Camp McCall

Description

Our Core Beliefs

At McCall, we have four core beliefs, four guiding principles, that guide everything we do. We believe strongly in these and they influence everything we do. Camp McCall is guided by the following beliefs:

1. Everyone Needs to Experience God.
   We are all unique individuals, but regardless of where you live, your personality, your background (or any of a thousand other variables), we believe that everyone needs to experience God. Perhaps St. Augustine said it best: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”Camp McCall exists to provide opportunities for people to encounter and experience God, and we know experiencing Him comes in many different ways. We seek to provide a variety of experiences, from adventure-based activities to quiet contemplation that will help people experience God in a new or renewed manner. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity in our hearts, and we want to help prepare people for that eternity. Everything we do springs from a basic conviction of helping people connect with God.
2. Camp Is Preparation For Life.
   Camp is an important time of preparation for the rest of your life. The experiences, the relationships made, the lessons learned, the spiritual growth and character development that occurs at camp plays a significant role in the person campers will become. Multiple studies have shown that camp experiences have a tremendous, formative impact on child and adolescent development. Sometimes the learning is simple (how to clean up a table after a meal or how to paddle a canoe) and sometimes very profound (how to take care of yourself away from home or the importance of missions in the life of a Christian), but the potential for learning is practically unlimited. As a former camper and Staffer, I frequently identify important habits, lessons, and truths that I learned during my time at McCall. At Camp McCall, we want to help campers prepare successfully for life.
3. Being Outside is Good.
   Recent studies reveal that the average American student daily spends over SEVEN HOURS using electronic media while spending just FOUR minutes outside. In today’s high-tech, plugged-in world, reconnecting with the natural world provides significant benefits. Increased exercise is just the beginning–improved physical and psychological health, decreased emotional issues, better peer relationships, and a whole host of other benefits result from time outside. We want to encourage young people to spend more time outside.
4. Everyone (especially men) needs adventure, adversity and accountability in their lives.

Adventure

We believe that every person has an innate need for adventure–a sense of risk and challenge of the unknown. When you look at the history of mankind, you see a pattern of people wanting to know what’s over the horizon, or the next hill, or to go where no one has ever been. Unfortunately, in today’s society, many young people satisfy that need through a variety of unsafe and unhealthy options: drugs, alcohol, sexual exploration—just to name a few. We want to provide healthy alternatives to satisfy the need for adventure.

Adversity

The best things in life aren’t free. The best things in life aren’t easy. They take work, and effort, and discipline. God often times uses the hard, challenging, difficult times to encourage growth and spiritual development.  It’s not always fun, but we believe adversity is vital to life.

Accountability

We’re optimists, and we try to be positive, but we know that ultimately, if left on our own, we will all fail. It will be different for all of us, but we all make mistakes.  Jeremiah 17.9:  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?” We strongly believe that most of the really high profile failures we see—in the news, in our churches, in politics—occur because those people had no accountability. Especially as Christians, we need accountability.