School of Divinity programs prepare students to serve the Lord at Christian summer camps

The summer camp experience can be one of the most memorable and pivotal moments in a young person’s spiritual life. Often, major decisions are made as counselors mentor campers and teach them how to draw closer to God while being surrounded by His beautiful Creation.

During his freshman year, Liberty University graduate Isaac Altizer (’19) began wondering if he was heading in the right direction in college. While working with family friends at a weekend retreat for a local middle school football team that fall, he met Professor Keith Oglesby of the John W. Rawlings School of Divinity. The meeting changed the direction of Altizer’s career path and life.

“Professor Oglesby has a personality that is super disarming and inviting, and after watching him operate the football retreat, I felt comfortable to have an honest conversation with him,” said Altizer. “I asked if I could meet him for lunch to ask his wisdom and advice. (He) told me that if I wasn’t pursuing my passions and gifts to meet a need in this world, then I was being disobedient to God’s will.

That’s when Oglesby introduced him to the Liberty’s Camp and Outdoor Adventure Leadership (COAL) program, in which he serves as the director. The program offers a bachelor’s degree with curriculum that prepares students to run successful Christian camps and outdoor ministries. Students learn about ministry programming, site planning and design for Christian camps, and managing Christian ministries.

Although Liberty’s program was new to Altizer, Christian summer camps had already been a part of his life. Since 2012, he had attended Kanukuk, a Christian summer camp located in Lampe, Mo., as a camper, counselor-in-training, then a counselor. This summer, he was hired to serve on the leadership team at Kanukuk K-2, a sports-oriented camp for 12- to 18-year-olds.

“Whether teaching baseball, basketball, or football, we are using practical, everyday lessons that a kid will remember the rest of their lives,” Altizer said. “I think that is very much what Jesus did especially in teaching with parables — He took something that was very real and very usable for His audience and He used that for teaching the Gospel.”

Established in 1926, Kanukuk has residential camps in three Missouri locations: Branson, Lampe, and Golden. It is still operating at full capacity due to the efforts of President and CEO of Kanukuk Ministries Joe White, who worked with Missouri Governor Mike Parson and state public health officials to craft a 96-step plan for applying health and safety regulations aimed at preventing COVID-19 cases at Kanukuk facilities. It is one of the few camps in the state that isn’t closed due to the pandemic.

Altizer is unsure of his future after this summer but knows for a fact he’ll be doing ministry.

“I think whatever job I do, the end is the ministry, so I’m just trusting the Lord that He will put me in the position He wants me to be,” he said. “If that’s camp, praise the Lord, that’s awesome, and if it’s not camp, praise the Lord, that’s awesome.”

Divinity graduate Chris Steel (’19), who received his B.S. in Youth Ministries, spent several summers testing out a few different career options, including volunteering at a local church, in hopes of finding a place to serve after graduation. Just prior to his senior year, after feeling a bit unsure about his direction, a friend who had been working at a Christian summer camp suggested that Steel apply. Steel was hired at Carolina Creek Christian Camps in Riverside, Texas, during the summer of 2018.

“I just fell in love with working in camps and realized that was what God was calling me to,” he said.

He worked at Carolina Creek again last summer, but decided to apply for jobs at other camps to broaden his experience and to see how different camps are operated.

When he applied for jobs this summer, he was offered positions at two summer camps, only to be notified later that the camps had been canceled due to COVID-19.

“I had to completely reevaluate what I was going to do — this was in April and most camps start mid-May, so I had to go back to the drawing board and start applying to other camps,” Steel said.

On a whim, Steel decided to apply for a position at Carolina Creek and was hired as the supervisor for the camp’s adventure park, managing staff who work at the ropes course.

Carolina Creek has three different camps in Riverside: a camp for elementary school ages, a middle and high school camp, and a camp for church and ministry groups, where Steel now works.

Carolina Creek has a stringent health and safety policy aimed at protecting campers, and Steel said that camp leadership, staff, and campers all have protocols to make sure they are complying.

Steel has applied for an internship at Carolina Creek that, should he be accepted, would allow him to remain in Texas and pursue his Master of Divinity through Liberty University Online Programs while continuing to work at the camp.

He said he is glad that Carolina Creek can continue its ministry to youth this summer because a week away at camp can be such a unique, life-changing experience.

“In the time that I spent working in church ministries, I‘ve seen that it can take a lot of time to gain a student’s trust — that just happens so much faster at camp,” he said. “A relationship that might take months to form in a regular church setting can happen in days at a camp just because of the way that we are all able to connect.”