Introduction Camping Ministry has been absolutely critical to my own personal spiritual journey. My life, and my faith, would look very different if it were not for camp. This is certainly not to say that I would not be a Christian if it were not for camp, but it is definitely to say that my faith is stronger because of camp. To explain this more in depth, I need to go into my personal spiritual journey for a moment. Growing up, I lived in a home with parents who were what I would describe as nominally Christian. We went to church on Sundays, which I thought was fairly boring, but that was about all the spirituality that existed in our lives. I followed this pattern in my own life, and really only had the faith of my parents. This changed
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Many of my best friends I me working alongside them at camp, and I saw a lot of them grow as a result of it. Something Village Creek often did, very intentionally, was have one or two staff members who worked behind the scenes who were not Christians. This always created some interesting challenges, but provided opportunities for growth for that staff members, as well as the staff members around them. The other staff members learned how to minister over the course of a full summer to someone, which is unusual at camp. They also learned how to relate to someone in a different manner and a lot of useful discipleships skills. Obviously, the staff person was consistently exposed to Christianity and generally moved in a more positive direction in their lives. Many of these staff members have become Christians, and strong ones at that. More recently, research has been done to determine if working at a summer camp really is an effective way for young people to develop. Some of this research has even been conducted in secular settings, like 4-H. It has shown that the more years teens spent as a camp counselor, the higher their levels of leadership and responsibility were (Digby & Ferrari, 2007). A plethora of other positive characteristics emerged in the research as well. Clearly, development occurs for camp
Many of my best friends I me working alongside them at camp, and I saw a lot of them grow as a result of it. Something Village Creek often did, very intentionally, was have one or two staff members who worked behind the scenes who were not Christians. This always created some interesting challenges, but provided opportunities for growth for that staff members, as well as the staff members around them. The other staff members learned how to minister over the course of a full summer to someone, which is unusual at camp. They also learned how to relate to someone in a different manner and a lot of useful discipleships skills. Obviously, the staff person was consistently exposed to Christianity and generally moved in a more positive direction in their lives. Many of these staff members have become Christians, and strong ones at that. More recently, research has been done to determine if working at a summer camp really is an effective way for young people to develop. Some of this research has even been conducted in secular settings, like 4-H. It has shown that the more years teens spent as a camp counselor, the higher their levels of leadership and responsibility were (Digby & Ferrari, 2007). A plethora of other positive characteristics emerged in the research as well. Clearly, development occurs for camp