In last week’s Camp Prep Series, Henry gave you a bit of insight into how we decide on our camp themes. We are excited that FIT:Faith in Training is our 15th CentriKid theme! We believe that a summer theme is a fun tool to help share the message of Christ to kids that come to camp.
Back in December, the CentriKid office team gathered with a few friends for an entire day to plan out the 2016 spiritual direction and theme. You might be surprised that planning for camp happens so far in advance, but there are so many different things that must be written, produced, design, and edited, that it takes all of the 18 months to make camp happen successfully.
We follow pretty simple guidelines to structure our planning day and decide on the new theme:
1.) Start with Scripture. The spiritual content of camp is the most important thing! Before anything else, we spend time discussing and praying about the spiritual direction of the summer. Usually, a CentriKid Camp Spiritual direction falls within one of these areas: “Who God is, What God Does, Who We Are, What We Do.” To get an idea of this, check out the FIT: Faith in Training spiritual direction, which falls into the category of “What We Do.”
2.) Choose daily themes. After we decide on the overall spiritual direction, we begin to focus on each day of camp, and how that should be broken down into smaller spiritual themes each day of camp. For example, this upcoming summer, each day of FIT: Faith in Training is broken up into smaller themes like “A Disciple is a Follower of Christ, A Disciple Encounters God Through His Word, etc.” This is also where we begin ideating what scripture passages will be used as the basis for Bible Study and worship.
3.) Brainstorm overall motifs. After we have a solid foundation in the spiritual direction, then we begin coming up with motif. Last year, for example, the CentriKid team considered a motif of a factory, a greenhouse, and more before choosing the fitness motif for FIT: Faith in Training. When choosing the CentriKid theme, pairing the motif with the spiritual direction is extremely important to us, and we want the connection between the two to be clear.
4.) Leave the conversation open. Hopefully by the end of the planning day, we have laid solid groundwork for next year’s CentriKid theme, but we choose to leave the conversation open over the next few months. While we leave the meeting with an idea of what the spiritual direction and motif will be, we want to continue to seek the Lord’s guidance in the next summer, and we remain willing to adjust things if He leads us that way.
I hope that you have enjoyed getting a small glimpse into how we choose our camp theme! Maybe you can use this guideline for choosing how you theme your kid events, D-Nows, or day camps.
We hope to see you this summer for FIT: Faith in Training, and at the end of your camp week, you will get a sneak peak at the theme for CentriKid 2016!