Every year, hundreds of men gather at BASECAMP with a shared desire—to grow in faith, strengthen their relationships, and be challenged by solid biblical teaching. For Mike, BASECAMP has been a transformative experience. It’s not just the powerful teaching or the atmosphere of worship that stands out, but the depth of conversations it sparks.
1. Introduce yourself and how long you’ve been attending BASECAMP!
My name is Mike and I’m a Youth Pastor at Harbourside Church in Mosman. I’ve probably been coming along to Basecamp for 7/8 years.
2. What have been some of the highlights of attending BASECAMP?
The shared gathering of a couple thousand blokes all with a desire to deepen faith and strengthen relationships with one another is a big highlight for me. I’ve often seen incredible depth in relationships form over the weekend as our groups have spent time reflecting and discussing content that we’ve been hearing. I’ve personally found some great strength in one particular relationship with a mate of mine and our times at BASECAMP discussing the content has had a huge part to play in that.
A favourite memory would be what BASECAMP helps facilitate rather than something specific at the conference. As our group often stays the full weekend (in the Mountains), we had a great firepit night on the Sunday evening. It followed on from the content we had in the 2023 edition and provided a space and language to have a chat about how we were honestly doing with our emotions as well as a commitment to support one another. Without BASECAMP’s content and encouragement to pursue those sorts of things, stuff like that wouldn’t happen with our group of lads.
3. How has BASECAMP encouraged your faith?
I always come away from BASECAMP with a strong challenge, regardless of the teaching content. I think that’s largely down to the commitment and focus to provide good solid Biblical teaching that challenges me to ask some really good questions of myself, my faith and my lived experience following Jesus. I’ve never come down the mountain and thought, “Ah, well I didn’t really get much from that one.” It’s always been a transformative weekend and I leave encouraged and refreshed.
BASECAMP provides just a small space within the grand scheme of a year to take some time out and hang out as a bunch of lads, to know we’ll get solid teaching, great content and have plenty of food for thought that will foster great conversations both up at the mountain and back home.
4. Why do you think men should set aside time to attend conferences like BASECAMP?
Particularly in the church on Sundays, it’s tough to have properly deep conversations, where you actually work through the hard/serious/challenging/emotional stuff. It’s often just checking in and seeing how each other’s weeks were. Which don’t get me wrong, that’s great, but it doesn’t always scratch the itch for real depth in relationships. BASECAMP provides just a small space within the grand scheme of a year to take some time out and hang out as a bunch of lads, to know we’ll get solid teaching, great content and have plenty of food for thought that will foster great conversations both up at the mountain and back home. I couldn’t encourage it more highly to men’s groups of all sizes in churches.
Men, we know you love a good deal so make sure to grab your early bird tickets before they end this month!
