“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” — Hebrews 12:28–29
Who doesn’t love campfires?
It’s just great fun to go camping when it’s a little cold outside. The sun has set. The temperature is falling. The day is drawing to an end… or so you thought. It’s actually here that the best part begins. You grab whatever sticks, tree limbs, and brush you can find (or logs if you remembered to bring them). You stack them neatly in the center. The center of the camp. You pour the fuel on the wood, light it, and the magic begins.
You can learn a lot about life from a campfire.
The Center of Camp
Isn’t it interesting that we tend to place the fire right in the center? Everything else finds its place somewhere around the perimeter. So much of the day happens on the outskirts of the fire. You play, fish, swim, hike, and climb. You do all of this away from the fire. But one thing is sure: you know to come back together around the fire at the end of the day. It’s always on your mind.
The greatest stuff happens around the campfire, doesn’t it? Think about all the amazing conversations you’ve had there. It seems like there is more transparency and honesty around a campfire than any other place. Something about the sounds, the smells, and the sights of that one centrally placed fire breaks down all the barriers to what is good, honest, and right. Even the food’s better.
As your smoke-filled eyes begin to weigh heavier with every flicker of the fire, you realize the inevitable. You must climb in your tent and shut the mind and body down for the night. But wait. Then comes morning. You get to hear the sounds that only an early morning can give. You stir and awake to the smell of the smoke from the fire you went to sleep to. You burst out of your tent and stir the fire. Its flames grow, and so does the warmth you waited all night to have again. You sit. You think. You listen. Oh, the amazing gifts given by the early morning hours.
God Is Fire
Did you know that God refers to Himself as fire? When you place Him at the center of your camp, He stays at the front of your mind all day. Think about the fire. You find your deepest, most honest moments there. You feel safe, warm, fed, and filled. Sometimes you’ll just stare in awe and amazement. It’s at this fire that you feel prepared to face the highest of heights and lowest of lows. And then, at the end of the day, you’re ready for rest. When the night ends and the dawn begins to break, you’re anxious to awake and burst out of bed, ready to be back at the center of camp. Back at the fire.
That picture is beautiful. And it should be the picture of every leader’s life.
But if we’re honest, it often isn’t. For many leaders, God started at the center of camp. He was the fire that everything else was built around. But over time, other things crept toward the center. The career. The platform. The goals. The pressure to produce. And slowly, the fire got pushed to the edge. It’s still there. You can still see it flickering in the background. But it’s no longer what everything else revolves around.
When that happens, you feel it. The conversations aren’t as honest. The decisions aren’t as clear. The rest doesn’t come as easily. And that warmth, the one that used to greet you first thing in the morning and settle you at the end of the day, it’s harder to find. Not because the fire went out. But because you moved away from it.
What Happens When the Fire Is Central
I’ve noticed something consistent in the leaders I’ve worked with over the years. The ones who lead with the most clarity, the most peace, and the most lasting impact are the ones who have kept God at the center of their camp. Not at the edge. Not as an add-on. Not as a Sunday routine that gets squeezed in between everything else. He is the fire that everything else is arranged around.
When God is at the center, your leadership has warmth to it. People want to be near it. There’s an honesty in how you communicate, a safety in how you lead, and a steadiness that doesn’t waver when the temperature drops. You don’t have to manufacture transparency or force vulnerability. It just happens naturally, the way it does around a campfire, because the environment is right.
When God is at the center, your team gathers differently. The conversations go deeper. The trust grows stronger. The barriers come down. Just like a campfire draws people in and makes them feel like they belong, a leader whose life is centered on God creates a culture where people feel safe enough to be real.
And when God is at the center, you can go out and do the hard things of leadership, the long days, the difficult decisions, the challenging conversations, and know that you have a place to come back to. The fire is still burning. The warmth is still there. You don’t have to sustain yourself on your own. You come back to the center and you’re refueled.
The Morning Fire
There’s one detail in the campfire experience that I think leaders need to sit with: the morning. When you wake up and stir the coals from the night before, the fire comes back to life. You didn’t start from scratch. The coals were still hot. They just needed attention.
That’s how your walk with God works. Some mornings you won’t feel the fire. Some seasons will feel cold and dark. But the coals are still there. The relationship hasn’t gone out. It just needs to be stirred. And the stirring is your part. Getting up. Opening the Word. Talking to Him. Choosing to sit at the center of camp before the day pulls you in every other direction.
The leaders who burn out are almost always the ones who stopped tending the fire. They kept going out on the trail, kept pushing through the activities of the day, kept producing and performing, but they stopped coming back to the center. You can only run on the warmth of yesterday’s fire for so long before the cold sets in.
Next Steps for the Leader Who Wants to Get Back to the Fire
Honestly assess what’s at the center of your camp right now. Is it God? Or has something else gradually taken that place? Your work? Your image? Your ambition? Your anxiety? There’s no shame in admitting the fire got moved. But there is danger in leaving it there. Take an honest look this week and name what’s occupying the center.
Rebuild a morning rhythm around the fire. You don’t need a complicated devotional plan. You need to show up at the center of camp before the day starts. Even ten minutes of sitting with God, reading a passage, and saying “I’m here” can change the trajectory of your entire day. The coals are still hot. Stir them.
Create campfire moments with your team. One of the most powerful things a leader can do is create environments where the barriers come down and real conversation can happen. Not another meeting with an agenda. Something more like a campfire. A meal with no business talk. A debrief where you actually ask how people are doing. A conversation that goes beneath the surface. Those moments don’t happen by accident. You have to build them.
Come back to the fire at the end of the day. Just like a campfire draws everyone back at nightfall, let your last moments of the day be centered on God. Review the day with Him. Thank Him for what went well. Bring Him what didn’t. Let Him settle your heart before you rest. Leaders who end the day at the fire sleep differently than leaders who end the day in their own heads.
Guard the center. The biggest threat to your leadership isn’t an external crisis. It’s the slow drift of the fire from the center to the edge. Pay attention to what’s competing for that space. And every time something tries to take God’s place at the center of your camp, move it back to the perimeter where it belongs. The fire stays in the center. Everything else arranges around it.
Ask the Lord to give you this kind of passion and desire in your relationship with Him. The kind that makes you anxious to get out of bed in the morning, not because of what’s on your calendar, but because of who’s waiting for you at the center of camp.
Our God is a consuming fire. And He belongs at the center of everything you are and everything you lead. Get back to the fire.