Christian camping is rapidly growing as an experiential education ministry in the Global South. Whereas most scholarship and resource development has historically taken place in the West, programs ...like Church-based rites of passage in Kenya expose sparsely documented camp ministry contextualization elsewhere. This qualitative study explored the experience of Kenyan Christian camp practitioners through focus groups and semi-structured interviews (N = 37). Four themes emerged from analysis, describing camps as reforming the East African Revival, extending faith-based kinship, discipling intergenerationally, and facilitating transformation. Christian camps in Kenya are temporary communities that also redeem some traditional rituals for whole-person formation.
"1 Christian Camping International (CO), a global network of regional and national associations of camp practitioners, tracks how every year the discipleship journeys of millions of young people from ...diverse cultures around the world are impacted by the hands-on transformational, educational ministry of Christian camping.2 In the United States, however, minority populations remain underrepresented at camps,3 incongruous with the country's rapidly shifting demographic landscape. The Power of Camp Christian Camp and Conference Association (CCCA), a resource organization that networks Christian camps in the United States, defines Christian camping as "an experience within a temporary community using the outdoor setting and trained leaders to meet spiritual objectives. Camp offers young people opportunities to belong and matter, and to succeed among peers in meaningful enterprises.9 Although parents carry the primary responsibility of raising their young in the faith (Deuteronomy 6:7; Proverbs 22:6), peer friendships at camp powerfully and positively mediate this parental influence.10 Finally, caring, non-family adults at camp are available for life-on-life mentoring and modeling for extended periods of time.11 Camp as White Spaces Christian camping in the United States does, however, have a glaring soft underbelly-the underrepresentation of non-White participants. Conversations around race and ethnicity in the United States are often contentious, no less among Christians.20 Terms such as "race," and the use of "White," "Black," or other colors to refer to people of different ethnicities, skin tones, and cultures are, however, unavoidable when discussing diversity.
This article examines a model of formation within higher education that is committed to educationally based spiritual formation, desiring to see students formed as people who love God and neighbor, ...devoting their lives to redemptive labor in the world. Deeply influenced by the evolving relationship between the department, the institution, and the broader evangelical culture, the Christian Formation and Ministry department of Wheaton College seeks to equip students with the theological and theoretical foundation, the personal maturity of character and faith, and the practical ministry skills necessary to lead and participate in the formational and caring mission of the church in the world. Wheaton College’s unique approach to teaching spiritual formation and soul care in both their undergraduate and graduate programs is examined through a historical context of the department, a liberal arts and learning-centered approach to education that includes biblical foundations, philosophical framework, pedagogy, and teaching curriculum and assessment.
In the last two decades, contemporary youth development programs such as church based Rites of Passage Experiences (ROPES) in Nairobi, Kenya, have been introduced into communities to prepare young ...people to successfully navigate their adolescent years. A central aspect of ROPES is the participation of significant community members, whose relationships are expected to offer candidates resources, opportunities and supports that promote successful youth development. This qualitative case study explored through interviews and focus groups with peers, parents, and church leaders, how connectedness is fostered through the program. Twenty young people aged 14 to 20 years (M = 17), who were members of youth groups at two selected churches in Nairobi participated in this study. Eleven had gone through the ROPES program fully as they transitioned into their church youth groups. The rest were a comparison group consisting of three who partially participated in the program, and six who did not go through ROPES at all. Two pastors from each of the churches were also interviewed, and thirteen parents attended focus group discussions to triangulate the findings of this study. Qualitative data analysis yielded five themes in response to the research question. Connectedness to significant community members was found to be fostered through facilitated experiences that included shared milestones and memories at camp and elsewhere, challenges that candidates were taken through, and the loving exercise of authority and setting of boundaries. The program succeeded in integrating temporary and permanent expressions of community at church, in the family, and at school; further fostering connectedness. Personal investments of presence, focused attention, expending resources, and mutual trust also fostered connectedness. Learning that took place through the program carried strong associations and connectedness with its facilitators. Finally, youth experienced connectedness to significant others in multiple contexts when they made contributions through service. Findings included barriers that stood against the desired connectedness. Implications of the study were that the design of contemporary rites of passage programs should pursue an experiential methodology, leverage on new and existing social and institutional groupings that candidates belong to, and intentionally facilitate opportunities for service. Limitations of the study were discussed.
