left the church that that we were in, uh we kind of lost touch, kind of got back to touch back in 2017, and uh that was right before he came to Indiana. Okay um he came to to be the pastor of Upper Deer Creek Church. And uh as soon as he got here, he started asking myself and my wife the question hey, you want to come up here? And so uh we do what every good citizen does. We always check the population of the area that we're going. And um, we saw that uh where Upper Deer Creek was was in a very heavily populated area.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

And uh kind of right in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

It really is. You know, I've I've seen cornfields before, but not like what we have here. Um and so about three years ago, uh four years ago, actually, uh we decided to start praying about it. You know, we asking God, God, is this what you want from us? Do you want us to come here and um serve you in in Indiana? I've never I have never lived anywhere other than Oklahoma. Okay. And so um God was like, Yes, this is where I want you, this is where you need to be. And so three and a half years ago, we moved here and became the family pastor of Upper Deer Creek Church. And we have loved every single day that we have been here. It has been an amazing experience, and we love the cornfields.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

That's so great. So, were you an OKC fan as far as basketball? I am. And my condolences, my condolences.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I'm okay. I'm not a huge basketball fan, you know, more of a baseball, football fan. Yeah, but uh yeah, it was kind of hard to see the Thunder lose the other night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Go Spurs. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Well, tell us a little bit about uh what you have coming up this summer. That's why you were here this morning to talk about that. So tell us about the opportunities that are available for people that are part of our Merrill Bros family and uh what you have planned for the summer for teenagers.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Hey, summers are always super busy when it comes to church work, when it comes to student ministry. And I think what makes uh Upper Deer Creek unique is we have the opportunity to go to a church camp in Oklahoma called False Creek. Um, and uh I've been going to False Creek now for about 33, 32, 33 years. Okay. Uh, and it is the nation's largest youth camp. Uh and any given week, and there are like 12 weeks in an entire summer in Oklahoma where they have students at this camp where there are anywhere from eight to ten thousand people on that particular campus.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

That just seems crazy. It's a lot impossible. I think uh we you know sent our kids to camps that were maybe hundred or two hundred, and we thought, man, that's a lot of kids. Yeah. But wow, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

It is, it's really neat. It's a it's a great experience for students. And so, like I said, what makes uh Upper Deer Creek unique is that we take our students down there. Uh, the last several years, we have taken you know, anywhere from 50 to 80 students, and uh uh this year we plan on doing it again. We're gonna be leaving on June the 28th and returning on July the 4th. Okay. We're gonna make that drive in one day. It's it's gonna be about a 14, 14 and a half hour drive. So, in in a van with that many kids, especially junior high boys, it's gonna be really fun.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

We had some vacations with our three kids, and uh every time I threaten to at least leave one in some remote location along the way.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

I don't know that we threaten, we kind of promise that we will. Okay, there you go. No, we um, but uh yeah, uh, we're excited to be able to take our students this year. The the theme for False Creek this year is called The Greatest, and it comes from the Great Commission of Matthew 28, 16 through 20. Yeah. And uh that's gonna be our uh focal point for the entire week there, hoping that we can uh let our kids know that although Jesus is the greatest, whenever he was in that conversation with those disciples, and and there were some that kind of doubted, some that were excited, but some that kind of doubted that he was even standing in front of them. Uh, our hope and our prayer through uh what we're gonna experience at campus year is to tell our students that they should never doubt, and they should never even doubt themselves, that they have hope. They have someone that is greater than them, uh, that can take care of them, that can um just protect them and wrap his arms around and move, mold, and shape in their life. And uh uh let our students know today that they have a purpose in life, and that purpose is to glorify God and and to do it here on the earth that that God has created them in.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah, that whole identity thing is such a big thing, and thinking that I'm not enough and social media just feeds that because they're on that just constantly. They just can't you just look around, you see everybody this is just attached to their phone. Yep. And so what the world says they are and who God says they are is way, way different.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yeah, and you know, even the commercials that these kids watch these days, if they still watch commercials, you know, they're they're telling you, you drink this drink, or you wear these shoes, or you wear these clothes, you know, you can be this. And um they they don't they don't have to be somebody else, they need to be who God created them to be. And so that's our hope at False Creek this year is that we can teach our students that that they are so much more than what the world wants them to be.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah, yeah. Brian, did you go to church camp? Did you grow up going to church camp? Um, were you a part of a your your dad was a pastor, so he was actually church camp, right? Yeah, he was a camp manager. That's what I saw.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

I grew up on a camp. Oh wow. Um talk about an awesome childhood. Yeah, it was mostly I think it was late elementary through high school. Um had a it you said it was like 12 weekends right out of the weeks of the year that you have camp. It was about the same for us. It was an incredible childhood growing up on a church. So did y'all live on campus? Oh wow, yeah. We didn't have 10,000 people, we had the you know 200 tops, right? We we weren't that large, but it was the Tidewater Christian Service Camp. Um so all the Virginia Beach churches, uh Newport News churches came to our camp. It was awesome, man. And I can tell you, um the camp changes lives. It does. It does. Yeah, there's so many stories of the kids that um even back then, way back then, um kids were struggling with identity and identity and things back. Some of that hasn't changed, yeah. It hasn't. Um, and then just to see how they changed throughout that week and then to go home and to continue that, to have that support group with their churches and stuff, it was just incredible, incredible stories. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Well, my life was changed at False Creek. Um uh June 18th of 1997, I surrendered my life to Christ. I was 16 years old at False Creek, and uh, you know, great. I had gone for whatever young man's reason for going to camp is, which is a girl. Uh God had other plans for me. And so that Wednesday night on June the 18th, I surrendered my life to Christ, and um uh it has just been um year after year after that. I can I can see how God has has worked through that camp and how he continues to work through that camp, and I can just bring that back. Our students can bring that back. Yeah, and um it's just um it's it's a great place. It's a great place to be.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Yeah, and what I love is you have a community here to support them when they get back, too. Like if they're not a part of your church, you know, you're you're very welcoming, like, yeah, come be a part of this youth group. They they will need that. Yeah, they will definitely need that when they get back.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Well, last night, you know, we we had an event last night, we did a volleyball and movie night, and uh, we had 48 students there on our lawn at Upper Deer Creek Church, and that just kind of shows the community that churches can provide for the students that are coming back from camp, uh, having that mountaintop experience. And, you know, every every year there's always that valley when you come back. And our hope, uh, especially at Upper Deer Creek Church, and I can't speak for all other churches, but I I think I can that their hope is to to remain at that mountaintop, that that peak in those students' lives.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Yeah, continue to nourish that uh the things that they learn at camp, the the relationships they build, you can continue that on. Absolutely. That's exciting. Now, what uh what can we do if somebody is interested in in a student? Because you're you could have students going from all over the place, right? Correct. So how could they how do they get in touch with uh with Falls Creek, or if they if somebody's listening to this and they have a young person in their family, how do they get connected? What do they need to do?

SPEAKER_00 11:20

So for here in our area, uh if you would like to go with our church at Upper Deer Creek, you just go to our website, upperdearcreek.com, and under the Ministries tab, you would just select students and then you'll see all the False Creek information there. Uh the the best way for other people to go is to find a church that does make that trek to False Creek. Okay. Uh preparation for False Creek started last year. Uh, and so if a church has not already gotten in at False Creek, it's going to be difficult for them to do it now. But um, you know, for next year, the the opportunity is there for them. They could just go to uh falsecreek.org and they can get a little bit more information there. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

And falsecreek.org.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Falsecreek.org.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

And 'cause it can be a life changing like it was for you and like it was for Brian. Absolutely. And uh and for one of my daughters. I mean, that just she went there as a kid and then she wanted to go back as an older teenager to, you know, help with little kids because it just was life-changing. Yeah. Yeah. So that's just there's something, something amazing about an experience like that. And it's the same experience that Jesus had, like you mentioned this morning with his followers for three and a half years, is that they got to live in community together. And it's not like, hey, come and read this book. It's come and follow me. Yep. So there's that relational piece that cannot be substituted by all the academic learning in the world. There have to be relationships. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, thanks for uh all you do at Upper Deer Creek for your family. Tell us a little bit about who's in your family.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

So I uh will be celebrating my 20th uh wedding anniversary this October with my wife. Okay. Her name is Robin, and then we have three kids. Uh, all go to Northwestern, our uh oldest. He's 12. Uh be a seventh grader uh seventh grader. Oh my gosh, he'll be a seventh grader.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Wow. Um you must have married a much older woman then if you had a seventh grader.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Um his name is Rhett, and then I have twin eight-year-olds that are will be third graders at Northwestern. And I tell you what, they're their names are uh Reese and Rylan, and um I I have to constantly keep my eye on them or else our house would be burnt down. So they they are a hoot.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Well, that's so great. So we're glad to have you in the area, glad to have you in Indiana. Uh so thankful for what God uh did in your life at False Creek uh a long time ago, and now what you get to kind of help duplicate in the lives of other students here. So Brian, what about uh as far as if people want to get a hold of Merrillbros and they have questions or they want to explore their spiritual journey? How could they do that?

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Just go to Merrillbros.com, click on the prayer tab at the top of the page, fill out that contact form, and uh we'll we will reach out to you. Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yeah, it's always great when we get those and we get to respond and say, hey, we want to walk alongside of you on whatever part of the journey you're on.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Yeah, and if you have questions, like we love to answer questions. A lot of people have questions about faith and just trying to understand it all, and uh, we'd love to walk you through those questions.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah, we love questions and uh so does Jesus. That's right. So that's great. Well, we want to uh pray as we wrap up our podcast. And uh Roy, I'd love for you to just pray for the teens that are represented in our company as well as the teens that are going to be at Falls Creek. I mean, that's just that's thousands upon thousands of teenagers whose lives this summer will be changed for eternity. And so we're so excited about that. Um Brian, I'm we've got a lot of new hires coming for our company. So I'll have you pray for great wisdom for uh for our team as they our HR team as they continue to put out applications and all the things that are going to happen now and in our future. We're gonna be in the hiring mode for a long time. Um which is a great thing. And then I want to pray for your team, Brian. You guys do an incredible job of getting this message out. So I want to pray for your marketing team, and then kind of alongside of that, we have an IT, it's called Devoted IT. They're our uh technical team that works on all of our uh computers, gets all of our stuff set up, uh, makes sure that we're safe as possible from um all the uh internet predators. And so uh we want to pray for uh that team uh as well. So let's uh let's go ahead and pray. And Roy, you can uh you can start us off if you would. All right.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

God, we're just so thankful for you, and we're thankful for this opportunity to be in your presence to worship your name through prayer, through conversation, through fellowship. And so, Father, right now, I just lift up every student, every child that uh is represented here at Merrill Brothers.

unknown 16:11

God thanks.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

God, to know that their family member, their dad or their mom is here, they're working and they're they're they're trying hard to provide for their family. Father, I know as a working man what our children feel. And so, Father, I pray that your hand would be upon them and to help them understand and know, God, that their parent is off doing something to provide for them, to get them what they need for their life, not want, but need. And so, Father, I pray for their spiritual being. God, their understanding of what the world is attacking them with, with the doubt, the anxiety that these kids face each and every day. Father, I pray that your hand would be upon them to help them know, God, that they are needed in this world, that they are wanted in this world, that it's not just a you're here to just do and exist and be whatever, but Father God, they have a purpose in life. Just as the disciples doubted, Father, that Jesus' existence was there, uh, was even there after his death and burial, and now we're at his resurrection. Father, I pray that our students today, represented in Merrill Brothers and the surrounding areas, and even those in Florida, Father, would know and understand that Jesus is standing before them and that there is no reason for doubt anymore. That there's no reason for anxiety because, God, your hands are wrapped around them. You are leading, you were molding, and you are shaping them to be the men and women that you have created them to be. And so, Father, we lift them to you, and we pray that your hand would be upon them and that you would continue to guide them and help them see and know that you are God and that they are loved. Thank you, Jesus, once again for this time. May we continue to glorify your name as we go throughout our day. I pray these things in your name.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Dear Henry Father, we just are so thankful that we work for a company that puts you first. In this time of hiring, we just pray that you would put those folks in our path, that uh in some way, somehow, they would find that job posting and apply. God, and we are we're just putting all the faith and trust in you uh to bring the right people uh to Merrow Brothers. And I just want to pray for those who are already here, uh all of our employees, and just so thankful for them. I just pray, God, that you would watch over them, protect them. Uh I just pray, God, that your hand would be upon these guys as they're out in the fields, as they're working in lagoons, digesters, whatever it might be, driving trucks, God, that you would be uh just just that your angels would be around them and protecting them and just uh thank you again, God, for such a great company. We can see your hand in so many things and all things in this company, and we love you for that, and give you all the praise and glory.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Eternal and gracious God, we recognize that every good and perfect gift comes from our Father above. So thanks for the gift of our marketing team, and the gift of our IT team. Thank you for the people that are represented on those teams and for the incredible work that they do behind the scenes in order that uh we get to get this message out uh in a way that is attractive, in a way that's compelling, in a way that will continue to uh spur on new business and let people know what you're doing. Uh, it really is a way to make you famous everywhere. And so thanks that we get to do that. And so uh we're so grateful for Brian and for his marketing team and for what you're doing to uh use them uh to allow us to get this uh amazing message uh all over the United States. And Father, thank you for Stephen and for the uh IT team and the new people that are joining us team. And thank you for the fact that they're they sit in a room a lot of times uh and work on things that that keep us safe when it comes to our computers and and keeping uh dangerous viruses from attacking us and all the other things that want to use technology in an evil way. Thanks for that protection from them and for the intelligence that you've given to them. So we're just grateful for uh the fact that we get to be a part of an incredible company and that we get to celebrate this beginning of June together. And so we just pray for the people that are listening, uh the struggles, the doubts, the anxiety that they were going through, and pray that they might recognize that in you alone is hope. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, thanks again, Roy, for uh joining us. Uh, we'll be excited to hear at the end of the summer what happens in the lives of teenagers uh all over the nation, and that uh God will do an incredible work at Falls Creek. Thank you for the invite. I really appreciate it. Brian, good to have you back and uh have a great week. You too. Look forward to uh getting with you next week. So take care and uh keep keep in touch with us in order that we can help you take a next step toward Jesus. Amen. Take care. Bye.