Articulating our Theology of Outdoor Ministries

I spent the past week at an outdoor ministry conference in Lake Tahoe with a group of Presbyterian (PCCCA) and Lutheran (LOM) camp people from across the USA and Canada. Together, we talked about the changing world of outdoor ministries and ways to collaborate in the future. We worshiped together, attended workshops, and listened to some challenging words from keynoter Kelly Fryer. More than any of these formal interactions, we talked and enjoyed wonderful Christian fellowship. We talked about our ministries around the dinner table, in some hot springs, and late at night over several rounds of drinks. Camp professionals are gracious, accommodating, and collaborative people. It was a great joy to share in community and bear one another’s burdens.

What strikes me about the role of outdoor ministry professionals is how much they are forced into the minutia of their work. The reality is that many outdoor ministry sites across the country are struggling for their very survival. There was much talk (including in Fryer’s keynote) about being entrepreneurial and how camps can think outside the box in order to provide funding for their ministries. Executive directors have boards to manage, budgets to meet, and many of them are struggling to hold onto their own jobs amidst crisis. The operative word is survival.

Meanwhile, the impact of outdoor ministries is losing recognition outside the camp circles. At an outdoor ministry conference, we all agree that camp is amazing, faith-forming ministry. From the outside, however, many people question the efficacy and importance of outdoor ministry. Support is dwindling as church membership declines and cooperative organizations like denominations are forced to make difficult budgetary decisions. My own denominational body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has cut the vast majority of its support to the 132 Lutheran Outdoor Ministries (LOM) sites. Perhaps more troubling, the National Council of Churches recently voted to stop funding their Committee on Outdoor Ministries. Congregational youth ministries continue to have national cooperation, deep theological articulation, and tremendous support, but so little of this is focused on promoting outdoor ministries.

In response, some camps are seeking to broaden their reach with token programs for which they are largely unsuited. Since creative programming is helping to slow the decline for some camps, much of what happens at an outdoor ministry conference is intentional sharing of innovative ideas that are succeeding in bringing people to camp. Again, the focus is on survival and “filling the bunks.” Of course, this is overly simplistic. Camping ministers do what they do because they believe in the power of the ministry and have witnessed that life-changing power at work in people’s lives. The problem I see is that they are forced to focus so much on survival that an overarching philosophy of camping gets pushed into the background. The result is that those not familiar with the power of camp do not hear camp philosophy and theology clearly articulated, so they are left to draw their own conclusions. The conclusion I often hear is that camp is theologically shallow or even dangerous, so camp is at best a fun experience for the church kids and at worst detrimental to their faith formation. With no books or scholarly articles on the topic and very few outdoor ministry education programs, it is no surprise that church professionals turn to the ministries that are getting some buzz, such as short-term mission trips.

My belief is that something deeply theological is happening at camp, and we need to tell that story. We need to articulate a theological framework for outdoor ministries that will help our camps refocus on the camping ministry model that is so effective for faith formation. Our theological priorities matter because they shape who we are and to whom we are oriented moving forward.

Each year, LOM has a Leadership Training Event (LTE), and one of the center pieces of the education is to have each participant develop a “philosophy of outdoor ministries” focused on articulating the philosophy and theology behind the programming. Many of LOM’s current program and executive staff members went through the LTE. When I asked individuals at the conference about their philosophy papers from the LTE, people did not remember what they wrote. Workshops at the conference were almost exclusively practical, with almost nothing focused on articulating the theology and philosophy behind outdoor ministries. Theological priorities may be operative at our camps, but they are not always articulated.

It is time to dust off those philosophy papers and get some theological and scholarly attention on the vital ministry of camp. If you have not written one, sit down and put into words the theological priorities inherent in your outdoor ministry philosophy. We know that something deeply theological is happening at camp, but outsiders do not know that. To them, it’s all just fun and games. There is a lot at stake here, much more than just the survival of our individual camps. The theological priorities of outdoor ministries have the potential to shape the theology and ministry of Christ’s church. The “fun and games” of camp turn out to be generative theological praxes that take seriously the activity of Christ in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. As practical theologians continue to make the case that religious practice is not mere application but rather the very foundation of theological understanding, they would do well to recognize Christian camping ministry as a place where the activity of practical theology is already underway. Church professionals, too, have much to learn from the theological priorities of outdoor ministry. I have articulated some of these priorities in previous blog posts and in academic circles, and I will continue to do so. I invite you to join me.

Theology of the Cross and Camp: What a Mess!

Let’s get something straight: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is not in the Bible. (All the camp directors give a collective sigh of relief.) We Christians love building nice-looking church buildings “for the glory of God.” We hang beautiful artwork, the communion wear is spotless, and the stainless steel (or crystal) baptismal bowl is filled with fresh, potable water. The churches that really have their program in order boast worship bands that practice hours in advance of the service time so that the music throughout the service will be seamless and beautiful. Worship services are scripted to the point of perfection, and everyone has their part to play. Individually, these things are not necessarily bad, and most of them are done for very sensible reasons. My fear is that a focus on tidiness and cleanliness tends to gloss over the messiness of life and ministry to the point that they are unrecognizable as the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Life is far from neat and tidy. Life is a mess. If the primary place for encountering God is sterilized, what does that say about the relevance of the gospel in daily life? A cursory look at the gospels reveals that Jesus’ ministry was messy. He hung out with the outcasts of society and walked the dusty wilderness roads. The gospels come alive with the smell of the manger, the dirty feet of the disciples, the rot of leprosy, the bloody discharge of the hemorrhaging woman, and the stench of Lazarus’ tomb, yet the institutional church trades the muddy banks of the Jordan for the polished baptismal bowl.

The cross looks all neat and tidy when we place it shining on the altar or discuss theories of the atonement, but there is no tidying up the cross of the crucified God. The cross reveals that God is found in the messy, Godforsaken, suffering world. The tidy God can be controlled, polished, and presented to the masses, but the God of the cross breaks into the world in unexpected ways that cannot be neatly packaged or easily accounted for. Daring to create space for the messy human encounters where Christ might just show up is risky because it can shake the tower of theological academia and challenge denominational institutions. The truth is that much of the great theological work of the 21st century is being done in the dirty, imperfect world of messy relationships where the incarnate Christ is breaking in with news that the Kingdom of God has come near. The church needs places where people can connect as children of God amidst the grittiness of life, acknowledging one another in brokenness, and open to the diversity of ways in which God is working in people’s lives. It is difficult to find a place where this happens more concretely than at the Christian summer camp.

At camp, living in the Spirit becomes a way of life, not a sermon point. In intentional Christian community and through active engagement with the word of God and the practices of faith, campers are awakened to the possibility, or even the probability, that they will see God in some unique, unexpected way. At camp, young people become the recipients and the providers of pastoral care, with more direct attention to the reality of their suffering than most (if not all) other communities to which they belong. God shows up outside the pristine walls of the sanctuary in a grove of trees, an outdoor amphitheater, a campfire ring, or a lakefront. If they associate the church as place of worship with “the house of God,” they are able to reevaluate their notions of where God’s presence is found.

Even the camps that practice these virtues are far from idyllic worlds. Camps are risky places, full of tetanus, giardia, high-risk adventure activities, theological catastrophes, hormonal adolescents, and atrocious B.O. The reality is that relationships, experimentation, and openness to questioning make for a very messy environment not unlike the places Christ selected for his ministry. College-age summer staff that have very little theological training are wrestling with big faith questions alongside children and adolescents in their care. The explanations they try out in camp’s theological playground may or may not be theologically sound, but their wonderings are encouraged and theological thinking is affirmed in a manner that has life-long and even cross-generational implications. This theological playground is full of mistakes and failed experiments. It is messy. But the mess is where Christ shows up. Perhaps the most important thing that camp can teach the larger church is to be more comfortable with the mess.

Encountering the Other: Vocational Discernment at Camp

Like the adults who teach them, few young people live with a conviction that God is calling them. They live compartmentalized lives in which religious activities are separated from other commitments. Even if they consider themselves Christian, they are unlikely to bring theological reflection to bear on life circumstances, and they are even less likely to participate in daily faith practices. At camp, participants experience the rhythm of daily Christian living, where days are structured with devotions, Bible study, prayer, and worship. Participants live in a sort of “hyperawareness” for the inbreaking of God at any moment, which facilitates the “teachable moment.” This atmosphere is in sharp contrast to the majority of American homes. Integration of religious activities with daily living facilitates an awareness of God’s work in all aspects of life, and it encourages reflection on God’s activity in the world. It may be clear to a young person that God is present in a church building on Sunday morning, and so it makes sense that a pastor, priest, or deacon has a divine calling. At camp, the same young person may worship God at an outdoor chapel, around a campfire ring, or in a swimming pool and thus gain a broader understanding of where God is present and active. God is not located in a specific place or confined to a specific time of the week. God is at work in all realms of creation, and the divine calling can happen anywhere.

The turn toward the other is the beginning of vocation. The other is ever before us, in all his strangeness and alterity. The other calls to us, silently and aloud, with her own particular needs that may be complimentary to or in conflict with our own. A simple acknowledgement is not enough, and a cursory study will not suffice. An encounter with the other requires on-the-ground, face-to-face, heart-to-heart interaction that popular culture seldom facilitates or even allows. There are few places where social and cultural barriers that impede direct encounter with the other are effectively broken down, but camp seeks to demolish them. Camp is a place where adults play silly games and handshakes turn into hugs. At camp, intimacy is the default. Masks are removed to reveal the Face in all its particularity. Over the course of their days together, campers see one another in a variety of emotional and physical states. It does not matter if a camper is dirty and smelly because everyone is dirty and smelly. Campers have the opportunity to see the other away from the baggage of cultural and social stereotypes in a safe, loving environment and also to allow themselves to be seen. Instead of texting their friends about the lame experience they are having, the campers are forced to make sense of the person who is right in front of them. The other is not a screen name or an avatar; he is living and human.

The breaking down of barriers facilitates an intentional recognition of the other as integral to the created order, as special and beloved in God’s sight. For campers used to being put down and marginalized, the camp experience can be radically empowering.  Camp provides the space for differences and celebrates uniqueness. This focus on the other empowers individuals within the community and actually subverts societal forces that marginalize individuals and divide groups. “The other” matters because God is at work in this good creation, and God is speaking through the other, in spite of the brokenness and lack of faith. Vocationally speaking, this means that God is calling to me through the other and that the other is being called, a recognition that honors the other as a unique creation of God. Focusing on the origin of the vocational call reorients a person to “the other” and shifts the initial response from “I have a calling” to “Someone is calling.”

The Camp Guy Amidst the Academy

This past weekend, I attended my very first academic conference. I was nervous not only because I did not quite know what to expect from a group of "academics" but also because I was scheduled to present a paper. Since the main goal of pursuing my PhD is bringing more scholarly and intentional theological attention to outdoor ministries, I felt like there was a lot riding on my presentation. I tried to remain confident about my project and my abilities as a presenter, but doubts kept encroaching as the conference drew nearer. What if all the respectable academics thought my ideas were ridiculous? What if they did not accept me as a peer and colleague? What if nobody showed up to my presentation? What if I got to the middle of the presentation and really had to pee?
My experience at the Association of Youth Ministry Educators (AYME) conference in Chicago was tremendously positive. In retrospect, I am not sure why I expected anything different. Maybe I was hung up on the stereotypes of academics as stuffy, anti-social people with chips on their shoulders always ready to rip apart someone else's argument. In contrast to this, what I actually encountered were people. Real people. Many are published, and some are highly respected for their academic work, but they are people. More than anything, what I experienced at the AYME conference was Christian community. We were gathered in an atmosphere of building up the Body of Christ rather than tearing each other apart. This was in spite of a diversity of denominational affiliations and theological priorities. So I found myself hearing personal family struggles, having a drink, and watching a zombie movie with "respectable academics," who turned out to be genuine human beings.
The presentation itself went well. My colleagues showed a true interest in the research I uncovered about outdoor ministries and the connections I made in the paper with faith formation in emerging adults (see the previous two posts for some highlights). They asked great questions, and we had a respectful conversation.
One of my preconceived notions was that academics would view camp as theologically shallow and unworthy of serious consideration. I think in this case I was mixed in with the right crowd. As I got to know more and more of the 100+ youth ministry professors and other educators at the conference, I heard more and more stories about camp. Most of them had camp experiences in their past, and many shared stories of profound faith-forming experiences at camp. In many ways, this group of academics was prepared to hear that camp is a theologically rich environment. The conference was a very affirming experience for me. These colleagues truly let me know that I have broad support and caring accompaniment for my academic journey. They want me to succeed. They want me to succeed not only because they care about my project on outdoor ministries but also because they took time to learn about me, and they actually care about me as a brother in Christ.
As I continue to consider the incredibly affirming environment of Christian camp communities, it strikes me that this group of academics really gets it. In the context of caring Christian community, camp participants are nurtured in their vocational discernment, comforted through suffering, and accompanied through times of doubt. I never thought I would find a "camp like" environment at an academic conference. In conversation with colleagues, I heard deep hurt and suffering, and I felt like I was in a holy place as I bore witness to their stories, even as they bore witness to mine. The experience surprised me, but it was a refreshing surprise to find authentic Christian community in an unexpected place. I do not expect to have the same experience at all the academic conferences I attend, but at least now I know that I have true community support for the journey ahead.

Emerging Adult Faith Formation and the Camp Experience

In diverse studies on emerging adult religiosity, three essential factors consistently rise to the top as important for lasting faith formation: relationships, internalization of faith, and incorporation of faith into daily living. These factors align remarkably with the “essential trinity” of camping: community living, away from home, and in an outdoor, recreational environment. This alignment demonstrates why Christian summer camps are vibrant expressions of the church and tremendous laboratories for emerging adult faith formation.

Community Living: The Power of Relationships 

Given that Christianity is necessarily a communal religion, it is no surprise that the most consistent finding among the diverse studies on emerging adult religiosity is that relationships matter. As the notion of “individual spirituality” becomes increasingly popular among young people, they are encouraged to find their own spiritual path. Camp provides a radical alternative. Community living is the first and most important of camping’s “essential trinity.” Relationships form around daily practices of prayer, worship, and scripture reading to create intentional Christian communities. Over the course of the summer, emerging adult staff members support one another through physical and emotional exhaustion, personal crises, and a variety of new experiences. They share moments of intense joy and deep sorrow. As the community encounters conflict, they forgive and work through their differences rather than turning their backs on each other or “unfriending” someone. They bond in such an intimate way that at the beginning of each camp session during the summer, young campers are welcomed as honored guests into an already thriving Christian community. With the overall picture of emerging adults characterized by disengagement from religious communities, summer camp communities serve as bastions of hope and possibilities for the church of the 21st century.

Away from Home: A Chance to Own the Faith

The second essential aspect of emerging adult faith formation that researchers consistently identify is internalization of faith. Young people need to “own” their faith. Upon entering emerging adulthood, those who have not thought critically about their faith and identity are suddenly open to new possibilities and allowed to “be themselves” for what they perceive as the first time. Without the benefit of a supportive community as they are facing these difficult transitions, it is no wonder that so many emerging adults stray from the faith of their childhood.

The second of the “essential trinity” of camping is away from home. As set-apart communities of faith, Christian camps are ideal incubators of vocational identity. Away from the expectations and fixed judgments of school peers and family members, camp participants are able to deeply explore their identities in a safe, caring environment. They are given space for the essential task of differentiation, and they are encouraged to take risks. As the staff members explore and even experiment with new theological ideas and consider their vocational calling, new summer campers arrive each session with their own doubts and, perhaps for the first time in their lives, are able to express them openly without fear of judgment as a loving community proclaims the nature of their true identity through words and deeds: “You are a beloved child of God.”

An Outdoor, Recreational Environment: Living and Breathing the Faith

Finally, the emerging adult studies identify incorporation of faith into daily living as essential for faith formation. An intense focus on “right belief” is ripping the church apart and contributing to the estrangement of the majority of emerging adults, for whom Christianity has become defined by hypocrisy and rejection of others with different beliefs. Camps are effective places of emerging adult faith formation, in part, because they are focused on Christian action. Camp is experiential, as the third of the “essential trinity” of camping indicates: camp takes place in an outdoor, recreational setting. Didactic sermons are replaced by a theological playground in which young people are actively participating in faith practices, reflecting theologically on everyday occurrences, and holding one another in a community of love. For young people accustomed to compartmentalizing their experience of God at church as separate from their everyday lives, the camp experience offers a radical recentering of their lives as caught up in and dependent upon the activity of Christ. Camp participants are open to the possibility, or even probability, that God will show up in some unique, unexpected way.

As vibrant, faith-formative expressions of the church, Christian camps deserve a fresh look by scholars and church leaders as we seek to minister with emerging adults in the church of the 21st century.

Christian Camping in Light of Emerging Adult Research

Christian outdoor ministry is an incredibly understudied field. As scholarly attention increases in the fields of youth ministry and emerging adult ministry, camp is conspicuously absent from nearly every study. Evidence for camp’s effectiveness is left largely to anecdotal accounts that seem convincing to those of us who have had wonderful camp experiences but leave others in doubt. Camp is often viewed as mere fun and games, an experience that at best is theologically shallow and at worst detrimental to young people’s conceptions of God and themselves. As one colleague put it, “Camp is a mile wide and an inch deep.”

Increased scholarship on the new life stage of “emerging adulthood,” combined with growing recognition of the tremendous changes taking place in Christianity, signal that the time is ripe for a fresh scholarly look at the camp experience. Whether there is a “great emergence”(1) or some new great awakening,(2) the tremendous cultural changes of the past century have coincided with the advent of the life stages of adolescence and emerging adulthood. Christian camps have emerged amidst these changes, in many ways responding to them, and they offer a fascinating intersection of the adolescent world, emerging adult world, and innovative ideas in Christianity that make them theological laboratories for the church of the 21st century.

While scholars are sounding alarm bells because of the rise of the “nones,” a growing demographic claiming no religious affiliation, thriving Christian communities of emerging adults are springing up every summer at camps across the country. A close analysis of the priorities of the camp experience alongside the factors that influence faith formation in emerging adults demonstrates why camp staff communities are such vibrant expressions of the church and offers valuable insights into ministry with youth and emerging adults.

As emerging adults get more and more scholarly attention, each study confirms that they are the least religious segment of society, which is one of the reasons that the Christian summer staff community is so unique. While many studies seem content to use words such as “lost” to describe the emerging adult demographic,(3) a new Canadian study prefers a more graphic characterization of their faith as “hemorrhaging.”(4) The wonderful thing about having so much attention on the attrition of emerging adult religiosity is that there are loads of data indicating how to engage them in faith practices. Moving from one graphic metaphor to another, researchers are identifying how to move from hemorrhaging faith to “sticky faith.”(5)

Of the many factors important for forming and sustaining faith in the emerging adult years, three rise to the top in every major study. First and foremost is the importance of relationships in forming and sustaining faith. The research shows that faith simply does not exist without community support, no matter how much toner is burned over the concepts of “individual spirituality” and “spiritual but not religious.” Second is a genuine internalization of the faith, which includes identity formation and differentiation. Third is an incorporation of faith practices into everyday life.

For those of us with experiences in Christian camping, these three essential aspects sound remarkably similar to the Christian camp experience. For those who are less familiar with camp and may think that “camp theology” is an oxymoron, consider these three aspects of emerging adult religiosity alongside what some call “the essential trinity of camping”: 

1) community living (think intentional Christian relationships)

2) away from home (think opportunities for internalization of faith)

3) in an outdoor recreational environment (think incorporation of faith practices into everyday life)

With the incorporation of daily faith practices and intentional Christian reflection, the Christian camp experience becomes an ideal laboratory for emerging adult faith formation. For scholars and church leaders, it is time to take a closer look at the role of Christian outdoor ministries in faith formation.

1. Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008).

2. Diana Butler-Bass, Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (New York: Harper Collins, 2012).

3. David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011). Christian Smith, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood (Oxford, 2011).

4. James Penner, Rachael Harder, Erika Anderson, Bruno Desorcy, and Rick Hiemstra, Hemorrhaging Faith: Why and When Canadian Young Adults are Leaving, Staying and Returning to Church (EFC Youth and Young Adult Ministry Roundtable, 2013).

5. Kara E. Powell and Chap Clark, Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in your Kids (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011).

The Awkward Place of Camp at the NYWC

I had the opportunity to attend Youth Specialties' National Youth Worker's Convention (NYWC) this past weekend in San Diego. Besides enjoying the beautiful weather of San Diego with my wife and some great colleagues, I heard some excellent presenters, worshiped with a couple thousand youth workers, and had some great discussions about youth ministry. As a camp guy, I was hyperaware of any reference to the camp experience, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that camp was everywhere at the NYWC. In the exhibitor's hall, there were many camps represented. While I was excited to see them there, I was disappointed that they were California camps promoting their specific camps rather than organizations promoting Christian camping in general. In the "big room," where there were six large-group high energy gatherings with spectacular light shows and big name Christian bands with body-vibrating bass lines, several of the speakers talked about their camp experiences, at least in passing. From one perspective, it looked like camp was everywhere. Clearly, the keynote speakers and seminar leaders recognized camp as a common experience of the youth workers present.
But there was a troubling pattern that has become all-too familiar to me: camp experiences were used simply as anecdotes. At one of the seminars I attended, the presenter told a camp story to break the ice before getting into his presentation. Mark Yaconelli, in his keynote address, talked about camp as an exhausting experience for youth workers in order to illustrate that we have a difficult job. As a way of connecting with the experience of the youth workers present, the lead singer of Urban Rescue proclaimed that the band plays at a lot of camps and truly respects what the youth workers do. A lot of people were referring to camp, but nobody was really talking about it, analyzing it, or discussing its merits and drawbacks. The NYWC provides meaningful discussion and training on a myriad of topics related to youth ministry, and many of the presenters have brought deeper theological discussion to youth ministry and respect to youth ministry as a calling. Sadly, camp is not getting the respect and theological discussion that it deserves.
By way of illustration, we can look at the attention devoted to short-term "mission" trips. Of the 73 very diverse seminars offered at the NYWC, not a single one was devoted to camp, while 2 were devoted specifically to short-term mission trips. Nearly every major study of youth and religion includes an analysis of mission trips and their effect on faith formation, but camp variables are absent, even though more teenagers have attended a Christian camp than have gone on mission trips (1). Though youth mission trips get a great deal of attention in books and journals, a consistent theme among many of the studies is that these trips are not very effective tools for faith formation. In a long list of important factors for lasting faith formation, Christian Smith, citing data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, pointedly lists mission trips at the very bottom under the category "not independently important" (2). Similarly, the Sticky Faith study raises many cautions about putting too much stock in the annual youth mission trip (3). While plenty of data are available to intelligently discuss the merits of youth mission trips, considerable digging is required in order to find data on the impact of the Christian summer camp experience on faith formation. Maybe this is why camp is ignored as a "topic" at the NYWC. There are no books, articles, or reliable studies, so there is nobody to talk about the merits of camp. Everyone seems to recognize it as important, so they mention it anecdotally in front of 2,000 youth workers, but they are not quite ready to discuss it or study it. It is time for a deep examination of the Christian camp experience that can bring scholarly, theological discussion to bear on this important ministry.

(1) Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: University Press, 2005).

(2) Christian Smith, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (New York: Oxford, 2009), 218.

(3) Kara E. Powell and Chap Clark, Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in your Kids (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 129-131.