Christian Camping and the Spiritual Formation of Young People
In this interview, Ralph Eichelberger of Round Lake Christian Assembly discusses the enduring value of Christian camping for youth discipleship, missions, and evangelism. He reflects on how camps have changed, why young people still need camp experiences, and how churches can partner with camps to strengthen faith formation.
- Christian camp offers young people a focused environment with fewer distractions and deeper spiritual conversations.
- Round Lake Christian Assembly has used camp programming, missions giving, and specialty camps to reach both churched and unchurched youth.
- Eichelberger believes churches and parents should continue to see Christian camping as a vital part of youth discipleship.
By Brad Dupray
Before coming to lead Round Lake Christian Assembly, Lakeville, Ohio, as camp coordinator Ralph Eichelberger was a dairy farmer for 10 years. Even today, Ralph enjoys visiting the family farm. At Round Lake Ralph has been sowing seeds in young people’s hearts for the past 23 years. This summer Round Lake had 112 baptisms at camp, while 47 others were baptized in their home church after returning from camp. Ralph is a graduate of Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College and was once the minister at Kirkpatrick Church of Christ in Marion, Ohio. He and his wife, Carolyn, have been married 41 years and have two children and two grandchildren.
The Spiritual Value of Christian Camping
What happens at camp?
Young people come from their world to a totally new one, filled with activities unlike most that they know about at home. We believe church camp reinforces a young person’s spiritual journey.
What makes camp such a unique spiritual experience?
The dedication and the passion of the adult Christians who teach the kids about Christ and who provide examples of Christ for the kids to see every day they’re here at camp. At camp there are few worldly distractions. And we really believe that Christian camping, whether it’s at Round Lake or any other camp across the country, really is “holy ground” where individuals can come face-to-face with Christ.
What grabs a camper’s heart?
Missionaries from all over the world, lessons taught from Scripture, examples caught on the recreation field, models lived out before them, devotions in the dorms—those are the things that soften their hearts. A lot of kids who come to camp have had pretty rough backgrounds.
How has camp changed?
When I came to Round Lake as a child in the ’50s and ’60s it was what you were expected to do. Preachers came to camp, and they expected the youth of the church to come as well. The ratio of youth in the church coming to camp was much higher years ago than it is today. Today, we have to create “hooks” to attract youth to come to church camp. Today, we face daily the concerns of background checks for volunteers, security, finances, health issues of campers, and youth with unfortunate home conditions.
Have you seen a change in the “churched” kids?
They look, act, dress, and talk much like everyone else. This summer we had more kids who never owned a Bible. Consequently they don’t know what’s in the Bible. They are far more familiar with sports figures and TV and movie personalities than with Bible stories.
Where have you seen a significant programming change?
Methods of teaching Scripture have changed because we have to be much more elementary in what we teach. Recreation has changed from softball, volleyball, and basketball to other organized events that involve all the campers
How does the pace of a week of camp move along?
The first couple days of camp the campers are carefully watching the volunteer faculty. Along with that, they are asking: Does the Bible make sense for my situation? By Wednesday morning they are starting to share their life with each other, and by Wednesday night the conversations are a little more in depth. Maybe they want to know, Can Jesus really change my life? Is he really authentic? So you start building this momentum from Wednesday, and by Friday evening, when most of the campers are going home, they discover some things in life that really need to change.
Missions, Competition, and Camp Programming
Missions have always been a big part of camp. How can camps present missions in an innovative way?
Round Lake has always been a strong supporter of missionaries around the world. Around 2000, Dave Linn, with Team Expansion, and I were sitting out behind the multipurpose building, and Dave said, “Ralph, I have a dream that someday I’d like to start a church camp in Caracas, Venezuela.” I thought, We could help do that. Dave was here for the entire summer that year, and we raised $37,000.
The following year we sent about six teams to Venezuela (everybody paid his own way). We started in January and completed that camp in May. So our directors came together and decided our goal was to plant church camps around the world. So every other year we raise the funds and follow-up with teams to build the camps. Now several other church camps around the country have jumped on board.
Along with Venezuela, we have planted a camp in Saltillo, Mexico, Peredo, Haiti, and helped rebuild Featherstone Christian Camp, north of San Diego, that burned in a forest fire in 2003. Our fourth church camp plant will be in Tepic, Mexico, in 2010.
The most innovative way to present missions is for missionaries who have a passion to convey that passion to campers. Our biggest summer offerings are when we raise funds for camps.
Are you facing increasing competition from other summertime opportunities?
We had a wake-up call this summer. We dropped 310 campers while other church camps are on the increase. It’s not because of funds or that parents are too busy. It may be we’re not offering something attractive enough for people in this part of Ohio. A high school coach makes sure all of his players attend a particular camp of the sport he is coaching. But we in the church just kind of say, “Church camp is there. If you want to go it’s OK, but we’re not going to force you.”
So how does the church counter the draw of sports camps?
Most of the kids playing sports don’t play much a few years after they’ve graduated from high school. Christianity is a way of life. Why are we reluctant to insist that the youth from our church make church camp a vital part of their spiritual journey? We give in to the coach who says, “You’re going to the sports camp or you’re not going to play on this team.” But we in the church say, “You can get the fundamentals of your Christianity together later in life.” And sadly, that often doesn’t happen. When Jesus talks about the field being white unto harvest I think he might wonder why we Christians think more highly of that which is temporary (athletic skill) than that which is eternal.
It’s not just sports camps, though. What about all of the different travel programming that churches do for kids now?
There are a myriad of things for kids to do today. We have overprogrammed our youth. There is no down time, no quiet time, and precious little time for children to be children. Are we in competition with Christ In Youth and Summer in the Son, mission trips, and other things? I think they have a role and church camp has a role. Depending on the individuals, some of them are more inclined to go to CIY—that could be where their need is right now—but those big events are not for every young person. I’d like to see our youth ministers and senior ministers giving the kids the choice to make some of these decisions.
Does camp offer something those other experiences don’t offer?
There are good church things one can do in the backyard, in the church basement, on a big trip, or through VBS. But you can’t duplicate church camp. One of the things offered at camp is a very close fellowship. You don’t get lost in the crowd. I believe there’s a more relaxed atmosphere at church camp. You have quiet time to explore yourself in light of where you stand with God as the Creator of the universe and Savior of the world. Not everybody likes the big event. Some youth are more timid, are more inclined to have a closer unity with their youth minister or youth sponsor. Campers of all ages have an opportunity to meet people from other churches and maybe that fellowship can extend beyond the camp. There’s more responsibility here for the youth minister to interact with their own youth, to develop lessons that are going to speak to the needs of the kids who are here, more responsibility for the volunteers who are here.
How can Christian camps continue to draw campers?
Other camps are doing a real good job of developing programs that are bringing the kids to the camp. Round Lake is just going through that transition now. We presently host a soccer camp, a video game camp, a basketball camp, motocross camp, and for 26 years have run a very successful wilderness camp. It’s not just about developing skills, it’s so the campers can have a better foundation in their faith. It’s so campers can know Christ. I don’t want to pull all these kids away from their athletic camps, but I want to say to the parents, “Let us have a chance with your kids, to develop the maturity of your youth so when they are playing basketball (or whatever) they can be better grounded in the faith when they’re on that athletic field. Give us the opportunity to minister to your kids in a way that they won’t get at another camp.”
This summer Round Lake had 112 baptisms at camp, while 47 others returned home to be baptized in their home church. Campers and volunteer faculty gave $37,201 to missions around the world. These are core values we will not shift from just to draw campers.
The Future of Christian Camping
Is it a matter of survival for camps? What other means of ministry do camps have?
Maybe it’s a matter of communicating the value of church camp to our churches. Perhaps this economic dilemma will be to our advantage as Christians get back to the basics. For financial survival, Round Lake opens the camp for winter retreats to churches and other organizations. Specialized summer camps will become more significant as we learn better ways to attract youth to church camp.
Tell us about your wilderness camps.
Wilderness camp is much smaller in scale—the number of kids and volunteer faculty. It’s pretty rustic—bathe in the creek, sleep in tents, cook meals on the fire, a lot of hiking, Bible classes under a tree.
What draws kids to that?
It takes them completely out of their environment. We’re throwing them into something there’s no way they can reproduce in the backyard. It’s a challenge. For boys, it’s risky. For girls, they want to prove they’ve got what it takes to handle the outdoors, sleep under the stars, or go on all-day hikes.
How about reaching unchurched kids?
This happens best when church kids invite their friends. This is also done with specialty camps. For example, of the boys and girls who come to motocross camp, there’s probably only about 3 or 4 percent who know what the inside of a church looks like. We use motocross as a tool to introduce them to Jesus. Our goal is to plant some seeds for these young people who have never heard about Christ, to let them find Christ, to let him take over their lives so they can find real meaning in life. This year we had seven baptisms from motocross camp.
On a practical level, are the accommodations a huge issue?
Kids don’t necessarily come to camp because of the facilities. Their parents are more critical of the facilities. Young people come here seeking direction in their lives. Young people come to camp because of their friends, swimming, encouragement of a minister or youth minister, a previous favorable experience, or just looking for some summer fun. I think there are kids who come here who don’t even know they’re going to come face-to-face with God. Sure, they want it clean and they want is nice, but accommodations are not the major attraction.
What do you see for the future of Christian camping?
I think you’re going to find a rebirth in Christian camping in the next decade. I think parents are realizing that “life is a battle out there for my kids; I don’t have all the answers” and there are some resources that church camp has. There’s so much of the world in our kids anymore. They’re street smart and biblically illiterate. Sunday school is only going to carry them for so long, but the Word of God that they hide in their hearts is going to last a lifetime. There’s coming a time when parents are going to start prioritizing what is important and what is not important because they’re running out of discretionary funds. So it’s really important for us church camps to get on top of what we’re offering young people, in cooperation with the church. I hope that the churches that support us and send us their youth see us as a part of the body of Christ. Church camps cannot survive without the churches in our camp area. We need our churches. I hope our churches will continue to see the need for us.
Brad Dupray is senior vice president, investor development, with Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.
