After stomping twice, over 200 leaders from around the Diocese chanted together, “I’m going to Camp Cross, and you’re coming too!” The next day, clergy and lay people from Grangeville to Oroville, from the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist to the Episcopal Churches of the Resurrection, wore badges to the closing Eucharist of Diocesan Convention stating the same, “you’re coming too!” Truly the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane is ready to welcome all the “yous” out there to Camp Cross in 2009, so, in our bold welcome, let’s remember what we’re welcoming people to.

First, we are welcoming everyone to an accepting and loving community that is an expression of the Anglican yearning to be in communion together. Camp Cross lives out this call to be in community and communion by asking people to come together to enjoy life, share a meal, and relax in a place where the beauty of creation transcends all the ideological debates that cloud our vision of what togetherness looks like. It is a place where our youth are asked to put aside the tools of judgment used in school, from clothes to class, and simply have fun together. It is a place where all, young and old, play together, creating a common experience that gives a common meaning to gathering around the Eucharistic table.

This community thrives in the midst of God’s creation; we are welcoming people to a home in nature. In our busy modern lives, there is likely no other place where cars are left behind, where we have to rely on other people to get us where we’re going, where we are forced, before coming or going, to look out on God’s creation and pause. It is easy to underestimate the value of this, but where else can you leave your watch behind, let someone else worry about the cooking, and leave your keys and wallet out of your pockets? We are welcoming people to be free of the tiny shackles of modern life and breathe nature in deeply.

Beyond the beautiful place that we as a diocese are blessed to be part of, we are welcoming our friends and families to a wonderfully Episcopal experience. Many camps ask youth to accept Christ as their savior, many camps are a place where youth are educated in the Gospel, but Camp Cross calls its campers and guests to experience Christ. We welcome all to live in a re-enchanted world, where the sacraments are something experienced, not just something done. This, not surprisingly, comes naturally to children, who see the mystery of faith all around them. And this is why we must be welcoming not just our children’s friends, but our own friends, to spend a day, weekend or week at Camp Cross, and let God deepen our experience of a sacramental life.

Camp Cross is our gift to share with the Inland Northwest. So I ask you to commit, with all those at Diocesan Convention, to coming to Camp Cross for one day next summer. Come share a meal with us. And, beyond that, commit to welcoming someone to share that experience with you. Even if Camp Cross opens its doors and puts up the sign “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You,” we will have very few drop in visitors on our little peninsula. We need our whole diocesan community to welcome children and adults to share this fun and loving community, this uniquely beautiful location, and wonderfully Episcopal vision of Christ. That is our New Year’s resolution. So, repeat after me, “I’m going to Camp Cross, and you’re coming too!”

Like what you’ve read in the Inland? Want to be up to date on what’s happening with Camp? Join the Camp Cross e-newsletter by emailing campcross@spokanediocese.org with “Subscribe” in the subject line.

From the incredible turn out for Labor of Love in May, Camp Cross has been blessed this season with hundreds of people of all ages volunteering their time to make Camp happen.  In May and June, folks braved the flooded parking lots and beaches to do more work than we had done at the end of staff training in 2007. On top of that, a couple of weeks later folks even came out to clean up our beach after the flood waters receded. This meant our staff had more time to train and prepare the innovative and creative programs for the summer once they got here.

The amount of time given to Camp Cross this summer goes far beyond just the folks who came up and labored with us. We had volunteers in the kitchen week after week pumping out meal after meal for our ravenous campers, parents and clergy spending hours on the road making sure our campers got to Camp, and counselors that took on new challenges both in leading the campers and taking care of big projects around the property.

The Camp Cross community has also truly stepped up to the plate in their financial support. Churches from around the Diocese raised over $11,000 in scholarship funds for campers from their own congregations and others. Holy Trinity, Wallace, wasn’t discouraged by the lack of camper-aged children in their congregation; they raised scholarship money so the impact of their congregation’s unique youth ministry could be spread across the Diocese.

Our community also jumped in to help Camp in its time of need, whether it was replacing broken speakers or the thousands of dollars given by parents and friends during our closing lunches; people went out of their way to support Camp as a transformative force in our lives.

The Camp Cross community has done something incredible in transforming their individual talents into actions truly contributing to the over-all transformative power of Camp. I saw it in St. Paul’s, Kennewick, which sent 13 kids to one session, in the individuals whose warm personal invitations to their friends and family filled our camps, and in the line dancing classes at Labor Day Family Camp. I saw it in everything from the creative and engaging formation and worship by our Camp leaders and clergy to the chainsaw lessons that helped us clear trails all across our 107 acres. And I saw it in our 42 counselors, who not only used their talents to lead and nurture our youth, but also showed their leadership by doing everything from dishes to digging gutters for run-off.

Now, when I walk around, I don’t feel alone at Camp. In every trail, dish, and building I can feel the efforts and passion from the thousands around our Diocese and beyond who have supported this place in an incredible array of ways in 2008. We could not have been the welcoming, transformative force in so many hundreds of people’s lives this summer without your support. Thank you – and come join us at Camp next year!

Steve Goheen and Wayne Underwood from All Saints, Richland, at Man Camp, proud to have finished assembling a fine new Adirondack chair for Camp Cross.

Summer is underway and Camp is in full swing! Thanks to the passion and commitment of so many in May and June, we are set to have an amazing season. With so many individuals from around the Diocese inviting others to join them, we had a record breaking 49 people – ages 2 and up – out to help open Camp Cross at “Labor of Love” over Memorial Day weekend. All the hard work was rewarded with a wine and cheese recep­tion, with the sun setting over the lake, a fire crackling in the fire place, and James Taylor’s music setting the mood.

The youth of the Diocese came out the following weekend to hone their leadership skills and prepare to be coun­selors in 2008. From the silent hike to the inaugural camp fire at Pioneer Camp, to the orienteering challenge, our coun­selors stepped up to the plate leading pas­sionately while reflecting thoughtfully on the challenges of meaningful leader­ship. The counselors also committed to raising $50 each for programs and equip­ment, and will decide at the end of the summer how the money will be best spent. Camp Cross also committed to raising funds to match the staff’s efforts, so not only are the counsel­ors leading our campers this year, but they are taking on the responsibility of leading the continued growth and stewardship of Camp Cross. Let’s support them in this bold venture!

In a weekend of con­struction and discussion, as well as steak and micro­brews, the Rev. Lt. Col. Jeff Neuberger led our first “Man Camp” June 6-8. On top of his thought provoking stories of his chaplaincy in Iraq, he led a discussion on what the story of “the Road to Emmaus” means for our call to mission. The guys also made the first of many Adirondack chairs and disc-golf baskets that are going to be cropping up around Camp this summer. To close a weekend of fellowship and for well-deserved relaxation we had a steak and potatoes dinner before pulling out the guitars around the fire.

At all of these events, old-timers and first-timers came together to make them memorable. So as the summer rolls quickly on, I ask you to be bold in evangelizing Camp and joyful in your invitations; help us grow our family this summer and bring a friend! Don’t forget to join us for our Open House Eucharist.

It’s easy to forget our race is epic. In a world of billions, where there is always someone who is better, faster and stronger, how can we justify the feeling that our times matter? It’s easy to forget that our faith journey is epic, amidst a fast changing world where truth bends, hardens or fades with each fad, election, and new religion. But it is epic, it’s the only journey that matters, and we have been promised that in the face of the ultimate reality, in the face of the One Truth, in the face of God, we can stand and say that our journey is epic.

When I was out there cheering, the reaction that most surprised me was that of the adults. When the honest “thank yous” were called out from the middle of the running mob, I was humbled. Our epic journey was honestly supportive, one screamed out over the din of thousands of pedestrians; my race was our race, their race was everyone’s. We were celebrating something beyond numbers, scores, and times; we were celebrating an epic and unreasonably loud communion through a road race of all things.

The staff and counselors at Camp Cross love to cheer obnoxiously.  We love to scream out for more speed, more passion, more love, more joy, more dancing, and more Jesus. All of us have seen it in the eyes of our campers, and even in the staff’s eyes-the look of the epic, endless summer. Our faith is epic, it does matter, and at Camp Cross we do all we can to remind people of that, reignite that fire, not of doctrine or rule, but of life that made us all fall in love with God in the first place.

At Camp, we have races with winners. There will always be the cool kids, the bookish kids, the outgoing kids, and the quiet kids. And at Camp we will always have kids starting an epic faith journey, a journey that transcends those labels, measures, and social boundaries, and through swimming, archery, crafts and canoeing becomes the unforgettable reminder of our epic faith.

At Camp Cross, we will cheer, and laugh and cry and pray, for our epic faith. And after the summer, we all have to keep cheering. We often wonder how to bring Camp home; remind your camper (young or old) that their journey is epic and so is yours. That they matter, and that you always have to keep moving, sometimes with the fiery irrational exuberance of the victor, and sometimes with the knowing and passionate eyes of a saint.  Yell”thank you” from across the crowd for their inspiration. We at Camp Cross welcome you to rediscover your epic journey, and cheer for us as we rediscover ours.

Of course, communication is at the heart of this challenge, but the term needs to mean more than talking or letter writing, more than just communicating facts about events. If we think instead about how to communicate support, encouragement and genuine concern, our signals and behavior are underutilized tools for communicating with our youth.

Behavior in this case goes beyond being a good role model; it means participating together in what is important. By volunteering at Camp Cross, whether at Labor of Love or working in the Camp kitchen, a shared experience is created. Empathy is demonstrated by service and by the shared songs and jokes. By sharing in their experience, we signal to the youth that the place is special, that their journey is important, and that a community of people supports them. Even something as simple as learning the campfire songs the youth love demonstrates the strong connections between the spirituality they feel at Camp and the spirituality of the adults in their congregation.

The same goes for our Diocesan youth events. Whether through cooking or chaperoning, organizing trips or leading a small group, we develop relationships and shared experiences that help integrate these events into the youth’s formation with our own congregation. Our presence is a signal that youth events are an extension of, not an escape from, life at home. And on top of that, we meet involved and passionate people from around the diocese who also want to give our youth formative experiences that will sustain them through the challenges of high school, college, and the rest of their life.

Your passion and your presence are the most powerful tools for communication with the youth of our Diocese. When our youth return to church, whether from Camp or Winter Weekend, I look forward to more of us being able to remind them and ourselves how much fun we had and what we learned.  So get in touch, right now.

Operators are standing by … !

Email Chase at chases@spokanediocese.org or call 509-624-5780 right now to learn how you can be involved in any number of ways.

As I continue to travel the Diocese and talk to more folks and congregations, I am energized by the incredible love and passion for Camp Cross that I find. People recall for me experiences of Camp from 70 years ago, write essays for me about Camp 50 years ago, and inspire me to work even more determinedly for this wonderful place. And as the excitement builds for the year at hand, I wonder what can be done to make this a year of passion that actively changes the communities we care about, a year of Obama instead of Dean.

So the question is, how this year can we mobilize the incredible energy and passion of the Camp Cross community so it becomes manifest as activity within our congregations and Diocese? For both Youth and Adults the first step is simple: participation and invitation.

Participation seems an obvious answer, but for adults around the Diocese it’s an often overlooked first step to supporting and developing the mission of Camp. Coming to Man Camp, Women’s Weekend, Days at the Lake or any of the Family Camps isn’t only a chance for personal retreat, it’s an opportunity to strengthen and energize the interconnectedness of our Diocese. Joining the Camp staff for Eucharist and brunch on Sundays, for the annual Open House, or even volunteering for a few hours or days, creates a sense of abundance and belonging

At Diocesan Convention, the excitement of meeting, learning from, and being in communion with other Episcopalians was palpable; Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies, commented on the spiritual connectedness of our Diocese. Camp Cross serves as another blessed meeting place for our Diocesan community, a place for us to get excited about the wider Episcopalian family we are part of, and get fresh perspectives on our faith and our congregations.

Invitation is just as important as participation. Not only is the invitation to Camp Cross a wonderful form of evangelism, of sharing the joy of our faith with those around us, it’s also a chance to deepen our connections with those close to us. An invitation to a young adult in your congregation is a great chance to demonstrate that you care about their faith, want them to have a home in your church, and want to be a mentor for their life journey. Even for me, a Camp veteran, such an invitation would be incredibly moving and affirming.

An invitation is also a chance to take responsibility for the relationships you have with other members of your congregation. There is someone in all our congregations that we don’t know as well as we want to, someone new and unsure, or someone who we struggle to connect with because of cultural or generational differences. Camp Cross gives us the chance to create a common experience in which a new spiritual friendship can be rooted.  Don’t go another year wishing you got to know someone better, or wondering how to get them more involved in Church. Invite them to join you at Camp Cross to join you in something you love.

The passion we have for Camp is powerful and energizing. But passion without action can never be transformative and, like Howard Dean’s campaign, fizzles out. Barak Obama speaks with passion and hope, but he has also allowed people to translate that passion and hope into real action campaigning actively, one person at a time, for his vision.

I invite all of us to this year make time to come to Camp and extend the invitation to others, so that our passion and hope for Camp Cross can become the reality we continue to live in and celebrate come November.

What characterizes a good internal home? In “Raising Resilient Children,” by Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein, the ability to perceive, communicate and understand emotion (often called emotional intelligence), the ability to overcome uncertainty and failure (be resilient), and having a sense of intrinsic self worth are all essential characteristics of such a place.

This is not to say an internal home is without God. For a Christian, charity with others, faith, and understanding God’s unconditional love are equivalents of the above concepts, and although we might be more comfortable with their form because they are Christian, in function there is often little difference.

Langdon Gilkey, in “Naming the Whirlwind: The Renewal of God-Language,” explains that because our understanding of the world around us is developed primarily with secular language and concepts (i.e. science, psychology, pop culture, high school social scenes), the words used for religious concepts have lost their spiritual meaning. We have lost our ability to approach the world on a truly spiritual level because we no longer understand the deeper meaning of the words and concepts used to communicate it. Without an understanding of the spiritual meaning in words and concepts, youth can hardly be expected to passionately live them out.

How then can youth build an internal home with spiritual depth if the words and concepts with which they define the world have none?  One way in this diocese is Camp Cross. Camp Cross reconnects the words and experiences of everyday life with their spiritual meanings. As Evita Krislock often said, Camp Cross is a thin place, a place where the distance to spiritual meaning is more easily bridged and a place where the will of the Sprit is more easily heard.  This thinness, living closely with the spiritual, animates everyday things like friendships, sitting quietly, and even labor with a new joy and depth. This animation, supported by friends, counselors and teachers, makes Camp an experiential learning center for the God-Language, one not mirrored in campers’ largely secular lives.

The difference between secular language and God-Language is revealed clearly when campers share that a friend from school and a friend from Camp Cross are different; they are both friends but one friendship is imbued with spiritual depth, even if not explicitly communicated. The difference is so pronounced in high school that many youth confess to being reluctant to bring new friends to Camp Cross because “they won’t understand.” The youth understand that the God-Language of Camp is substantively different from the language used in secular relationships.

This reluctance is an apt reminder that our internal homes should not be constructed in secret, hidden from the secular world. They should be open, something to be lived into out in the world. It is essential to share our camp experience. As older campers become counselors, the spiritually grounded internal home they’ve built is shared with a new generation. It also happens when in the secular world we teach the God-Language meanings of words in the manner of St. Francis, using words only if absolutely necessary.

This is the power of God-Language. Our internal homes become calls to action through their connection to the spiritual: “perceiving and understanding emotion” becomes living with Christ-like compassion; “overcoming uncertainty and failure” becomes living faithfully through all life’s trials, and “intrinsic self worth” becomes finding the spirit’s will for you and living it out.

And as for a Lenten resolution, the Camp theme this year, “Becoming Bread for the World,” is the perfect chance for us to help campers live externally, in the deep and spiritual internal home they’ve built, by giving them confidence to be authentic and open Christians.

Children certainly have an incredible capacity for perceiving, inviting and sharing God’s love in ways which seem utterly remarkable and even foreign to us adults. They are born spiritual. And yet, looking at college populations today, more and more young people are atheist or agnostic. Have they been “educated out” of their spirituality?

To illustrate, I’ve met more than one high school student who has little faith in or understanding of the Bible and seriously doubts God’s existence. And yet when I watch them in community at camp, and ask them about their spiritual experiences, they are anything but atheist. They embody the love and commitment of Christ, and they feel something moving deeply through the fabric of the universe.

The problem with schools, says Sir Ken, is that they are modeled on universities, which are modeled on professors, who model their lives around facts and analysis. As a result, dance and a myriad of other creative endeavors, which are neither factual nor analytical, are not considered valuable academically. Do we fall into the same trap by defining Christianity solely by the facts of our creed to the exclusion of intuitive and creative experiences of faith that resonate with the youth?

I think many youth associate being a Christian with the facts of Christianity they learned in Sunday school, just as we associate education with the facts of math we learned as a child. When the pictures of God in a throne in heaven stop meshing with their world view, Christianity as a whole stops meshing, too. The challenge then, is to help youth find God acting in their lives, help them express their faith creatively, and, most importantly, teach them to associate things other than Sunday school images of God with the heart of Christianity.

In places like youth groups and Camp Cross, youth experience many moments of spiritual depth in everything from loving friendships, arts and meditation, to swimming, mission work and political activism. Unfortunately, many don’t associate these with being Christian, just as we don’t associate the joy of dancing with school. Someone who excels at dancing but not math fails in school. What a loss if someone who excels at friendships, political activism, or punk rock, but isn’t comfortable yet with the Bible, considers themselves a failure at Christianity.

When we teach that a youth’s unique talents and interests are a place to encounter Christ, we will be teaching them a Christian spirituality that will encourage their creativity, fill a deficiency in their modern education, and cultivate a Christianity that’s deeper, more expressive and longer lasting. Just as it shouldn’t be a challenge to remain an artist, let’s not unintentionally make it a challenge for our youth to remain Christian.

As Jason Beschiniski, Diocesan Youth Ministries Coordinator from Virginia, noted, a distinction needs to be made between “youth groups” (regular meetings of youth from one congregation) and “youth ministries” (all that we do to encourage and enhance the spiritual, emotional, and physical development of young people). Freed of a narrow definition of youth ministry, the creative spark and unique gifts of all our congregations, with no, few, or many youth, can be called upon to lead the way into new youth ministries.

The Rev. Jane Nelson-Low faces an even more challenging situation, but her desire was not discouraged by the lack of youth in her congregation. She told me that, despite the lack of young people in her church, in addition to supporting Ugandan youth from Nambirizi, she hopes to grow Holy Trinity’s youth ministry by offering scholarships to Camp Cross to community children. Ideas like these should inspire us all to tackle youth ministries in new ways and be bold in crossing generational barriers to serve and be in community together. Her advice on youth ministries: “use your imagination!”

In addition to looking outside our churches for ministry opportunities, we all agree it’s essential that congregations provide for their own youth, even if few in number. The Rev. Percy Grant, Assistant to the Bishop for Youth Ministries in West Virginia, emphasizes that being an acolyte, reading, volunteering, and being a delegate to convention—fuller involvement in a small congregation—provide the experience of meaningful involvement in a community that youth programs are built to emulate in larger congregations.

The question for small congregations is not how to build a program for the youth for its own sake, but how to include the youth more fully in the community, while welcoming, mentoring and guiding them so that they may participate in a deeper and more meaningful way.

In a time where everyone I talk to encourages me in my work with youth, I ask you not to be discouraged by the demographics of your congregation. Identify those in your community who are passionate about youth ministry and ask them to be creative, think outside of the youth group model, and see what they come up with. The ideas that come from your congregations will have excitement and support behind them that will surprise you. A few congregants from St. Paul’s in Kennewick certainly surprised me when they talked to me about their starting a “Guitar Hero Jam Night” (Guitar Hero is a popular video game). This wasn’t a crazy idea from some video game obsessed youth, it was an amazing idea from some folks who were creative, open minded and excited to try something new.

Do not let your passion be stifled by a one-size-fits-all model. Look to the needs of youth in your community, the gifts of your congregation and the calling of the Spirit. Share your ideas and energy with other congregations around you, and share with me so we can spread together the growing passion for Youth Ministry in the Diocese of Spokane.

As Jason Beschiniski, Diocesan Youth Ministries Coordinator from Virginia, noted, a distinction needs to be made between “youth groups” (regular meetings of youth from one congrega­tion) and “youth ministries” (all that we do to encourage and enhance the spiri­tual, emotional, and physical develop­ment of young people). Freed of a narrow definition of youth ministry, the creative spark and unique gifts of all our congre­gations, with no, few, or many youth, can be called upon to lead the way into new youth ministries.

The Rev. Jane Nelson-Low faces an even more challenging situation, but her desire was not discouraged by the lack of youth in her congregation. She told me that, despite the lack of young people in her church, in addition to supporting Ugandan youth from Nambirizi, she hopes to grow Holy Trinity’s youth min­istry by offering scholarships to Camp Cross to community children. Ideas like these should inspire us all to tackle youth ministries in new ways and be bold in crossing generational barriers to serve and be in community together. Her advice on youth ministries: “use your imagination!”

In addition to looking outside our churches for ministry opportunities, we all agree it’s essential that congregations provide for their own youth, even if few in number. The Rev. Percy Grant, Assis­tant to the Bishop for Youth Ministries in West Virginia, emphasizes that being an acolyte, reading, volunteering, and being a delegate to convention-fuller involvement in a small congregation-provide the experience of meaningful involvement in a community that youth programs are built to emulate in larger congregations.

The question for small congrega­tions is not how to build a program for the youth for its own sake, but how to include the youth more fully in the community, while welcoming, mentor­ing and guiding them so that they may participate in a deeper and more meaningful way.

In a time where everyone I talk to encourages me in my work with youth, I ask you not to be discouraged by the demographics of your congregation. Identify those in your community who are passionate about youth ministry and ask them to be creative, think outside of the youth group model, and see what they come up with. The ideas that come from your congregations will have ex­citement and support behind them that will surprise you. A few congregants from St. Paul’s in Kennewick certainly surprised me when they talked to me about their starting a “Guitar Hero Jam Night” (Guitar Hero is a popular video game). This wasn’t a crazy idea from some video game obsessed youth, it was an amazing idea from some folks who were creative, open minded and excited to try something new.

Do not let your passion be stifled by a one-size-fits-all model. Look to the needs of youth in your community, the gifts of your congregation and the call­ing of the Spirit. Share your ideas and energy with other congregations around you, and share with me so we can spread together the growing passion for Youth Ministry in the Diocese of Spokane.

Chase can be reached at chases@spokanediocese.org