2026 Invitation to Participate in Growing Faith Together

NOTE: Camps that have applied for previous phases of the project but were not accepted are welcome to apply for this phase!

The Growing Faith Together Project (formerly, Rhythms of Faith) seeks to empower parents and caregivers in family faith formation by leveraging the power of camp experiences to grow in faith together through regular Christian practices. Since fall 2023, we have been investigating the most promising strategies of overnight Christian summer camps to influence faith formation in the home. The evidence is clear that if we want to have lasting impacts on campers, we must influence faith in the homes and local churches of our camp families.

In this final phase of the project, we are seeking 30 Christian camp organizations to partner with us from February – October of 2026. Together, we will use action research to test and refine strategies for influencing faith practices in the home through interactions with our camps.

Interested camps should be committed to influencing faith in the home and open to implementing new strategies, in partnership with families and local churches. As a temporary community, camp operates best when it works alongside permanent spaces, such as home and the local church. We hope to help camps strengthen these partnerships.

Applications are due by January 15th, 2026.

In order to be eligible for participation, camp organizations must:

• Be a non-profit organization: 501(c)(3)
• Operate overnight summer camp programs (minimum of 4 overnights) serving children and youth (ages 8-17)
• Engage children/youth from at least 100 families in overnight camp programs each summer
• Commit to project guidelines and submit interest form by January 15th
• As an ecumenical project, we seek to include camping organizations open to working alongside those of different theological backgrounds. This project is partnered with the United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries, the Christian Camp and Conference Association, and the National Lutheran Outdoor Ministry Association. Camps associated with these groups, as well as camps associated with Lutheran Outdoor Ministries, will be given first priority. Selected camps must demonstrate a willingness to work together to enhance the project goals as well as ability to handle the administrative tasks that come with the project.
• We seek to include camps that serve families with diverse backgrounds, especially racial and ethnic diversity.

In addition to free trainings and resources, camps in both cohorts will receive customized reports of data from their camp in comparison with the aggregate sample. These reports will help camp leaders better understand the impact there camp is having and the influence of  intentional engagement with the project on parent and family experiences.  

If you have questions or concerns prior to submitting, please contact the research team via email at growing.faith.together@wheaton.edu.  

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a question that's not answered here, don't hesitate to reach out to rob.ribbe@wheaton.edu.

Do churches need to be fully committed before I apply?

Your churches do not need to be fully committed before you complete the application. While it's good to get the conversation started before you apply, they don't need to be signed on. You have time for continued conversation!

If I'm a "resource" camp, how should the resources be used?

The resources provided by the project are intended to be used as either "copy and paste" resources or "plug and play" resources.

In other words, our hope is that in contexts where it makes sense to use it as is, it gets used as is, and in contexts where it needs to be tweaked, it gets tweaked. You make it fit your needs.

If I'm a "training" camp, what should I expect with the trainings?

There are four separate 1-hour sessions in February. These trainings will talk about things like temporary community, permanent community, how to partner with parents, how to partner with churches, and more.

While these trainings will be recorded, we encourage you to attend live for the back and forth dialogue.

What does it mean for a church to have a willingness to use new tools and resources?