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In recent weeks, I've been sharing some thoughts about how we make faith "sticky" for our kids (or for any of us, really). You can read the two previous articles here and here, but here's a quick summary:
I have a friend Jen who is an experienced Director of Faith Formation (so fancy) who I ran into a few months ago at a swim lesson for our kids. We talked about family ministry and she shared with me four generally-agreed-upon touchpoints that make the faith we share with our kids stick with them for their whole life. You could consider this a checklist, though each one is complex:
- a regular Sunday routine
- summer church camp
- a transformative journey
- campus ministry
The idea is, if our kids have these in their experiential tool box, they are significantly more likely to be part of spiritual community later in life, but they're also significantly more likely to be those compassionate, resilient people reaching out to others as Jesus did.
I'll share more about these four topics in future emails, but for now, maybe notice how each of these showed up in your own life--what was your Sunday routine growing up? It doesn't have to be the same now, but what was it like? Did you go to camp? Or on a mission trip or pilgrimage? What was it like? Were you part of campus ministry? What did you know about it from others if you didn't?
Summer Church Camp
Camp does a lot of things. It's not just a place to throw the kids for a week so parents can have a little time to themselves, though speaking as a parent, that's a nice side-effect!
Camp teaches things congregations can't. It might be that we don't have the time or the people to teach, it might be that we as a congregation didn't think of it and are delighted when campers come back full of enthusiasm for something new. Maybe it's something like camping skills and walking lightly on the earth, maybe it's how to be a lay preacher or chalice bearer, maybe it acts as a confirmation class for congregations that have very few young people. Many churches struggle with this, but as a former youth director, I've seen it on the ground: camp also teaches youth that their voices are not just cute, they're necessary to the running of the church right now, not when they're older. And camp teaches us that there are ways of being in and seeing the world that aren't ours, simply by spending a week with people from the next congregation over.
Camp helps create a sense of worth in the people who go. Whatever someone's story, camp at its best is a place where all are welcome, where all are delighted in, where all are able to learn how they fit into the larger picture of God's creation. In a world that spends a lot of energy dividing us and where we are made to feel less-than for whatever reason, camp welcomes us in with open arms and says we're in this together, let's go swimming! Camp says, you are worthy of love and belonging exactly as you are and camp says, let's learn more together.
Camp teaches us to listen to each other. Certainly in goofy group-building games where you won't find all the things in a scavenger hunt or might fall into the lake, you've got to listen to other people. When we sing, whether in harmony or unison, we have to listen to each other to know where we are, to be in tune with each other. And for the staff in particular, listening literally over the walkie-talkies and also simply to what each person is needing is what makes the staff hum and be the transformative leaders the campers need. In a world where individualism is held up as the ultimate goal, camp is an intensive community-building exercise.
And every one of these things shows up for every age--primary school children, teens, young adults, parents, and elders can all experience the joy and connection and transformation at camp.
What was your camp experience like growing up? What did you learn?
Have you been to our denominational summer camp Procter? (There are spaces still in the sessions coming up--young adults and elders in particular!)
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So how to share the faith we have, how to help our kids navigate a dangerous world with compassion? I'm going to muse about these things in the coming weeks here, but if you ever want to just come chat or go have a bourbon and rant about it, please message me! As Cole Arthur Riley writes, "Together we won't get lost in despair."
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