I Heart Church Camp: Montreat 2011 Memories

I heart church camp.

Emily, Jon, Patrick and Anaclara

From my days growing up attending Zephyr Point Conference Center, to gathering for events at Stoney Point, Ghost Ranch, Westminster Woods, Mo-Ranch and The Heartland Center, I am so grateful for the history and ministry of Presbyterian-related camps and conferences. The impact that conference centers such as these have had on my own life and the lives of so many people over the years is immeasurable to say the least. Go camps and conferences!*

For the past two weeks, I have been part of another church camp that has played a particularly important part in my own spiritual life, Montreat Conference Center and the Montreat Youth Conferences. Since my wife and I first attended in 1991, we have had the privilege of being part of planning teams, support staff, leadership and now parents of a conferee. As odd as it may seem for a family so steeped in San Francisco urbanity, we consider Montreat one of our spiritual homes.

The Left Bank from across Lake Susan

After nearly two years of planning by staff, directors, planning team members and leadership another year of this amazing ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is unfolding this summer. For those of you not familiar with Montreat Youth Conferences: every summer 1,000 young people a week for six weeks join together for fun, worship and study. Content is distinctly Presbyterian and reformed, healthy community is held to a high standard and the exploration of our young people of their Christian faith is held at the center of it all.

Meg Peery McLaughlin, Co-Keynoter

This year’s them was “Searching for the Signal” and I was the preacher for the week. I was also able to hang out with some great folks, snap some pictures and generally dive into the adventure of church camp. Below are some links and resources from the conference.

Available resources that I used during my sermon time:

Video: How to Tell Someone They Sound Racist
Video: Civil Disobedience Debate the Great Debaters
Video: It’s All About Me parody commercial
Video: Kurt’s Dad Confronts Finn from Glee
More on The “Pennies” story
More on The “Boo Boo” story
More on The “Stick” story
More on The “Zoe” story from Eldest.
Sermon Text: Friday PM, Revelation 21:1-6, “Speaking with Grace” [PDF]
My It’s all that Easy and It’s all that Hard Charge and Benediction

To keep connected to Montreat Youth Conferences, here are a few other links:

Twitter is alive and well, so you should follow @montreat as well as check out the hashtag #myc11 to find updates and twitterers. You can also follow leadership on Montreat: Jeffery Harper, Heather Scott, Patrick Laney and yours truly,@breyeschow.
On Facebook, you can connect with our keynoters: Jarret McLaughlin and Meg Peery McLaughlin as well as like the Montreat Facebook Page and would love to have you like My Facebook Page.
And if you want to see some pictures be sure to check out the conference photographer photo bucket, My Montreat on Flickr and/or see some of the pics I snapped with my new toy, Montreat 2011 Album 😉

I think that’s it. Thanks to all for yet another wonderful experience.

* If you want to find out more about Presbyterian camps and conference centers, please visit Presbyterian Church Camp and Conference Center Association and The Camps and Conference Centers Office of the General Assembly.