Spiritual Growth on Staff

One of the best parts about working at camp is being surrounded by a community that strives to glorify God together. We pray that all of our campers and staff would experience spiritual growth while you are here, and that you would feel close to Jesus and each other.

But it’s important to know that spiritual growth at camp doesn’t happen automatically; it requires some intention on your part. Yes, camp is structured to incorporate prayer, devotions, and praise and worship into our daily routine, but it can be all too easy to go through the motions and look back at the end of the summer and wonder what happened to the time. We’ll have resources available for you, but you need to make it a priority for yourself. Want to talk about it more when you’re here? That’s what we’re for - we would love to help you in this area!

Resources we’ll provide:

A Four-Fold Growth Journal: Each counselor will receive a growth journal full of resources to help you grow spiritually, socially, mentally, and physically this summer. We hope you’ll use this journal as much as is helpful to you and that it will become a time capsule for your summer here!
Devotional books for check-out: Whether you’re looking for personal reading or want some ideas of devotions to do with your campers, we have a whole library of books and resources that you can borrow (with no library late fees!).
Daily devotions in the Bottom Line staff newsletter: We publish a devotion every day in our staff newsletter (as well as prayer prompts, questions for reflection, and other fun stuff!). You can use these to help you plan your nightly cabin devotions or for your own quiet time!
Morning Assembly: Every morning, we start our day as a full camp community with praise and worship and a devotion (usually from the camp pastor). Your presence at Morning Assembly matters, and we know that you will get as much from it as the campers do. One Morning Assembly a week is set aside for a staff-only devotion time.
The camp minister: We have a different minister for every session (usually an RUF pastor) who lives on camp property and joins in to our camp community. He will be available to meet with your cabin if your campers have questions or can meet with you if you need some pastoral support. You’ll love getting to know our camp ministers!
Sunday church services: Sundays at Greystone are set apart as special, and the high point of that day is church with our camp community. We sing hymns, hear a sermon from the camp minister, and even take up an offering (this gets donated to different causes and organizations after the summer!).
Daily prayer in our community: We pray a LOT as a whole camp community during the day, and we’d encourage you to bring prayer into your daily life at camp as much as possible. Sign up for a staff prayer partner when you get here to be intentional about it!
Staff Small Groups: Everyone has one, and they will be a homebase group for your Orientation week. We’d encourage you to keep checking in with each other throughout the summer. Have a question or need someone to pray for you? Your Small Group is a great place to start!
Counselor Bible Studies and other Great Day Groups: We’ve talked about these here, but know that several of our GDGs each summer have a spiritual focus. We’d encourage you to join one! We also offer a weekly Counselor Bible Study at night with the camp minister.

We’d also encourage you to…

Pray without ceasing, for your campers, your fellow staff members, and our whole community Let’s cover this place with prayer!
Foster Counselor Relationships. Take advantage of being surrounded by this amazing Christ-centered community! Join a Great Day Group, get to know your cabinmates, and have DMCs (deep and meaningful conversations) often.
Spend time on your cabin devotions. This time with the girls is precious - don’t just go through the motions! (We’ll give you more information about these devotions soon and will train you on how to do them during Orientation.)
Let us know how we can be praying for you and support your spiritual growth this summer! As you can see, this is a big priority for us, and we want to partner with you in any way we can. We are already praying for you (now and in the future!), and this summer, don’t be shy to let your Group Leader or a Director know how we can be praying specifically.
Trust the Lord that He is working in you and working at camp. None of us can grow by our own volition. Trust Jesus that he is using you in an incredible way in this place!