Youth Summer Ministries - The Mountain T.O.P. Experience

published: 9/13/2005

This dynamic one week mission project, engages approximately 120 campers from all across the nation in Christian community...


The camp communities are broken down into approximately 13 Youth Renewal Groups (YRGs), made up of seven to eight youth and adults, who serve families in 13 different Tennessee counties.

Whether the project includes building a porch, painting a room, or repairing a fence, the service is founded in Christian compassion. The summer staff plan and coordinate all projects as well as provide materials. All projects are considered minor home repair or maintenance projects. Adults that participate have a camper role equal to that of the youth.

Each evening, the community gathers for dinner, a time of sharing about their day’s experiences, and worship. They spend time examining how their experiences were an outreach of their faith, and how they met the different needs of the families they served. It is a time of worship that allows youth to reflect upon how their service that day helped them to grow in their relationship with Christ. The Mountain T.O.P. experience not only provides the opportunity to be in service to others, but more importantly, it provides the opportunity to understand “why” we are in service.
 

Mountain T.O.P. (Tennessee Outreach Project)

published: 4/3/2005

We are an interdenominational Christian Mission affiliated with the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church, dedicated to rural life ministry in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee.


We are an interdenominational Christian Mission affiliated with the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church, dedicated to rural life ministry in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee.

Specifically, Mountain T.O.P. seeks to empower those it serves through a philosophy of partnership. Helping to enable the staff, camp participants, and Cumberland Mountain families to realize their potential and their responsibility as God's servants can address the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.

Mountain T.O.P. is concerned with achieving immediate results through direct social service programming and serves only those who have expressed a need. While striving to serve as a "faith-in-action" classroom, participants are encouraged to serve those who express needs in their own hometown.

The Mountain T.O.P. Story

After serving together at the Hinton Rural Life Center in North Carolina during the summer of 1974, several youth from Blakemore United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee wanted to take their experience into their own "backyard." After much prayer and planning, the Mountain T.O.P. dream was born. The backyard turned out to be the Cumberland Mountain counties east of Nashville. In the summer of 1975, the first Mountain T.O.P. camp was held at Beersheba Springs Methodist Assembly in Grundy County. Over 200 participants, representing 12 church families, were a part of this first camp.

Since that first camp week, the ministry has continued to grow. Initially begun as a youth camp program, Mountain T.O.P. now also offers opportunities for adult and college individuals and groups. As the ministry has grown, three things have remained constant. These are the foundational objectives of Mountain T.O.P.

* To help meet the physical, spiritual, emotional and social needs of the Tennessee Cumberland Mountain people.

* To actively encourage the Christian growth of the participants and staff who come to Mountain T.O.P.

* To develop the leadership skills of participants and staff.

In meeting these needs, Mountain T.O.P. has been able to effect change in the lives of many. As we move toward the future, we keep our eyes focused on the horizon ahead and our hearts rooted in the knowledge that He who began a great work in us will see it to completion.

Foundational Scriptures

"As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea-for they were fishermen. And he said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.' Immediately they left their nets and followed him."
- Matthew 4:18-20 (NRSV)

"Then the King will say to the people on his right, 'Come, my Father has given you his blessing. Receive the kingdom God has prepared for you since the world was made. I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was alone and away from home, and you invited me into your house. I was without clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me'....And the King will answer 'I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me.' "
- Matthew 25:34-36,40 (New Century Version)