The Spiritual Side of Camp - New Camper Blog Series

Morning Assembly devotions:

Each morning, we start with Morning Assembly, which is a time that we gather together after breakfast to really kickstart our day. We sing some fun upbeat Christian songs, slow it down with some praise and worship, and then end our time with a devotion by our camp minister. You can listen to some of these past devotions on our website, and we will post this summer’s Morning Assembly devos during the session for parents to listen to at home.

Nightly devotions:

In each cabin, after girls get ready for bed, the cabin counselor will lead a short nightly devotion for the girls. These devotions are geared to the age of the campers, and the staff always include Scripture and a prayer. We give our staff many resources and much support with these devotions. It is a wonderful way to end the day at camp!

Sunday church:

At each of our sessions, we honor the Lord’s Day with Sunday worship. At Junior Camp, girls will experience a shortened church service on the first day of classes (no dress/skirt needed). At our June, Main, and August sessions, our Sabbath includes a change in routine that offers a slower morning and chance to experience a full church service together. These laid-back services center around hymn singing with our praise and worship team, prayer as a camp community, and a sermon given by our camp minister. You can listen to some of our previous church sermons on our website.

Collective prayer:

We pray together as a community at least 6 times each day. We pray before meals and to end the day, making sure prayer is a central part of what we’re doing at camp. We want to model this to the girls!

Bible class:

At our longer sessions, we offer a Bible class to the campers. For those girls who want to learn more and dive deeper into the Bible, they have this opportunity with their fellow campers. At our Main Camp sessions, our Bible class is one of our most popular camp classes!

Hiring a camp minister:

We hire a minister to be with us during our longer sessions, and it is wonderful having this resource at camp! Not only does our minster lead our Morning Assembly and church services, but this person also serves as a resource for our campers and counselors. Many cabins set up meetings with the minister during Rest Hour to talk through different topics.

Camp traditions:

Many of our camp traditions connect to the history of camp, which was founded in 1920 by a Presbyterian minister. Just like in those early years, we still recognize and talk about light in our Vespers services, as we want the girls to realize that they can be a bright light going out into the world, shining for Christ. At our Council Fire events, we talk through unselfishness (the “secret” of Greystone) and different qualities of our Honor Code. These special events help connect our greater purpose at Greystone with the fun aspects of being at camp.

Everyday camp moments:

We weave what we believe into so many of our everyday camp moments – it would be hard to list them all! At Breakfast Club, we talk through the four-fold philosophy, which is based on Luke 2:52. In camp classes, our counselors can weave scripture into the class in subtle ways, encouraging girls to “be strong and courageous” while on the High Ropes course, or to see Christ as the ultimate potter in Ceramics. We listen to uplifting music and invite some fantastic Christian musicians to join us for concerts at our Main Camp session. Once again, we aren’t trying to push anything on the campers but instead allow our beliefs to flow naturally into our daily camp life. Many of the girls don’t even notice these small everyday moments!

DMCs:

A phrase we use at camp quite often is DMC, and it stands for “deep meaningful conversations.” This phrase was coined by our older campers just a decade or so ago as these girls realized a phrase was needed to explain what was already happening – a camper getting together one-on-one with a fellow camp friend or a counselor to talk and learn more about each other. These DMCs are also a way that our older girls talk through spiritual questions or to talk about ways to take what they are learning at camp home with them.

Resources during the year:

We work to provide great resources for our campers even when they return home. Our June Camp 2024 minister Stewart wrote a great guide for girls for when they go home (check it out!). You can find devotion resources on our website, subscribe to our daily devotions which can be emailed to you each morning, and follow along with our social media to read encouraging verses that we share at different times.

Leadership Team

Our faith impacts everything we do at camp, including with our Head Staff leadership team. We start our weekly off-season meetings with prayer, thoughtfully weigh out and think about each of the decisions we make, and rely on the Lord in every step of our camp planning. It is a big deal to us! We then carry that over into the daily life of our campers - it is all connected.

See it for Yourself

Check out this video on what it means to be a Christian camp; seeing and hearing from our camp community, directors, and parents gives a clearer picture on what we are hoping to do at camp: