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Presbyterian camps/conferences movement celebrates 100 years

As Presbyterians celebrate the 100th anniversary of camp and conference ministry in 2008, one trend they're noticing is towards diversity. While there isn't any shortage of the traditional campfires and canoeing, there's also a move towards innovative programming that builds on the passions and strengths of particular locations.

At Calvin Center near Atlanta, for example, people who want to learn more about international mission work -- often in preparation for short-term mission trips -- come to its "Global Village," where they live in conditions designed to represent what they would find in Haiti, Nicaragua, Kenya, Palestine, or a barrio.

Presbyterian camp executive reflects on camps’ impacts

Peter Surgenor, 59, is a Presbyterian minister who's just been elected to a three-year term as president of the American Camp Association. He's executive director of the Holmes Presbyterian Camp & Conference Center in upstate New York, which is run by the presbyteries of Hudson River, Long Island, and New York City.

 And he's a man who can trace the history of church camps from the time when volunteers did most of the work and donated most of the food to keep costs down, to an era when camps have become accustomed to multiple streams of income.

20 minutes with Joel Winchip

Editor's Note: In September 2007, Joel Winchip became the first executive director of the Presbyterian Camp and Conference Center Association. He recently sat down to talk with Outlook editor Jack Haberer about the state of Christian camping and about Joel's new role. 

JH: What is the current state of Presbyterian camp and conference ministry?

JW: It's going to be a big year for camp and conference centers in our denomination. We'll be celebrating 100 years of Presbyterian camp and conference ministry, so it's a great time to look back on how this ministry has touched our lives through the history of the Presbyterian Church. 

Stony Point: Iona on the Hudson?

Just a half-hour's ride from the concrete and steel of New York City, Stony Point Conference Center welcomes Presbyterians to the Hudson River Valley. But its serene appearance shrouds a season of turmoil as it struggles to formulate a future for significant mission.

Shining

This orb that drew us far across the ancient dark,

whose radiance was, at times, a comfort,

other times, it seemed, a mocking challenge,

A playground “creation”

What began two years ago as a simple notion -- replace an aging play structure at Westminster Woods Camp & Conference Center in Occidental, Calif. -- became an unprecedented venture that reunited, redefined, and reinvigorated the community of the camp's supporters. 

After raising more than $100,000 for a new, one-of-a-kind playground, kids, teens, young adults, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents came to The Woods in last October for a five-day build process that was both energizing and exhausting. Through hard rain, fog, cool evenings and colder mornings, the roughly 300-person volunteer brigade persevered and created a unique play structure that will be a centerpiece of the camp's ministry for years to come.

MICAH: Peace mission to body and soul

Church mission projects are not uncommon. You can walk into almost any church in America, glance at its bulletin board, scan the church newsletter, or have a brief conversation with the pastor as you're walking out of the worship service and quickly find out the various projects it supports.

Students’ spiritual interests rise, worshipping drops

(RNS) Though college students' attendance at worship services declines, their interest in spiritual matters grows during their time on campus, a new UCLA study shows.

UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute compared the views of students who were freshmen in the fall of 2004 with the same students' thoughts in the spring of 2007, when they were juniors.

Restoring the deaconate

In the cacophony of issues before the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today, there is one that has not been reviewed with sufficient care. And as the denomination finds its administrative clothes too big, this particular unsung cause will, with the grace of God, add healthy girth to the corpus ecclesial.

The neglected song whose sweet melody needs to be heard throughout the church, from the local congregations to the denominational headquarters, is the song of the diaconate.

PHEWA awards deadline Feb. 15

(PNS) The Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) is seeking nominations for four ministry awards that will be celebrated during the 218th General Assembly in San Jose, Calif. next June. Deadline for nominations is Feb. 15.

They include:

The Presbyterian Association for Community Transformation (PACT) Award recognizes a congregation that either through ecumenical or interfaith community ministry or a special project of the congregation, has been faithful and creative in its ministry to and with its community.

The “I’s” have it, maybe

My formal service in the Christian community began during my first year in college. It included preaching, evangelistic outreach, and ministry to boys at risk on the streets of Philadelphia, Pa. In the intervening 44 years, I made an extensive study and assessment of young men engaged in turf wars in urban areas, the causes of civil strife, and most especially, the nature of conflict in the church. The following article, dedicated primarily to the Protestant sector of the church, summarizes some of my findings. 

Identity

When Christians work together

The Ember Kenya Grandparents Empowerment Project is just what its name suggests: a grassroots effort to empower the grandparent caregivers of AIDS orphans to become self-sustaining for the sake of the children. This startup project in Funyula in the Busia District of west central Kenya near Lake Victoria intended to begin small and grow as it found funding to support further efforts. But the need was so great that the project's founders have had to rethink their strategy.

Presbyterian Printer Robert Aitken and the first All American Bible

With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1776, the importation of Bibles to the colonies abruptly ceased, promising as Amos put it, a "famine of the Word of God." Presbyterian pastors Francis Allison and John Ewing of Philadelphia, with William Marshall of the Scots Presbyterian Church, petitioned Congress to insure the availability of the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments to the country. Bibles had been imported from Britain and Ireland. The church official considered the cost of the project, which was considerable, and persuaded the Continental Congress to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, and elsewhere. The British, it should be noted, took over Philadelphia; Presbyterian leaders had to flee in 1777.

Just before this, Robert Aitken, Presbyterian and Philadelphia printer, put out copies of the New Testament for use in the schools. This caught Congress' favorable attention. But it took this Presbyterian printer of Philadelphia to persuade the new United States Congress to do something about the situation. The petition read like this:

Engaging young adults

Unlike megachurches that have forged strong ties to young adults, mainline Protestant congregations tend to struggle in responding to people in their 20s.

The problem isn't that they want to freeze out young adults. They just don't have practices that enable them to hear young adults and to respond to their unique needs and interests.

Here are some tips on how to improve your congregation's "hearing" what young adults are saying:

On worship

"Have you ever seen it done well?" This was the reply that came to some of my concerns about contemporary worship. The questioner had a good point. There is a tremendous difference between worship that is led poorly and worship that is led well. Perhaps at least some of my concerns had more to do with sloppiness than with substance.