Participation
5 Elements of Participation
Falls Creek allows for a great deal of individual church flexibility, to allow each group their own unique camp experience. To participate in Falls Creek, you must be an Oklahoma Baptists church or Southern Baptist church or agree to the non-affiliated Statement of Participation from the Oklahoma Baptists Board of Directors.
It is important that every church understands the specific requirements to attend one of the finest youth camps in the world, Falls Creek.
Every church attending Falls Creek agrees to the following:
- Your church must be an Oklahoma Baptists or Southern Baptist Church or agree to the non-affiliated Statement of Participation from the Oklahoma Baptists Board of Directors.
- Your youth pastor/group leader is required to complete the mandatory online registration process.
- Create your online registration account before arriving yearly deadline.
- Your youth pastor/group leader must complete all registration forms and agree to require his or her group to adhere to all camp regulations, including the Dress Code and Code of Conduct.
- Your group must attend the Morning and Evening Worship Service, and your church must provide a quiet time, an in-cabin Bible Study, and evening devotional/wrap-up for your group. *
*In-cabin Bible study and cabin wrap-up/evening cabin devotional materials are provided online in the spring of each camp year. These studies are available online for download. Quiet time materials are provided online and in the Student Guide given to every student and sponsor at registration on Monday of your camp week.
Churches may use the provided materials to align with the theme of the day or they may use their own materials. But, each church must conduct some kind of quiet time, morning Bible study, and evening devotion with their students at the appropriate time per the Falls Creek daily schedule
Statement of Participation for Non-Affiliated Churches
Falls Creek Youth Encampment is the largest Christian youth camp in America. It was founded and is still operated by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (Oklahoma Baptists) primarily for Oklahoma Baptists churches. Over the camp’s long history, many churches have come as guests of Oklahoma Baptists churches or have brought their own groups and participated in the youth weeks. The information below describes some unique requirements for participation for churches not affiliated with Oklahoma Baptists.
FEES
Since Oklahoma Baptists churches support Falls Creek year-round by giving to the Cooperative Program, non-affiliated churches are asked to pay a higher gate registration fee of $90.00 per person per week to attend Falls Creek (Oklahoma Baptists churches pay $55.00 per person per week) and to also pay a $15.00 per person programming fee, for every participant over 6 years of age.
BASIC BELIEFS
The Oklahoma Baptists Board of Directors requires that all non-affiliated churches participating in a Falls Creek youth week must either be a Southern Baptist church from another state or an Evangelical church that agrees to the basic beliefs of Southern Baptists (as printed below).
If a non-affiliated church has a problem with any of the Basic Beliefs found below, please feel free to contact our office to discuss the attendance requirements with Todd Sanders, the Program Director, (405) 942-3000 ext. 4301.
OTHER DENOMINATIONS
If a non-Southern Baptist church has students or sponsors who would like to participate on the decision team, that’s fine, we just request that during the invitation time they only counsel or meet students from their group. Of course, all students are free to respond to the public invitation given during the Evening Worship Service Tuesday through Friday.
BASIC BELIEFS OF SOUTHERN BAPTISTS
The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.
God
There is one and only one living and true God. …The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. …God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. …He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. …He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. …He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. …By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. … The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.
God’s Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. …All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace but shall persevere to the end.
The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel…and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. …This church is an autonomous body. …The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all ages.
Baptism & the Lord’s Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. …It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.
The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members … memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
The Lord’s Day
The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. …It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion.
The Kingdom
The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by a trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God’s will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. …Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly…the dead will be raised, and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. …The righteous… will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations … to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort.
Education
The cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is coordinated with the causes of missions and general benevolence … there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. …The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.
Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtor-ship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions.
Cooperation
Christ’s people should … organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. …Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations.
The Christian & the Social Order
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and in human society. … The Christian should oppose in the spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness, and vice.
Peace & War
It is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness. In accordance with the spirit and teachings of Christ, they should do all in their power to put an end to war.
The true remedy for the war spirit is the gospel of our Lord. The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of His teachings in all the affairs of men and nations, and the practical application of His law of love. Christian people throughout the world should pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace.
Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. …A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. …Marriage is the unity of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. …The husband and wife are of equal worth before God since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. …Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.