Thank God for Church Camps!

Church camps are, in my opinion, one of the treasures of the church, a treasure that is simultaneously highly valued and grossly undervalued. It’s valued by those thousands of persons who had their faith nurtured at camp, had their leadership skills strengthened at camp, and had their identity stretched and enriched at camp.

At the same time, I don’t think outdoor ministries receive nearly the support they deserve from congregations or adjudicatories (synods, presbyteries, conferences, etc.) that they deserve. I understand, of course, that there are numerous demands on the dwindling resources of church bodies, but I’d argue that we underfund camps at our peril.

Why? Not only because of the positive impact church camps have on those who attend them, but also because I think that camps offer a model of more effective and faithful congregational ministry in today’s world.  The counselors and camp pastors, you see, not only have as their goal to help campers – whether kids, young adults, or adults at family camp – grow in their faith, but they’ve also figured out that in order to help people grow in their faith, they – the counselors and pastors – often have to get out of the way. That is, one of the huge reasons camp is so formative is that participants are invited to pray out loud and for each other, not just to listen to someone else pray. Campers of all ages are invited to retell the biblical story through songs, stories, skits, and more, not simply listen as someone else teaches about the story. Campers share their gifts in worship leadership rather than just watch as someone else “does it right,” which means each and every service both follows a recognizable pattern yet also is distinctly and wonderfully different because of the contributed gifts of those in attendance.

Camp staff, in short, know that faith is caught, not taught, and that you learn best by doing. Which is why I think they provide an interesting model for those who are interested in nurturing a different kind of faith community in and through our congregations. Because if we want to create congregations where the people in attendance aren’t simply gratefully receiving the performance of the pastor but instead are learning the key skills of living as a Christian themselves, then we have a lot to learn from our church camps.

So on this Tuesday, two days after spending some time this weekend with the great folks at Camp Calumet, an ELCA camp in Freedom, New Hampshire, I want to give thanks to God publically and loudly for the fantastic, formative ministry of church camps and pray that we’re both supporting them as we can and paying attention to what they’re doing.

 

Note: if you want to learn more about the outdoor ministry of the ELCA (the one I’m most familiar with), you can do so by clicking this link.