GRAND RAPIDS, MI (July 11, 2006) – A sense of community as well as art skills were enhanced during Camp Creation, a summer arts camp provided by Thornapple Covenant Church that attracted 140 youth and opened up new opportunities for service among church members.<\/p>\n
Throughout the week, students in grades one through eight painted, acted, sang, played instruments, took photographs, cooked, wrote stories, sewed, and learned liturgical dances. On Sunday, all of the work culminated with participation in the worship service or displays of the artwork elsewhere in the church, says Janna Kooi, the church\u2019s director of worship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to grow the children as worshipers and show them they could lead worship right where they were at,\u201d Kooi says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have to become adults to lead worship.\u201d Students also learned of God\u2019s creative gift in every person and how art can relate to the Christian faith.<\/p>\n
The camp began June 19 and culminated with the following Sunday service. The students enrolled to work with three different creative arts during the week. They also observed demonstrations presented by various artists.<\/p>\n
Kooi says two moments were highlights for her. The first came during the week as she sat in an office in the basement and heard the different sounds echoing down the hall: handballs, guitars, sewing machines, and the strains of a flute. \u201cIt was like hearing practice rooms in college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there was Sunday morning, \u201cseeing the faces of all the kids up front doing the different things – and that it was multi-ethnic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new relationships across ethnic lines and with people outside the church were major goals for Kooi. The church linked with an inner city mission in downtown Grand Rapids, so that a church picked the students up each day during the week, and did the same on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thank-you notes we\u2019ve gotten from the kids in the community have been thrilling,\u201d Kooi says. \u201cThey were so excited because they didn\u2019t know they could do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The excitement was not limited to the students. \u201cThere were a lot of people from the community who said, \u2018Please do this again,\u2019 \u201d Kooi says.<\/p>\n
New relationships also were formed in the church as people who had not previously been involved assumed leadership. \u201cThere were about a dozen adults, who are not plugged into ministry elsewhere, that we were able to use to teach kids,\u201d Kooi says.<\/p>\n
She adds that the addition of a teacher for painting with watercolors was evidence of God\u2019s hand in the camp. Within five minutes of one teacher having to back out of teaching the class, another called to say she was interested. \u201cI had no idea who she was,\u201d Kooi says. \u201cShe was kind of new to the church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kooi says the church was able to put on a large worship arts camp because the congregation has a lot of members with artistic and musical abilities. About 40 adults were needed to run the camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arts camp is very different from a VBS,\u201d Kooi says. \u201cVBS is very high energy – every half hour you\u2019re doing something different. This was very low key and relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kooi says she developed the idea after talking with Julia Carr, pastor of worship arts at Saranac Community Covenant Church, who conducted a similar camp on a smaller scale.<\/p>\n
To learn more about the Grand Rapids experience and how to develop a creative arts camp, call Kooi at 616-957-0580.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/p>\n