Church camp ought to be more than bad skits and cry night
Author Cara Meredith is the most recent guest on ‘A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast’
LOUISVILLE — Author and longtime Christian camp speaker Cara Meredith told the hosts of the “A Matter of Faith” podcast that the origin and heart of camping goes back to “getting kids into a space in nature where they can meet God. It’s where Creation and humans and God kiss; it’s where they meet.”
Meredith’s book, “Church Camp: Bad Skits, Cry Night and How White Evangelicalism Betrayed a Generation,” was published in April. She was the guest of “A Matter of Faith” hosts Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe last week. Listen to their 50-minute conversation here.
Author Jacob Sorenson calls church camps “Sacred Playgrounds,” Meredith noted. “If we are heading out into nature, into Creation, we oftentimes don’t need to do very much in order for God to be known, in order for humans to meet God, because God already shows up in the beauty of Creation,” Meredith said. “The first thing is to let God be God and let humans meet God through the beauty. The second thing is, I don’t think campers need to be entertained as much as we oftentimes make them be entertained. … We don’t need the theatrics and the programatics that can so often be part of church camps today.”
The last of three goals Meredith pointed out is for camps to promote “positive theology.”
“We can simply have a message of ‘God loves you,’” she said. “There can be a message of love and belovedness every single day [of camp], of belonging and acceptance, and to me that would be enough for the presence of God to be made known.”
Catoe asked Meredith to describe the bad skits and cry night in the title of her book.
In the evangelical camps Meredith attended and later spoke at, “there was a theological progression over the course of five or seven days,” she said. “The point was conversion, to produce Christians. If that’s the end goal, what is the message that needs to be communicated over the course of the week-long camp? A lot of times, there was a theology of atonement … You communicate the Reformed view of human depravity, that humans are sinners and are nothing without God. The solution is a debt that can be paid through Jesus on the cross.”
But campers “may be left feeling bad about themselves,” Meredith said. “When the solution is given — that God did this for you so you could be in relationship with God, that’s when the tears come.” Some camps call this “cry night,” while others call it “serious night” or “cross talk.”
“Whatever it was, there was often a big emotional response,” Meredith said. “The theory is used because it’s what works. It’s what produces conversion. If we want ‘little Christs,’ as C.S. Lewis said, we are going to proclaim a message that’s going to get the biggest result, but that’s not always the best way to go about it.”
Doong asked: How do we hold a space that’s open while reminding people of some of the important messages about being a Christian?
“I think about agency,” Meredith said. She used to rely on sharing with campers the ABCs — admit, believe, commit — or rededicating your life to Christ, or choosing to be baptized. “That is very limiting toward one’s agency and what God might be doing,” she said. “What does it mean to say ‘none of the above’ or ‘choose your own adventure’ or ‘take a couple of minutes in silence and then lean into what God might be prompting you to do.’”
That got Catoe wondering: How do we take the need for belonging and create an environment to give people agency and choice?
Meredith said she went into writing the book wanting to name the harm that’s been done to women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. “I realized how much harm had been done in the name of Jesus to those three groups,” she said, including the purity code movement and the lack of welcome at many Christian camps experienced by some people of color and members of the queer community.
For Meredith, a favorite interview was with Ross Murray, who directs a weekly camp every summer called The Naming Project. “It’s a camping ministry that serves kids of all gender and sexual identities, saying there’s only one thing church camps can do, and that’s acknowledge everyone and make efforts at creating safe spaces for them,” Meredith said. “I wish that could happen at all of our camps, where there are no caveats to belonging and all are welcome through the doors.”
Asked by the hosts to talk more about her book, Meredith said she hopes readers will laugh, “and I hope you feel deeply. I hope you feel the mystery of God. I hope you imagine new ways forward within the church and within all these spaces.” She told the hosts she’d enjoyed their time together.
After they’d signed off with Meredith, Doong told Catoe it was a conversation that “took me down memory lane.”
“I really appreciated the conversation about the need to entertain kids” at church camps, Catoe said. “It can be too much sometimes. Nature is enough.”
New editions of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” drop every Thursday. Listen to previous recordings here.
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