CLARION, PA. (BRN) — “You just never know what’s going to happen when you reach a kid at camp,” said Pastor Trent Kirkland, as he reflected on the personal impact Zion Kids Camp has had on his life and within the church.
Kirkland is the lead pastor at Zion Church of Clarion, which has hosted a kids summer camp as an outreach ministry for more than 30 years now.
He shared a story of a young girl attending the camp because she was invited by a friend who attended Zion. She came from a Catholic background, but quickly fell in love with the camp and Zion.
“She came to Zion – to our kids camp, loved it, [and] went back home and told her parents that she wanted to come to Zion. They followed their daughter to Zion and everything was new and different for them,” explained Kirkland.
Fast forward a few years, the young girl’s parents became involved at the church, her mother was baptized at Zion, and the girl is still faithfully following Jesus. Throughout the years, she has been engaged in ministry at Zion, and has even served as a volunteer at the kids camp.
“Here’s where it gets personal,” said Kirkland. “This girl fell in love with my son, and they were married.”
Now years later, all because of a friendly invitation to summer camp, and the will of God working through that, Pastor Kirkland has gained a daughter-in-law and, soon, his first grandchild.
“Kids camp has had an impact on me, because now I’m going to be a grandpa this December [and] the story began when a friend invited a friend to come to kids camp.”
Kirkland’s daughter-in-law is just one of many kids who have experienced the transformative power of Christ at Zion’s summer camp.
“Every year we’ll have double digits – ten, fifteen, or more kids [who] make decisions to follow Jesus. Many of them come back ready to be baptized. So, typically, we’ll have a baptism the Sunday after or a couple of Sundays. That’s the goal, that’s the life change; seeing kids come to faith in Jesus, and it happens every year,” said Kirkland.
The Zion Kids Camp first got its start prior to Pastor Kirkland coming to Zion Church of Clarion.
“There’s not a lot that pre-dates me at Zion, having been there for so long, but our summer kids camp is one of the few things that pre-dates my tenure at the church. They were doing the camp when I got there.”
Kirkland continued: “There’s still a little bit of fuzziness on actually when it started, but we can confidently say that we’ve been doing our kids camp for over 30 years.”
Kirkland first started at Zion in 1998 as an associate pastor.
“When I got here as an associate pastor, one of my big priorities was – we were growing at the time – so we needed to put a lot of time, effort, and energy into children’s ministry,” said Kirkland.
“We began to grow the camp, expand it, [and] try to reach out into our community – reach through schools and other means of promotion. Over the years, the camp has really become more of a 50/50 split between church kids and kids just from our community.”
Kirkland, a former foster parent, also spoke to the importance of reaching kids beyond the walls of Zion’s sanctuary.
“I think for us, it gives us an opportunity to spend extended time, not just with our kids –discipling them, helping them take steps in their faith – but to spend a week with kids who are hurting.”
He continued: “The stories that kids tell of disfunction in their homes, the pain that they carry with them, and parents sending them to our camp, often times just – again, just keeping it real –because they just want to get rid of them for a week….just the opportunity to minister to kids who are hurting has always been, I think, our greater motivation.”
Kirkland accredits this desire to minister to children in the community as a key reason for the summer camp’s longevity at Zion.
“Again, I love the chance for our volunteers to spend time with our kids, with the church kids – building into them, developing them – but, boy, if we weren’t also simultaneously welcoming kids who are unchurched, de-churched, [and] come from broken homes, then we might say, ‘Okay, maybe this has run its course.’”
Kirkland continued: “[We] have made our gospel conversations very relational, very much one-on-one, and we slow things down during the week to have conversations with our campers. We lean on the counselors to do the sharing of the gospel…as opposed to doing it in and during chapels where kids are just – they follow along, they do what their friends are doing.”
The annual summer camp not only creates gospel-sharing opportunities, but also curates an environment for training young leaders within the church.
“I’m quite certain there are adults now who are doing children’s ministry, not just at Zion, but as they’ve moved away and they would probably point to the years at our camp as a great training ground where they learned to do children’s ministry,” said Kirkland.
In addition to being an impactful training ground for adult volunteers, the camp has become a mission field for junior and senior high students.
“We started about five years ago, we created a track for junior high kids and we just called it ‘junior high missions trip.’ That’s code for they get to do a lot of dishes, and setting up of the games, [and] cleaning up the chapel, but it gives them an opportunity to learn how to serve. Then they build in teaching time for them and some fun things that they get to do.”
Kirkland continued: “Then, when they get to senior high they can continue to be involved. They serve in that junior counselor role, where they can be back in the cabins with kids – alongside the adult counselor – leading small groups [and] ministering to them.”
Two weeks ago the summer camp was back in action at Little Mahoning Bible Camp in Smicksburg, Pennsylvania, after taking a year off due to the pandemic. Last year was the first, and only, year the summer camp has been canceled in its long history.
This year, Zion took a total of 82 kids to the camp, along with 20 junior high missionaries, about a dozen senior high counselors, and some adult volunteers. The camp hosted about 140 people total.
Those numbers also included, for the first time, children and volunteers from other churches within the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) of Pennsylvania/South Jersey.
“The best part of this year was the fact that we extended our partnership. As I’m getting older, and, hopefully, a little wiser in ministry, I’m just committed to, whenever possible, not doing anything alone,” said Kirkland.
“This year, in addition to having campers, counselors, and volunteers from Zion’s three locations, we also had campers and volunteers from FaithBridge Community Church, down in Pittsburgh; we had campers and adult volunteers from Catalyst Church in Altoona; and campers and volunteers from First Baptist Church in Clarion.”
Kirkland said he hopes to continue these partnerships and to collaborate with more fellow BRN churches.
“It was very cool to look around and say this is now – in a real sense – not just a Zion camp, but more of a cooperative between a handful of churches in the BRN,” shared Kirkland.
“Our dream would be to find a couple other BRN churches… I value partnerships more than I ever have. I value collaboration [and] cooperation because I think it’s Kingdom. I think that’s God’s heart, I think that is His intention.”
Anyone interested partnering with Pastor Kirkland and Zion Church of Clarion for their summer camp is encouraged to contact Pastor Kirkland at trentkirkland@gmail.com.
Listen to the podcast interview.
The “50 Stories of Transformation” series, told in honor of the Baptist Resource Network’s 50th anniversary, highlights the many ways God has moved throughout Pennsylvania, South Jersey and beyond. Your generous support of the Cooperative Program makes this ministry possible and fuels evangelism and outreach in our local churches and all over the world! Thank you!
