The great promise of Christian camping

Across Canada, Christian camping is flourishing. It is gaining in size and influence. Many Christian camps, including most of the Mennonite Brethren camps across Canada, are crowded. Late applicants can’t get in. What’s happening?

The reality is this. During the last 35 years, Christian camping has replaced week-long evangelistic meetings, especially the earlier tent crusades, as the most effective outreach ministry of the church. Where else do the unchurched readily pay to get into a Christian setting? Where else do the unchurched seek out the church and beg to come under its tutelage? Where else do churched and unchurched children and youth come in such large numbers that the facilities often cannot accommodate them?

It’s not only the children and young people who crowd our summer camps. Many thousands of people of all ages attend off-season retreats and other short-term endeavours. Like the summer campers, some of these come to faith and many are nurtured to have a deeper walk with God. Of course, the staff members also benefit from their involvement.

Unfortunately, many churches – though there are exceptions – have not yet perceived this reality. Oh yes, they have heard many baptismal candidates describe how they were brought to faith or to a deeper discipleship under the lordship of Christ through a Christian camp, but they have not yet granted Christian camping a significant place in that most reliable of all priority barometers, the annual budgets.

That needs to change. The small tents, so to speak, of camping have replaced the big tents of sawdust trail evangelism. Our planning and priorities should reflect that reality.

The need for Christian evangelism and instruction focusing on the younger generation is urgent. Josh McDowell reports that 63 percent of Christian youth do not believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God. Fifty-eight percent believe all faiths teach equally valuable truths; 51 percent do not believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead!

George Barna, another Christian social science researcher, adds that while 93 percent of American youth consider themselves Christian and 80 percent say that they want a close relationship with God, 75 percent believe Satan is only a symbol, and 75 percent believe all religious traditions have equal value. Barna adds that more than half of Christian young people believe there are no absolute moral standards, that Jesus sinned while living on earth, and that the Bible does not condemn homosexual behaviour.

Clearly, Christian camping, as a major arena of Christian teaching and discipling, has a challenging agenda.

Why has Christian camping become so successful as an outreach and nurturing arm of the church? Six vital dimensions come to mind.

1. Christian camping ministers to the total person.

Few Christian institutions today, and virtually no non-Christian institutions, minister to all three components of a person – body, mind and soul. Christian camping is committed to doing so, and does so in a natural, integrated manner.

2. Christian camping creates genuine community.

Christian camping is designed to create community – a new community, one that is not only taught but also lived and experienced. It is group living 24 hours a day. The familiar routines, malls, media habits and free time preoccupations are all left behind. By enabling campers and counsellors to understand and participate in an authentic Christian community, a Christian camp enriches these people for the rest of their lives. And this experience is especially important as the traditional family, the most basic community, weakens.

3. Christian camping generates relationship with others.

Camping is a highly relational experience. Close relationships cannot be avoided. Truth surfaces and rough edges get worn down. A Christian camp models and teaches kindness, forgiveness, tolerance, generosity, gratitude, respect, honesty, being other-oriented, learning how to deal with temptation, and understanding that love is more a decision than a feeling. In their play, worship, dining, project activities, and learning of lessons, campers come to realize a cardinal Christian truth: it’s not how much we know, not even how much we do, but how much we love that counts most.

The 24-hour-a-day relationships experienced in one week of camping add up to more time than youth pastors have with their charges during an entire year and also more than most parents spend with their children in six months!

4. Christian camping fosters a close relationship with God.

Here we encounter the heart of the Christian camping experience. A Christian camp intentionally emphasizes the presence of God, the love of God, and a personal acceptance of Christ’s salvation – the most important of all relationships. Ideally, at a Christian camp every camper, counsellor or staff member either becomes a believer or grows in a faith already rooted.

Granted, not all campers make such a decision but they are all brought face to face with the fundamental options. Where there is vulnerability, there is also support. Where there is openness, there is also understanding. Where there is questioning, there are also answers. And where there is commitment, there is mentoring. That’s what camps do.

5. Christian camping creates memories that last.

Camping is not a spectator or individualistic sport. The physical and social environment and the carefully planned schedules often create memories and relationships that last for decades or even a lifetime. New songs, new games, wilderness adventures, group dining, camp duties, camp prizes, and teachable moments all become memories.

6. Christian camping produces leaders.

Where else do young people encounter major blocks of time, in a Christian environment, to experience character and leadership development? Where else are they afforded extensive opportunities to assess and understand their own potential? Where else do they receive intensive moral training, especially in their later camping years, to become disciplined moral leaders in a rapidly decaying society? Other than during attendance at a Christian school, or membership in an exceptionally strong Christian family, the venues are few. A survey by Christian Camping International/USA found that more than half of all people in full-time Christian ministry made life-changing decisions while at camp.

Christian camping has come of age. It may well have become the most effective and efficient outreach and nurturing arm of the Christian church today. It deserves encouragement and whole-hearted support – moral, financial, physical and prayer support. It also deserves the ministry of willing volunteers.

John Redekop is board chair and development officer of Stillwood Camp and Retreat Centre, Lindell Beach, B.C. He lives in Abbotsford.