What Kids Aren’t Telling You About Their Christian Summer Camp
Cedarmore Camp, Crossings Ministries. Photos by Rachel Phelps.
“Hey, I’m suffering from depression and I need this medicine. Is it OK to take one afternoon to make sure I call my doctor?”
“You need to find your own time for that,” a staff member told her.
Rachel Phelps was taken aback. It was her second summer working on staff at Crossings Ministries, a Pentecostal camp in Ky; it was the second summer she devoted to the camp she once attended as a camper.
According to their website, Crossings’ mission is to “create experiences to proclaim the Gospel.” Among their six values, the first is to embody a “Christ-like character.”
Phelps, 24, was diagnosed with depression just before the summer of 2017. In order for her doctor to prescribe her medicine, there were specific phone appointments she had to make throughout the summer. Without an afternoon to make that phone call, Phelps missed an appointment and was unable to get her medication refilled for the entire month of July.
After putting in two summers of work and devotion to Crossings, Phelps was left feeling betrayed.
Roughly 14 million children and adults attend more than 14,000 day and resident camps each year, according to the American Camp Association (ACA). Of those camps, nearly 900 are members of the Christian Camps and Conference Association, and nearly 500 are members of the ACA. Camps seeking accreditation from the ACA must be evaluated against six categories of standards focused on health, safety and risk management. A number of students at The King’s College are familiar with these types of camps, attending as a camper or working as a staff member.
Harvard Business Review found that Millennials and Gen-Zers are more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety than baby boomers, according to a study published in 2019. As these younger generations struggle with these mental health issues, some young Christians believe the spiritual formation approach of some Bible or Christian camps may be off-putting to young children and teens.
COVID-19 may alter plans for summer camps in 2020. But as parents prepare for that week of temporary freedom when their children go off to camp and escape reality in future summers, some may want to give more thought to the experiences campers may have.
In the “middle of nowhere” Arkansas, Nathan Ferguson, a 20-year-old student at the King’s College, remembers sweating in a field at a Bible camp, waiting for the next sermon.
“It was more lecturing than it was preaching,” Ferguson said. “More like ‘if you don’t do this you are going to hell,’ rather than what you should do to not go to hell.”
Ferguson’s sister, eight years old at the time, was scolded for hugging her brother at camp because there was supposed to be no interaction between boys and girls.
“I personally think the biggest flaw [with some Christian camps] is a moral flaw,” said Dr. Valerie Tarico, a child psychologist and author on evangelicalism. “The point isn’t to expose children to the variety of religious experiences that humans have treasured or been subject to, but it is to persuade young children to the truth of a very specific worldview.”
Other experts and camp directors suggest Christian camps in the modern era be transparent with their theology, worldview and their approach to spiritual formation. Some also suggest Gen Y and Gen Z respond better to open dialogue and discussion rather than an indoctrination approach that may have been normal for previous generations.
Not everyone who attends a Christian affiliated camp has a negative experience. In fact, many young people say that Christian camp was one of the most important and affirming experiences of their lives.
Cedarmore Camp, Crossings Ministries. Credit: Rachel Phelps
One summer at Frontier Ranch Young Life Camp in Buena Vista, Co., Harrison Chapman, a 20-year-old sophomore at King’s, witnessed a teenage boy carry his brother, who has cerebral palsy, two thirds of the way up the mountain on a hike. As they climbed, the other boys in the group made a cot to carry him to the top of the mountain.
Young Life’s tagline is, “We want this to be the best week of your life.”
“They invite people into a loving Christian relationship but do not push it,” Chapman said. “Even if you don’t come to Christ, they want you to walk away having had a great time.”
Although Chapman enjoyed his time at Young Life, he understands that the religious emphasis of Christian camps is not always well received. He advises campers to set reasonable expectations.
Carson French, a sophomore at SCAD University in Savannah, Ga., attended Brookhill summer camp in Hot Springs, Ark. when he was 10 years old. Similar to Chapman, his experience overall was positive, but when it came to Brookhill’s execution of faith, he felt it was pressured.
“They forced the religious part,” French said. “Like three worship sessions a day and three chapels a day.”
On the final night of the week, counselors put on a live action crucifixion scene. A counselor is “nailed” to a cross as campers sit on the side of a hill watching the scene unfold, fake blood dripping from the counselors fake bruised body.
French’s friend Nicholas Powell remembered the scene standing out against the fun and games of camp as everyone was asked if they wanted to “rededicate their lives to Christ” as a “dead” Jesus hung on a cross in front of them.
Staff at Brookhill declined to give any comment over the phone to the EST magazine for this story.
Data is from American Camp Association
Dr. Tarico says that some Christian camps over-emphasize guilt and sin in ways parents may not appreciate. Summer camps often have schedules packed with high-energy activities from early in the morning to late at night. When campers are asked to make deeply spiritual decisions—such as “inviting Jesus into their hearts”—they’re over-tired, emotional and therefore more inclined to make a decision based on feelings rather than a rational decision to follow Christ based on the mind, will and rational emotions.
“Childhood is a time of rapid learning, and children are credulous—meaning they are wired to believe what adults tell them—because we can’t afford to learn everything by trial and error,” Dr. Tarico said. “So those childhood learning experiences are particularly powerful, and they are particularly difficult if they are erroneous experiences or emotionally harmful; it’s particularly difficult to unwind them.”
A former Christian camper and counselor herself, Dr. Tarico believes the goals of these organizations are skewed. She suggests these camps should aim to spread the Gospel and present students with positive spiritual formation rather than to create a numbers game, winning converts during the camp week.
“Camps are always looking for new ways to connect with campers and work to create meaningful relationships and memories,” said ACA Camp Coordinator Tim Huchton in an email.
A former camp director at the Presbyterian Conference Center Mo Ranch in Kerr County, Tx., Huchton found that the music he listened to as a camper was much different than what campers of today are listening to. Huchton and his team found newer songs that had more meaning to campers instead of sticking to the same he grew up with, making their services more impactful. Additionally, they allowed campers to be as involved in leadership as much as they wanted, including creating skits, songs or prayers.
“It allowed them to be a part of worship that kids seldomly get to experience at their home churches and allow them to be comfortable and connected in a new way,” Huchton wrote. “It was very important to myself and my staff that we never forced kids to participate (in spiritual activities) if they did not feel comfortable.”
Growing up in Ky, Phelps worked at Cedarmore Camp through Crossings Ministries in Bagdad, Ky. During her first summer in 2016, she believes she was verbally abused and treated poorly by her superior.
“At one point,” Phelps said, “he accused me of not truly caring about the Gospel, not truly caring about my faith—because I was seasoning breakfast potatoes incorrectly.”
During another instance, Phelps and her coworkers were accused of being hostile toward guests after forgetting to set out bowls for campers the night before. She believes that the Christian values that the Crossings prided themselves on only came into place when their boss was twisting them to his advantage.
The combination of passive aggressive comments about their work and questioning of their faith caused Phelps and her co-workers to become insecure in themselves and their beliefs.
“That’s terrible for any work environment, but it’s even worse because it was supposed to be a Christian environment,” she said. “All of our bosses were supposed to be Christians. We would go to our other superiors and tell them, ‘this guy is saying this stuff to us and he’s supposed to be a believer and uplifting us, not literally tearing us down’ and they didn’t really do much about it.”
Looking back, Phelps believes that she was brainwashed by Crossings Ministries during college into thinking that verbal abuse, working for 28 days straight with no days or nights off, and pay below minimum wage was OK because it was all for Jesus. She recalled thinking that the apostles and disciples went through a lot worse, so she should be able to endure this.
While unable to share wage information, Camp Carolina in Western North Carolina shared they give camp counselors one day and one night off per week.
“A lot of people are still very brainwashed by what went on and still think it’s all OK,” she said. “I hate that it’s rebellious of me to say that this behaviour is not OK. It’s not OK to treat college kids like they are expendable. It’s not OK to tell them that they are only as good as the work that they do.”
Crossing Ministres declined multiple requests for comment by phone and email.
It is not new for evangelical church camps to receive backlash. Two months after being featured in the 2006 documentary “Jesus Camp,” the Pentecostal Christian camp, Kids on Fire, in North Dakota was forced to shut down due to negative backlash.
The ACA wrote in an email there is no one right or wrong way to present religious teaching: “There are many ways to connect campers to spiritual formation. There are also many different types of camps and denominations that all go about these things differently. Each group, denomination, or camp must make a decision that is best for them and what they feel is best for their campers. It is then important that camps communicate their philosophy, structure, ideals, and practices to parents and families before they attend camp.”
Catholic camps have also been known to execute some of the same forced religiosity that evangelical and other mainline Christian denominations exhibit during the summer getaways.
“You’d be having the [evening] worship service or [morning] mass and it was really modern with modern music and people would just break down crying—and this was a thing that was sort of expected to happen to everyone,” said Dillion Klavido, a four time camper at Catholic Youth Camp in Iowa and student at The King’s College. “So there was a pressure to fake it a little bit if you weren’t experiencing that. There was no room for actual doubt or not being that into it.”
Photo Caption: Cedarmore Camp, Crossings Ministries. Credit: Rachel Phelps
When attempting to express doubts or ask counselors hard questions, Klavido, 22, found his concerns being pushed aside or disregarded—making the loving message that was presented through the week feel inauthentic.
When contacted over the phone, the executive director of Catholic Youth Camp expressed her deep apologies that Klavido’s questions were pushed aside.
“One of the things that we’ve been really intentional about in probably the last couple years is we really want to be a place where people can come to camp in whatever faith state they are at, where they can ask questions that they have,” she said. “I want this to be a place where people can ask questions because if you can’t ask questions about your faith while you’re at Catholic Youth Camp, what are we doing? That should be the place that you can ask those questions. Honestly, we’re sorry and we work really hard to be a place where we can do that.”
Jackson Fordyce, a senior at The King’s College and former camper and counselor at T-Bar M Camps on Lake Travis in Austin, Tx., described his experience at his Christian camp as being, “The most joy I have ever felt.”
During the classic campfire and testimony night each week Fordyce always found himself wanting to share his testimony, even as a camper.
“I had a desire to know the Lord and come closer to Him,” Fordyce explained. All counselors were required to give their testimony and then opened the floor for campers to ask tough questions about divorce, depression or other hard topics.
Three years since working at Cedarmore, Phelps still considers herself a Christian and her faith remains important. However, every now and then she will think back and feel burdened by her time there. Speaking out has helped Phelps heal from the alleged abuse and disregard how she felt during her experience.
“I think that there are fantastic Christian camps out there,” she said. “But [after] my experience with Crossings, I would never send my child to a Crossings camp.”