How’s your “heart” health?
The American Heart Association (AHA) introduced its Heart-Check Food Certification Program in 1995 to help consumers identify foods that could be part of a heart-healthy diet. This program created the now-iconic red-and-white Heart-Check mark to be placed on qualifying food packaging, indicating that the food meets specific science-based nutritional requirements established by the AHA. “Heart health” continues to be a regular topic of conversation among doctors, nutritionists, food scientists, and pharmaceutical companies, not to mention millions of people every day of their lives. The heart is as vital as it gets, and its health matters deeply.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: staff are the heart of outdoor ministry.
We could break down all the anatomical analogies further if we wanted. Your vision gives your ministry its soul. Your board and executive leaders are the central nervous system of the operation, making decisions and gathering feedback from the other parts. Your site and facilities provide the bones, space, and structure. And your staff, the ones who carry the mission out to every space yearning for life, they are the heart. It’s another way to look at the “one body, many parts” verses Paul penned in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12.
Like any good cardiologist would tell you, the form and function, tension and timing, efficiency and energy, pace and pulse of your heart are worth paying attention to. When it’s pumping well, good things flow freely and have maximum impact on all the Body is and can do.
Last month, we asked some questions to check the pulse of camping ministry in the summer of 2025. Some of the questions in the survey helped us understand how staff are doing, in addition to overall ministry questions. We looked at those insights alongside the conversations we had and the stories we heard from camp leaders throughout the summer. Below are a few themes from those findings, giving us a “state of camp staff” after the summer of 2025, along with some wonderings about the “why” behind it.
PS, if you want to hear us break down the pulse-check findings from behind a mic, be sure to listen to last week’s season 5 kickoff of the Sacred Playgrounds Podcast. You can also view those findings at a glance in the infographic on the right/below.
The areas identified as this summer’s greatest successes are directly tied to staff.
One of the questions we ask camp leaders in this pulse check survey is about identifying the greatest successes from the summer. We ask them to choose their top 3, unranked. When we compiled that data, we found that camp leaders believe their top 3 successes were:
- Program Quality
- Staff Performance
- Staff Recruiting or Retention
That’s great news! Why? It’s great news because we know from other studies that program quality is the key to impact, outcomes, and mission. Great experiences for campers = greater lasting impact on their lives.
So two of the top 3 successes have the word “staff” in them, and the first one is tied directly to those two. When staff are present and consistent, and when they execute their roles well, we get quality programs and positive camper experiences. The clear conclusion is that summer staff were the key driver for ministry success this summer.
Why does this matter so much? In part, because this was a shift, even from the previous summer, and especially when looking back over the last 5 years.
“The best staff we’ve had in years.”
Throughout the summer, in conversations with camp leaders across the Christian camping industry, we heard messages like that: “This was the best staff we’ve had in years!” We always get excited, though not surprised, when the stats match the stories. Camp directors shared that their staff were able to be more resilient, had more energy, and were able to fulfill their primary roles at a higher level this summer. Additionally, they came into the summer with greater emotional capacity, better social skills, and more enthusiasm for their roles. That begs the question, “Why?” We’re beginning to see a fresh cohort of summer staff members who have a few things previous summer staff teams didn’t, or had less of. Here are a few ideas about what may be behind the shifts we seem to be feeling.
Post-Covid In-person High School
This cohort of summer staff members were generally able to return to in-person school experiences. Research abounds on the MESH+ (Mental, Emotional, and Social Health) impacts of the global pandemic on students. Now, we have classes of students who were able to have the entirety of their high school years having in-person school. Now as college students, these staff members are coming in having gone through the critical formative experiences these systems offer.
Returning Summer Staff Mentors
As the pandemic unfolded, many camps across the world weren’t running programs for 2-3 summer seasons. Between these seasons of little or no programming, the lower staff retention rates that followed in subsequent summers, and the smaller pool of those who moved from high school campers into staff members, many summer staff teams were made up of those who had a year or less of experience. This past summer, staff teams tended to have a healthier balance of new staff and returning staff with the experience to keep camp running smoothly and can serve as mentors for less experienced staff members.
Adaptable, Equipped Leadership Staff
As we learned more about who these staff members were, and what they needed to thrive, camp leaders began to adapt their policies and practices around all things staffing: recruiting, hiring, training, evaluation, and especially support. Across the industry, we have now more closely aligned our way of working with staff to their needs.
Now What?
“Where do we go from here?” is always a good question to ask as a leader. When it comes to the state of summer camp staffing, we go further up and further in to what made this last summer a noticeable success from a staff standpoint.
1. Focus on staff support
Our staff members will continue to thrive when they feel supported, especially in terms of their health and well-being. Build these support plans into your summer staff experience and leave them in place moving forward. These weren’t just a reaction; they are the new normal. Here are some resources from our friends at the Alliance for Camp Health on MESH+.
Additionally, if you want to really hear how to create a culture of wellbeing for staff, as well as campers, families, and others who share experiences at your camp, join this free webinar ahead we’re holding in partnership with ACH and the CampWell program.
2. Focus on staff retention
As staff feel fully supported, continue to find ways to solidify their ongoing connection to camp. Of course this includes reaching out when next summer’s applications are ready, but also beyond that, in more relational and active ways. Two key strategies here to make sure you’re using. One, make sure there is space created for ongoing conversations among staff members. This is where digital spaces can be useful. Often, this isn’t something you need to build yourself. Instead, use existing platforms that already engage with to create the space and give them as much agency as possible. Catalyze those conversations them with resources like devotions, opportunities to share stories and memories, and supportive ‘we’re here for you’ messages. Second, get them on site if at all possible. If there are retreats they can help with, facilities work they can volunteer for, or events they can help run, bring them in.
3. Stay adaptable
The next few seasons of summer camp staff teams may not need the same things that this cohort does. The support practices may not look the same, the retention ideas may need a fresh look, and recruiting practices will almost certainly require adaptation to the needs and desires of potential staff members. Keep asking questions of yourselves and of the research.
At the OMC Great Gathering in November, one of the sessions we’re holding will be focused on “Maximizing Every Step of the Summer Staff Journey”. In this workshop, we’ll share insights from a number of summer staff studies we’ve done and lay out the actions those findings lead us to take. Not signed up yet? Learn more and get registered here.
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