Secrets of the Kingdom
The Parables of Jesus
NEW EARTH: Christian Resources for the Outdoors
Copyright and Online Permission Statement
Copyright © 2011—Produced for the New Earth Publishers by Christian Board of Publication. The Committee on Outdoor Ministries of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA developed the curriculum outlines.
Site License
Purchase of this resource gives license for its use, adaptation, and copying for programmatic use at one outdoor ministry site (hereinafter, “Camp”) for up to one year from purchase. For questions or permission for other uses, contact Christian Board of Publication at 314-231-8500 or .
This site license allows your camp to post the New Earth resources for up to one year from purchase on a password-protected Web site for the exclusive use of volunteer directors and authorized staff. The password must expire within one year of purchase, and the administrator must change the password immediately upon discovery of unauthorized use. Please e-mail the Web site link for verification to .
The camp must include the following copyright permission statement on each Web page, posted file, or item of the New Earth curriculum:
Copyright ©2011 New Earth Publishers.
Used by permission.
The copyright agreement with the New Earth Publishers allows us to use, adapt, copy, and distribute these curriculum materials for use at [insert camp name and location].
Please help us honor this agreement. You should:
• copy it to your computer for use in our camp programs only
• distribute it to other volunteers in your program for the same purpose
• delete it from your computer when you have completed your program at camp
Thank you for your help in this matter and for your willingness to serve in our programs.
Project Manager
Jenny Youngman
Copy Editor
John Patrick Carey
Art Director/Design
Elizabeth Wright
Cover Images
istockphoto
Interior Photographs
Camp Hopewell
Camp Mack
Lake Okoboji UM Camp
Writers
June Boutwell is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and serves as Executive Director of Pilgrim Pines Camp and Conference Center in Yucaipa, California. She wrote “Biblical and Theological Reflections.”
Jackie Cordon is a freelance editor who has written for the New Earth curriculum on three previous occasions. She is a United Methodist from Nodaway, IA, and spent fifteen years as a United Methodist camp director. Jackie now volunteers in camping as she recently finished an eight-year term of representing her jurisdiction on the United Methodist National Camp and Retreat Leaders Committee. She wrote “Daily Discoveries for Younger Children” and “More Activities: Creative Arts.”
Brian Frick served for ten years as a program director at three sites across the country. He earned his Certificate in Youth and Theology from Princeton Seminary and has experience writing curriculum for children and young adults. Brian serves as the national staff person for Camp and Conference ministries for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) based in Louisville. He wrote “Daily Discoveries for Older Children” and “More Activities: Nature Experiences.”
Randy McGuire is the Director of Camps and Retreat Ministries for the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He wrote the “Daily Discoveries for Younger Youth,” and “More Activities: Community Building and Recreation.”
Jonathan Sherrod is Dad to Zane and husband to Camille. Currently pastor of a Presbyterian (U.S.A.) congregation in Henderson, NC, Jonathan has formerly served in camping ministry in North and South Carolina. He also presently serves on the Board of Directors for Camp Albemarle, a Presbyterian site in Newport, NC. He wrote “Daily Discoveries for Older Youth” and “More Activities: Media Ideas.”
Nancy Fitzgerald is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. She currently serves as pastor of the Arlington Church of the Brethren in Virginia. Prior to the set-apart ministry of a pastor, she worked in outdoor ministry for twelve years and served as an education minister. She wrote “Intergenerational and Family Camps.”
Members of the Committee on Curriculum Design Team for 2012: Allyson Ashmore (PCUSA), Jeff Puhlman-Becker (UCC), David Berkey (UMC), Garland Pierce (NCC), and Brian Frick (PCUSA).
Denominational Publishing Houses participating in the publishing partnership: Brethren, Christian (Disciples), United Methodist, and United Church of Christ.
Contents
Week at a Glance
Introduction
Using These Resources to Design a Curriculum for Your Camp
Training Staff to Use the Curriculum
Bible Study Methods for Camps
Resource List
Biblical and Theological Reflections
Daily Discoveries for Younger Children
Daily Discoveries for Older Children
Daily Discoveries for Younger Youth
Daily Discoveries for Older Youth
Daily Discoveries for Intergenerational or Family Camps
More Activities: Community Building and Recreation
More Activities: Creative Arts
More Activities: Nature Experiences
More Activities: Media Ideas
DVD-ROM Information
Week-at-a-Glance
Daily Discovery / Title / Scripture / Focus / Campers WillDiscovery
1 /
We Are
God's Soil /
Mark 4:1–9, 13–20 / Campers will hear the Parable of the Sower and consider how open we are to receive and respond to God’s Word at camp and throughout our lives. / • discover that Jesus told stories called parables to teach about God’s Kingdom.
• learn that parables have many levels of meaning.
• identify barriers to hearing and receiving the Word of God.
Discovery
2 /
We Can Ask Boldly /
Luke 11:5-10 / Campers will hear the Parable of the Friend in Need and discover that when we earnestly seek love and grace from God we will receive. Likewise, we are called to provide love and grace to others. / • consider that they can ask God for what they need from God and one another
• explore ways to respond to the needs of others.
• discover that God hears their requests.
Discovery
3 /
God Is Generous /
Matthew
20:1-16 / Campers will hear the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard and consider that God’s grace is not determined by anything we do, but through God’s love alone. / • explore the nature of God’s grace.
• consider how God’s Kingdom turns values upside down.
• ask how they can treat others justly.
Discovery
4 /
God
Treasures Us /
Luke 15:1-10 / Campers will hear the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin and will consider that God cares for us no matter what we do and always looks for us because every one of us is precious to God. / • remember times they strayed from God and be reminded that God continues to seek us.
• recall times they have been accepted and what it means.
• consider ways they can follow the example of Jesus by accepting others.
Discovery
5 /
Jesus Is in the “Least of These” /
Matthew
25:31-46 / Campers will hear the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats and will consider ways we can open our eyes to the needs of the world and respond to them with compassion and generosity. / • consider the gifts they have and how they can share them with others.
• be challenged to be God’s hands, feet, and voice in the world by responding to needs of others.
• reflect on the demands of the kingdom.
Discovery
6 /
God Plants Us in the World /
Matthew
13:31-35 / Campers will hear the Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast and learn that God can use our smallest acts to grow the Kingdom. / • think about the power of small things.
• consider God’s call to discipleship in their own lives.
• look more carefully for things at camp and in their lives that reflect the growing kingdom of God.
Introduction
Dear Camp Leaders,
You, your staff, and your campers are invited to journey through the parables of Jesus to discover the Secrets of the Kingdom. All of us involved in creating these resources pray that they will enrich and enable your ministry as you reach out to campers with the good news of Jesus Christ.
If you are a returning user, welcome back! We appreciate your continuing choice of these materials. If you are a new user, please take a few minutes to read the “Using These Resources to Design a Curriculum for Your Camp” section in order to become familiar with the format of the curriculum. It is our intention that you choose from this collection of resources to create your own curriculum matched to the particular needs of your camp and campers.
By purchasing these materials, you bought a license to use them at a single campsite for the whole summer. Open and edit files from the Word files on the DVD-ROM, make copies of the files, or print the pages from the PDF file. Governing bodies owning more than one camp are expected to purchase a copy of the curriculum for each site. Secrets of the Kingdom is the twelfth title of New Earth: Christian Resources for the Outdoors. This curriculum is developed by the New Earth Publishers, a cooperative group of denominational publishing houses in cooperation with the Committee on Outdoor Ministry (COM) of the National Council of the Churches of Christ. Christian Board of Publication publishes these resources on behalf of the other denominational partners and COM. The ecumenical team that developed the outlines for this curriculum and the writers are committed to outdoor ministry and to providing the best possible resources for this ministry.
Your comments are valuable and important to the future development of these materials. Please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/newearthresource2012 to send an evaluation of the curriculum.
Jenny Youngman, Project Manager
Using These Resources
to Design a Curriculum for Your Camp
Summer camp programs come in many shapes and sizes, using a variety of program and leadership models. This outdoor ministry resource recognizes that and is intended to enable you to design a camp curriculum that fits the needs of your camp, your program, and your staff. The DVD-ROM contains program resources for all age levels to help you design your own camp curriculum. As you choose, adapt, and expand the information provided within this resource, the curriculum will become your own, activity by activity, age level by age level. In this introductory section, you will find guidelines that walk you step by step through the process of creating your own curriculum, as well as provide ideas for training your staff to use the resources.
The word curriculum is often understood as a specific print resource. In its original use, however, the word means “the course to be run.” Within camp ministry, it has long been recognized that everything that happens at camp is program; everything that happens is part of the “course to be run” during the days at camp. Curriculum, then, becomes the guide for everything that happens during your camp: Bible study, community building, games, hikes, worship, et cetera.
You are the expert in what your camp needs so that your staff will have the resources they need as they work with campers. This print resource provides the ingredients, but it is your job to mix them up and make the right “course to be run” for your camp, staff, and campers.
The format of these resources makes the process of designing your own curriculum as easy as possible. All of the resources are available to you on the DVD-ROM, which contains non-editable PDF files, and editable Word files. Using the PDF files, you can review all the material. Using the Word files, you can copy and paste the materials you select into your own word processing program, arrange their order, and edit their content to create a curriculum that is right for your camp and staff. Your purchase of this resource allows you to print and/or photocopy whatever you need for use at your camp site.
Setting Goals
The first step in designing your curriculum is to set goals for your summer camp program. As you consider the time you have at camp and the young people who will attend the camp, you need to decide what you want to happen with these campers. What kind of experience do you want campers to have? What do you want them to take home? What do you understand about how God is at work in their midst? Is camp a place for faith formation, religious education, or evangelism? What are your camp’s most important values? Whatever your camp goals, it is important to keep them in mind as you choose your curriculum resources, train your staff, and relate with your campers. Stating these goals clearly at the beginning of your planning process will influence the decisions that you make and the curriculum resources that you create.
Begin the goal-setting process by writing down five or six broad goals for your camp program. For example, you may want campers to learn some Bible stories, or to accept Jesus Christ as Lord, or to experience Christian community—or all three. You may want campers to practice stewardship of God’s creation, to take a wilderness trip, or to provide service for the camp or community. Write down these goals, leaving space below each one. Then, for each goal, write down specific objectives, stating what campers can do to reach that goal. Your list might look like this:
Goal: Campers will learn four Bible stories.
Objectives: During the time they are at camp, campers will
• open their Bibles on a daily basis
• read at least four stories from scripture
• have a chance to reflect on each story
• be invited to explore each story’s meaning for their own lives