Growing Faith Together:

This resource talks about how church leadership can help reframe the role of summer camp in faith formation.

For some church leaders, Christian summer camps rank high on the list of recommended youth experiences. For others the feelings are more mixed. Often, those church leaders have seen campers come back to church with a case of the “post camp blues” and a sense of disillusionment with ‘normal’ life...

By Covenant Point, a Project Partner

Part of what makes camp special is that it is a temporary experience. It is not meant to last forever, even though sometimes we want it to. In order to get the most out of camp, it can be helpful to understand how temporary community works... 

We want to go beyond keeping parents informed about their camper’s experience and instead, equip them with the tools to continue the learning and skill-building back at home and in the church. 

 This report includes data primarily from the third time point (three – four months after camp) and is intended to give some insight as to the longitudinal impact of camp...

This report seeks to collect longitudinal data over four time points. It includes data primarily from the second time point (post camp) and is intended to help inform your camps post summer evaluation process. It measures parent perceptions, camper impact, and parent engagement with camp during the summer.

Our analysis resulted in six themes, outlined in this report as “promising strategies.” Two of these strategies relate to camp philosophy, one each to the three key audiences identified in the study, and the final one to camp leadership.

In summer 2024, six members of the Rhythms of Faith team conducted 11 visits to camps across the USA to investigate promising camp strategies for influencing family faith formation.

Read the summaries of the nine on-site visits.

Project Director & Director of Training

Project Associate Director

Director of Research;
Associate Professor of Psychology

Marketing & Communications Lead