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by Nancy Ferguson M.Div., M.A., Ed.S.
Finally the campers are quiet and the flashlights are stowed under the
benches. The dark stillness is broken by the chirp of crickets, honking
frogs in the nearby pond, and the single call of an owl. Overhead, stars
sparkle framed by the boughs of the lofty pines. Then out of the shadows
in the middle of the circle a light flares and brings flames to the center
of the campfire. Slowly the dimness brightens. Shapes on the benches
become silhouetted against the night woods and then out of the broadening
light emerge the faces of campers. A community comes into view. And soon
the stillness is rent by the songs and stories of that place.
This is a scene that is repeated again and again at all kinds of camps—religious,
agency, and private—each summer. It is this image of the campfire
that gives us a doorway into an exploration of spirituality. It can lead
us to a meaningful understanding of spirituality that can function for
both religiously-affiliated and nonreligious camps. Such an understanding
will need to be broad enough to be helpful to nonreligious camps and
specific enough to enrich the programs of religiously-affiliated camps.
Using the image of the campfire experience as a starting place, we can
explore spirituality—and its role at camp.
Those of us who have sat around those fires remember the darkness, our
fear of the night's unknown, the magical release that comes with
being able to see the faces of our friends across the fire, and the comfort
of familiar songs and stories. In that place and time we each know ourselves
as part of something bigger than we are; we know ourselves as part of
the vast unknowable creation and as part of that community gathered around
the fire.
Being spiritual is woven into our human nature. As humans we have the
ability to be self-transcendent—to experience the mystery of something
beyond ourselves. Spirituality is intrinsic to the human creature. It
is part of each and every one of us whether we choose to nurture it or
to even be attentive to it.
Spirituality is that part of humanity that enables us to reach beyond
ourselves—to reach outside ourselves and to know there is something
greater than we are—regardless of what we call that power—or
even our choice to ignore or deny it. Spirituality stretches out beyond
the boundaries of religion, culture, history, and social context. For
those around the campfire, the experience holds the possibility of connecting
with the greater forces of the universe and with those who sit with us
in the light of that fire.
Spirituality and Religion
Think for a moment about your own reaction
when you hear or read the word "spirituality." What did you
think when you saw the title of this article? Did you immediately assume
that it was addressed primarily to religiously-affiliated camps? Did
you assume that it was somehow related to a religious discussion? Your
answers are reflective of one of the misconceptions about spirituality—that
it is the same as religion.
Frequently, religion and spirituality are
lumped under a single heading and thought not to apply to those camps
who choose not to espouse any particular religion. Religion and spirituality
are not the same. In any attempt to understand spirituality, the interconnection
between religion and spirituality must be untangled in such a way that
both are clearly defined and their scope identified.
Religion can be
characterized as a well-developed system of thought, as a code of ethics,
and as a point of reference by which persons relate to others who believe
as they do and to the universe. This system of beliefs gives answers
to the questions of meaning of life and identity. These answers claim
to fit all human conditions and circumstances. The focus is on an interaction
with a higher being and on the benefits of faith in that being. It is
the purpose of the religious practice to translate the "absolute" truth
of faith into specific needs and settings (Hay, Reich, and Utsch, 2006).
On the other hand, spirituality is understood as the intrinsic capacity
of the human for self-transcendence and recognizes that each human is
rooted in something larger than just the self—perhaps even in the
holy. Spiritual development has been called the "engine" that
compels the self toward purposefulness, connection, contribution, and
meaning. The nurture of the spiritual development leads toward integration
of the self, an inner peace, and a desire to reach out in service to
others (Hay, Reich, and Utsch, 2006).
Understanding the distinctiveness
and scope of religion and spirituality is much more complex than these
two paragraphs would make it seem. Much has been written and is being
written on this complicated relationship. However, for our purposes as
camp folks, the importance of this discussion is the awareness that each
of us—camp leaders and campers—are spiritual beings. This
consciousness leads us toward a deeper understanding of our responsibility
to intentionally nurture the spirituality of all who come to our camps.
Recent Attention to Spiritual Development of Children and Youth
Fortunately,
some up-to-date research and some recent innovative attention to the
issue of spiritual development in children and adults are available to
help us in the endeavor. We are not left alone to figure it out. As emerging
results of research become available, we will be hearing more and more
about the connection between camps and spiritual development.
In the
Youth Development Outcomes study conducted by the American Camp Association
(ACA) between 2001 and 2003—made available to camps as the Directions
report in 2004—spirituality was one of ten "constructs" measured
in the research. The results "suggested a statistically significant
increase in spirituality from pre-camp to post camp" (Directions,
p.15). When counselors were asked to report on frequency of doing helpful
acts, following rules and playing fair, making decisions, and demonstrating
spirituality, the results suggested a significant growth in these values.
The Search Institute, long known for its commitment to developing healthy
children, youth, and communities, has recently launched the Center for
Spiritual Development in Children and Youth (www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org).
The focus of the Center is on the ways children and youth develop spiritually.
They are committed to the improvement of research, partnerships, and
practical resources to aid the work of all those who work with children
and youth. ACA will be a partner with the Search Institute in this work.
As the leaders of the Center began to explore the scholarly work and
research available in both religious and the spiritual development of
children and youth, they discovered several trends. First, there is no
cohesive and integrated stream to the study of spirituality in children
and youth. While the issue is being studied, the research appears within
a wide diversity of disciplines, and there is little effort to gather
the streams together. This results in a variety of definitions and theories,
differences in methods of measurement, and a void in attention to the
cultural context of the study (Roehlkepartain 2005).
A further complication
is that the behavioral sciences have marginalized the study of spirituality.
Scholars in these fields in their failure to differentiate between spirituality
and religion have viewed the former as a "discretionary" activity
in the same category as sports and art. They do not understand spirituality
as basic to human nature and thus an appropriate area of study and focus
(Benson 2006).
Recent research and theological study regarding children
and youth have focused on "religiosity" and not spirituality.
Deepening any knowledge bank on spirituality thus requires separating
the data about spirituality from the research on religion (Roehlkepartain
2005). This effort is additionally complicated by the lack of scholarly
attention within religious studies to the area of spirituality.
Finally,
there has been little attempt to understand the spiritual development
of children and youth. For a long time, those working in the fields of
education and religious studies have taken it for granted that children
and youth develop spiritually in the same way adults do. This has resulted
in practices that attempt to build a foundation for child and youth spirituality
using the same techniques that are used with adults. They have not recognized
or valued the unique manner of spiritual expression found in childhood
and adolescence (Yust, Johnson, Sasso, and Roehlkepartain, 2006).
Connections
Between Research and Camps
One of the first efforts of the Center was
to pull together the vast amount of scholarly work and research that
is addressing the issue of spiritual development in children and youth.
One hundred scholars were invited to examine spiritual development of
children and youth from the perspectives of theological/religious community
and social sciences. The resulting volumes—Nurturing
Child and Adolescent Spirituality and The Handbook of Spiritual Development
in Childhood and Adolescence—reflect the insights of scholars in different
disciplines and have increased the ease of access to the current base
of knowledge about spirituality.
The editors of the Nurturing Child and
Adolescent Spirituality developed a working definition of spirituality
to guide the work of the volume's writers (Johnson, Sasso, Roehlkepartain,
and Yust, 2006). In examining the list of characteristics of spirituality
they identified, it is easy to see the connections between these insights
and what is valued at camps.
Spirituality is part of the human creature.
Camps are places the spiritual nature of campers is already recognized.
It is at camp that campers are invited and encouraged to use creativity
and imagination, to dream dreams, to wonder, to ask hard questions, and
to reach for the best in themselves.
Spirituality is firmly planted in
relationships and within community experiences.
Camps are by their very
nature a place where relationships are nurtured and nourished. A sense
of community is built which draws campers back year after year to reestablish
relationships and to recapture that sense of belonging. An important
emphasis of ACA's Program Improvement Process (PIP) is the examination
of the ways camps can better organize to provide supportive relationships
for campers within the camp community.
Spirituality is expressed in ethical behavior.
Camps are committed to creating an environment for ethical behavior that
is based on a sense of responsibility to others within the camp community
and beyond that community. Camps are often places where behaviorial
expectations are stated clearly and in which campers are invite to
share in the creation of some of the expectations.
Spirituality leads to growth and change.
Camp is a place where children and youth grow and change. Isn't
that what we camp leaders seek to do in multiple ways? We want kids to
grow in positive self-image, in confidence, in activity skills, in a
sense of independence, in their ability to make friendships, and leadership
abilities.
Spirituality needs to be nurtured in an intentional manner.
Camps are places that can practice intentionality about everything they
do. A major discovery in the Youth Development Outcomes
of the Camp Experience,
a study conducted by the American Camp Association and Philliber Research
Associates, was that the camps that are most successful in reaching their
goals are those camps who have a clear mission statement and who design
program that enables them reach those goals in an intentional manner.
And all this brings us back to the campfire circle, to the mystery of
quiet darkness and the single spark, to the growing sense of belonging
as the light spreads to make faces clear. Around the fire sit all of
us—spiritual creatures—longing for purpose, meaning, and
connection. Camps have always responded to this longing. As our consciousness
as camp leaders is raised about the connection between camps and the
spiritual development of children and youth, we can be more and more
intentional about this important task.
| References |
| Center for Spiritual Development of Children
and Youth, "Building a Field of Child and Adolescent Spiritual
Development," interview with Peter Benson, www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org (accessed 2006). |
| Roehlkepartain, Eugene C. "Reflections
on the State of the Field of Spiritual Development in Childhood and
Adolescence," Center for Spiritual Development of Children
and Youth, www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org (accessed August 2005). |
| Hay, D.; Reich, H.; and Utsch, M. (2006). "Spiritual
Development: Intersections and Divergence with Religious Development," The
handbook of spiritual development in childhood and adolescence. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage, pp.46-59. |
| Yust, K.M.; Johnson, A.N.; Sasso, S.E.; and
Roehlkepartain, E.C. (2006). "Traditional Wisdom: Creating
Space for Religious Reflection on Child and Adolescent Spirituality," Nurturing
child and adolescent spirituality: Perspectives from the world's
religious traditions. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 1-13. |
Originally published in the 2007 March/April
issue of Camping Magazine. |
