A Step of Faith: Day Camp at Granger Community Church
“Here, let me help you.” My tour guide was an 8-year-old girl that I had gotten to talk with during lunch. She was a camp pro, in her fourth summer at SpringHill Day Camp, and she was guiding me through the essential camp ritual of tie-dying. Everyone colors a...
The Logic of Camp in Christian Education
Christian camping ministry is often overlooked in the scholarly community for its role in Christian education. New research from the Confirmation Project and Effective Camp Research Project demonstrates that camping ministries are often integral parts of Christian...
Going Beyond Physical Safety
The Effective Camp Project has helped us expand our understanding of safety at camp. The findings have revealed that it is not enough for camps to focus on the physical safety of participants. When it comes to positive experience and camper outcomes, emotional and...
Introducing the Camp2Congregation Project
We are excited to announce that Sacred Playgrounds is directing a new research project on a ministry program called Traveling Day Camp. In these intentional partnerships between a camp and congregational ministry, trained summer camp staff travel offsite to bring the...
Effective Camp Findings: Key Factors that Lead to Camper Growth
More than 5,000 summer campers have participated in the Effective Camp Project or Power of Camp Study over the past three years. On the last day of camp, 91% of these campers agreed that they were strengthened in their faith. Three months after camp, 83% of responding...
Effective Camp Findings: Outdoor Adventure Programs
We now have a data set from more than 5,000 summer campers at 30 different camps over 3 summers. We have been very intentional about casting a broad vision for what summer camp is, based on what the Effective Camp Project has identified as 5 fundamental...
Emerging from the Data
Sorry for the long delay in communication! We have been immersed in data from all the camps who participated in various studies with us in 2018, including 10 new camps in the Effective Camp Project and 9 in its related study, the Power of Camp Study. It has been a...
Thinking about Safety at camp
Dear camp professionals, This week, Don Johnson at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries brought this disturbing news report to our attention. “Hundreds of sexual abuse cases reported at children’s camps across US,” the headline screams. That’s scary! A closer read shows that...
Ministry at the Crossroads: Lutheran Campus Ministry’s Power and Peril
Lutherans have built a wide network of campus ministries that reach out to members of educational communities across America. These ministries can often reach out to students at a very formative period of their lives, in important and life-changing ways. But these...
Rethinking The Classroom: The logic of camp in educational ministries
Ministry leaders and scholars often have dismissed the camp experience as mere fun and games, while lifting up the traditional classroom model of direct instruction. This article challenges these long-standing assumptions using descriptions of ministry contexts and...
Cultivating Teen Faith
Cultivating Teen Faith has finally hit the bookshelves of libraries across the country, and ministry leaders are digging into this resource’s valuable findings and insights. The book cover shows many hands of diverse types, looking ready to start some game or...
Fall is here!
"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." - Ecclesiastes 3:1 I have always loved the fall season. Here in the Midwest, the humidity drops and the leaves begin to change colors. It is harvest time, with plenty of fresh berries,...