Kids grow overnight, and we do our best to facilitate what goes into their bodies. On top of that, we have to make sure they stay busy. Soccer games, piano lessons and, no, it doesn’t just stop because school’s out. Summer camp can provide a great opportunity to learn a new skill, make friends, have tons of fun—and also be a great place to grow your child spiritually.
Jim Newberry, director of camps for Youthfront Camp, and Lindsey Rother, assistant women’s director at Kanakuk Camp, share some insights on how the camp experience can support spiritual growth.
According to Newberry, Youthfront nurtures spiritual growth by a process they call spiritual formation. “Our mission as a camp is to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ,” he says. “A foundation of formation at Youthfront includes regular times of prayer and worship where we do just that three times a day (morning/midday/evening): We stop what we are doing to pause for prayer and worship in our chapel.” While the program changes every year, Newberry says that prayer and worship are the program’s constants.
Youthfront provides many ways for kids to grow spiritually, through large group teaching (storytellers), by hands-on tactile learning experiences, in small group interaction (as cabins) and through reflection. “We try to provide all these practices to help kids be formed the best they can, the best way they know how,” Newberry says. Fun is also emphasized, because kids need to be kids. By offering attractions like a pool, waterslide, splash park on the lake, ropes course, paintball and more, Youthfront gives everyone the chance to have a blast!
Asked about spiritual growth at Kanakuk, Rother says, “I would ask, how can you not grow spiritually at camp?!” At Kanakuk, everything activity has a purpose. “Kampers” learn creative tools for Scripture memorization from staff in classes. Each night peers and staff have cabin devotionals in which they discuss what they are learning and how to form a personal relationship with God. A carefully selected, highly trained staff of college students exemplify living in a way that places God first, others second and themselves last.
“God is the One who changes hearts, but we are committed to sharing His truth in the most fun ways possible in the process,” Rother says. “Kampers” also get the chance to ask questions about their faith, discovering a personal relationship with God for themselves. “The spiritual growth kids experience at camp,” Rother says, “can create a foundation of personal, lifelong faith for the rest of their lives.”
Camp is a safe place staffed with trusted adults and organized to help kids develop spiritually, socially and emotionally. “At camp, we seek to provide a safe place where kids can make their own decisions—an opportunity kids seldom have in today’s culture. This is an important part of their formation,” Newberry says. Staff members invest lots of time and energy in planning fun activities to support that formation, including friendly team competitions on which kids thrive.
Summer camp’s great power lies in its ability to form confidence in kids pushed out of their comfort zones. At camp, kids quickly learn they are capable of making new friends and decisions on their own, and their self-confidence simply grows in the process. Kids who experience summer camp consistently turn out to be more confident collegians and adults because they’ve had the opportunity to navigate life on their own, in a safe environment, at a young age.
Such great value results from helping kids grow in their confidence, but adding Scripture to the mix—including who God says they are—increases the value 10-fold. “I believe in the growth that happens at summer camp, but without the spiritual component it’s simply a fun few weeks,” Rother says. “With the spiritual component, it’s a fun summer camp with lifelong impact.”
For more information visit GoKanakuk.com and Youthfront.com.
Jessica Samuel is a native of St. Louis and current Kansas City resident, journalist, photographer, graduate student and ALLY.