I spent the summers of 2007 and 2008 serving on the leadership team at the Warren W. Willis United Methodist Camp in Fruitland Park, Florida. At its core, the job of a camp counselor is simple: to engage in relational ministry with fourth through twelfth graders. Or, perhaps even more simply: to love the campers.

As Stephen Colbert said in his commencement speech at my school last year: “Service is love made visible.” In practice, loving campers means serving them.

Christ calls us to serve, to put the needs of another person or community before our own. At camp, service is leading a middle school small group, teaching archery, and dancing with fourth graders at praise time. At camp, service is plunging toilets, calming bed wetters, and consoling homesick campers. At camp, service is spending the entire summer after graduating high school away from your friends, giving up the freedom of setting your own schedule (and sleep schedule), and doing basically the same thing week after week while trying to make it fresh and exciting for the kids. At camp, service is love made visible.

The success of the ministry of the Warren W. Willis United Methodist Camp depends on willingness of the leadership team to serve. Likewise, the success of the ministries of the First United Methodist Church of Orlando as well as the greater United Methodist Church, depend on our service, which we pledged in our membership vows. So go out, serve, and make visible Christ’s radically inclusive love in our church and our community.