From Mayflies to Ministry: The Enduring Legacy of Lutheran Camping

Insights from Tim Kurth, Vice President, Ministry Solutions at LCEF

That summer, the mayfly hatch coincided with our river canoe trip.  If you’ve never experienced a mayfly hatch, count yourself fortunate. If you’ve never experienced it in the middle of the Rock River in canoes full of teenagers, you’re doubly fortunate!

It was the summer of 1978 and my second summer as a camp counselor at Walcamp in Kingston, Illinois. Walcamp is one of the dozens of Lutheran camps around the country started in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Named for the Walther League, Walcamp harks back to an earlier time in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) when Walther League was the way Lutheran teens met, courted and eventually married. Camps were created for those teens and their families to spend quality time together.

Lutheran camping has evolved over the years, and 70 years later, our camps are still places where families gather.

You might argue camps are the best places for intergenerational ministry.

College students still serve as summer staff, and many make life-changing career decisions while leading children at camp, choosing a career in ministry as pastors, teachers and directors of Christian education.

Families come to camp for reunions. Fathers and sons gather. Mothers and daughters gather. Men’s groups and women’s groups come to camp to have experiences that happen nowhere else. Camp is where families create memories, tell stories, connect and take a break from the world together.

This video was published in 2020. Laborers for Christ is no longer taking new projects. 

Camp Lakeview in Indiana recently chose the theme “For Generations to Come” for their current capital campaign as a reflection of this truth. Because sitting around the campfire with Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad and the kids sharing faith, recounting exploits and passing the torch to the next generation is the closest we come to the ancient oral traditions recounted in Joel 1:3, “Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.”

This year, LCEF is formalizing a collaboration with the National Lutheran Outdoors Ministry Association (NLOMA) to better support our camps. We’re excited to work with NLOMA to strengthen and grow camping ministry across the country.