By Garry Sanossian
The sound of laughter, tribal team chants, and worship music filled the air earlier this month at The Tops Conference Centre as 139 young people and 54 leaders from across our network gathered for Drastic Camp 2025 to explore the limitless love of God!
Drastic is our network’s annual youth camp for students in Years 7 to 12, run by youth leaders and teams from our churches. This year’s program, themed “Limitless!” was designed to inspire faith, create spiritual friendships and conversations, significant memories, and help the next generation grow in their walk with Jesus. Every moment of the program invited campers to see that God’s love reaches further than they could ever imagine.
Pete Sargent (Connect Church, Engadine), one of the camp directors alongside Brianna Sargent and Tina Phillips (Northside Church, Turramurra), explained the heart behind the theme.
“We worship God and sometimes we live with these walls and these barriers up,” he said. “They’re (campers) realising that all these barriers, all these walls, all these fears and concerns and worries we have are actually man-made. We put those barriers up. Yet introducing them to this theme of limitlessness shows that God himself is limitless.”
Tina explained that the camp’s approach was intentionally designed to create lasting impact beyond the week. “Part of our purpose of Drastic is to create an unforgettable experience, provide plenty of space for God to work through all the activities throughout the camp as well as help the campers and leaders to encounter God in ways that impact how they are going to return to their families and their churches,” she said.
“The hype and mountaintop experiences that come with a week-long camp are unique and often far from what our normal life looks like. Our aim was to give the campers opportunities to also meet God in the quiet to help show them ways that they can continue to encounter, experience and grow closer to God when they return home.”
Throughout the week, campers reflected what God was doing in their lives on a testimony wall of silver notes.
“There’s just silver glistening across the wall,” Pete said. “One of the testimonies said, ‘Jesus showed me joy this week for the first time in a long time.’ Another said, ‘This week I learned what true friendship is and what a true relationship with God is.’ Thank you Jesus that it wasn’t something that we did, but it was God that was meeting them.”
The depth of engagement among campers was evident in their response to the teaching. “A few highlights are how many of the study campers would gather after the evening session had finished each night and discuss what they had learnt throughout the day, encourage and pray for each other,” Tina said.
For Logan, a camp leader from Tribe Youth Engadine, serving at Drastic was deeply personal. “My highlight of this camp is seeing people that I know personally who are struggling with God, but I’m slowly seeing them make that choice to love and follow God in their own way,” she said.
“I was worshipping with a girl last night and she raised her hands in worship, I believe for the first time, and in that moment she chose to celebrate and praise God. It was just so awesome to see.”
Logan’s motivation for serving comes from her own journey of transformation.
“I serve because I know what a life without God was like,” she said. “Now having found Him and the complete and utter joy that I have with Him is so unreal that I just can’t wait to share that with everyone around me. I just want everyone to know the love and joy that is having a relationship with God.”
Ryan from SeeChange Church, Miranda, who has been involved with Drastic since 2017, first as a camper now as a leader, reflected on the lasting impact of the experience.
“I think I’ve seen God working a heap on Drastic,” he said. “This camp has been especially marked by surrender, giving everything to God and trusting him with it all. Watching my youth boys kneel in worship and truly surrender was really uplifting for me as a leader.”
Pete reflected on how Drastic shapes lives long after camp ends.
“On Monday night, I had a young leader share, Tim. I was Tim’s SYNC Camp leader when he was in Year 6. He’s grown up through SYNC and Drastic and is now leading. Seeing him share on the first night of camp was like a full circle to me,” he said.
“It’s not a ‘one camp and done’ relationship. It’s about truly investing in these kids for the long haul and for their eternity and that’s why I do what I do.”
The impact of Drastic 2025 has continued to unfold in the weeks following camp. “It has been so encouraging to hear the youth and leaders who attended Drastic reflect on and share their experiences with our church on Sunday,” Tina said.
“We heard stories of a young person who gave his life to Christ, young people who encountered God in new ways and others who stepped out in faith to pray for someone for the first time. We also heard how God revealed Himself to each of them, impacted their lives, and worked through them.”
