by Kevin Cartee One big breath. Every Camp Director knows it’s coming. Works for it. Waits for it. Longs to breathe that one breath that comes at the end of the summer camp season. It’s breathed deeply as the last campfire song of the season fades, and summer staff...
By: Statistics tell us that summer camp can be a formative experience for our children and youth. It is also considered a “stepping stone” for college-aged staff as it may be the first time they consider a call to ministry. All of this gives your congregation an...
By: Doodle Harris We started Tween Camp six years ago. It began after a year of successful presbytery events for middle school youth and high school youth. Young people from different churches were beginning to connect. They’d exchanged snap chats and phone...
By: Beth Herrinton-Hodge I can think of few more life-changing experiences for youth than the opportunity to develop a healthy self-esteem and appreciation of one’s person and body as a precious gift from God. The church is in a particularly opportune position to...
By: Arlene Decina For the past five summers at Burke Presbyterian Church (BPC), we have taken a leap—from the traditional Vacation Bible School (VBS) that had always been a highlight of our children’s programming—into something that has been, for us, new and...
By: Jacob Sorenson Too often, people think of confirmation as a class. Those in the Reformed traditions seem to have a particular knack of reducing confirmation ministry to a transfer of knowledge. When lessons come after busy school days, it reinforces this notion....
By: Kathryn McGregor Each summer, our church hosts a large, well-established Vacation Bible School (VBS). The VBS leaders began to notice, however, that participation by fourth- and fifth-graders was decreasing. These children said they felt that they had outgrown...
