10 easy steps to bridge the gap between camps and year-round church programs

There's probably a file somewhere in your church office containing camper follow-up forms. They arrive from your divisional youth department sometime in late September and promptly move from inbox to drawer with the passing thought: 'We really should do something to connect with campers. But how? And who's got the time?'

It's a problem as old as Salvation Army camping. How do we connect campers who've had a positive experience of God's love to a Salvation Army church? It's a question often met with groans from corps officers, YPSMs and youth pastors across the territory. Most churches find bridging the divide difficult and few summer campers make the transition to year-round Sunday-Schoolers. The solution won't come by tossing camper follow-up forms onto an already full plate. We need a follow-up plan.

Visit any camp across the territory and you'll meet scores of teenagers who have shed the sensible names their parents gave them at birth for camp names such as Chewy, Squekr, and Kukamunga. They style their hair in weird and colourful ways, wear strange clothes and conduct themselves in all manner of silliness for the entertainment of the children who will spend a week in their care. They are the camp staff, and they hold the key to making a camper connection. Camp staff members are a direct link to the campers. They are the best hope we have for drawing children into a loving Christian community and helping them sustain the decision for Jesus they made at camp.

In his book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, George Barna posits that a person's spiritual condition at age 13 will likely determine their spiritual condition as an adult. A priority on ministry to children is therefore essential to sustained, effective Kingdom-building. Whatever the hang-ups of 'camper connection,' the Salvation Army church must pick up where the Salvation Army camp leaves off in order to fulfil this mandate of spiritual transformation.

Using the connections forged between camp staff and campers over the summer, here are some ideas for linking children into your year-round church ministry.

Before the summer:
1. Find out who from your church will be working at camp this summer. Even if they are peeling potatoes or scrubbing toilets, they will have an opportunity to get to know the campers during their breaks and evenings. If no one from your corps has been hired at camp, adopt a staff member or group of young people from a nearby corps. By the fall, these camp alumni will love getting together.
2. Invite camp staff to a meeting at your church. Many young people won't understand the overlapping network of ministries in the Army. They might think camp is an isolated ministry, influencing a child's life for only one week. Instead they need to see camp as an extension of the Army's ministry in their community'an intensive, specialized ministry supported by a group of local churches. Camp staff needs to understand how corps ministry is connected to and compliments camping ministry.
3. Inspire camp staff to be ambassadors for the Army in their community. Emphasize that they are not just representing Beaver Creek Camp, for instance, but The Salvation Army in Nipiwin, Regina or Prince Albert. Encourage them to connect with campers from their own community. Once at camp, a staff member might share a common experience of home with a camper that will make her feel more comfortable and create an immediate friendship.
4. Provide program information to camp staff. After a camper makes a decision for Christ, a staff member can invite a camper to continue their spiritual journey by attending a children's program at a church in their hometown. Make staff members fully aware of the children's programs available at your church so that they can speak enthusiastically about Sunday School, Pioneer Club or Youth Group and make plans to meet a camper there in September.

During the summer:
5. Pray all summer long for the campers who will attend camp, the staff who will care for them and the families they will go home to.
6. Visit the camp. Arrange with the divisional youth secretary to drop in when kids from your community are there. Familiar faces will go a long way in the process of camper connection. Maybe you could get a team from your corps to put on an evening program or run a game for the kids. Whatever you do, you'll be advertising your church's children's program in the process.

After the summer:
7. Facilitate a letter writing party. Many camp program directors make arrangements for campers to receive a letter from their counselors after their week at camp. But even after the summer is over, you could provide camp staff with the materials to write birthday and Christmas cards to the kids. Postcards work well, especially with a picture of a fun corps activity or event on the front and a brief personal note from counselors on the back.
8. Produce a 'camper connection' newsletter. Ask camp staff to contribute articles, Bible stories, craft ideas, recipes, jokes, 'Remember when '' columns, testimonies and whatever else you can think of.
9. Hold 'camper connection' events. In addition to making campers feel welcome at your regularly scheduled children's programs, hold special camp reunion events that are hosted and supported by the church but run by camp staff. Camp staff are like celebrities, and kids will want to connect with them to re-live all that happened when they were at camp'the food, the games, that funny thing that happened on the way to the pool.
10. Host a free blogspot where campers can leave messages for camp staff and where information about children's events and programs are posted. If the camp has a website, ask if program information from your church can be posted.

by Amy Fisher, Youth Pastor, Scarborough Citadel