Editor’s Note: This article was updated from the print version to correctly reflect the age range of skills camps participants and the camps offered in 2025.
As Crystal Nachtigall, children’s pastor at Bethany Church in Fresno, California, saw the same kids participating in vacation Bible school each year, she found that reaching kids who don’t typically attend church would require thinking outside the box.
So, with the help of church volunteers, in 2022 Nachtigall created skills camps—a variety of summer camps that teach skills, create fun experiences and share the gospel.
“We love to do events within our church that we call ‘friend-friendly,’” Nachtigall says. “These are events which friends can easily be invited to and participate in. We asked ourselves what might be appealing to unbelievers to draw them into a church and landed on the idea of skills camps.”
Building skills
Bethany Church’s skills camps—for participants from babies to high school—have included chess camp, worship ballet camp, theatre camp, sign language camp and LEGO camp. Each camp is designed to build skills while also building faith through theme-based devotionals.
For example, as campers build the foundation of a LEGO project, the devotional theme is “Jesus is my baseplate.” At theatre camp, leaders use character sketches to help campers more deeply understand Bible characters and how they point to Jesus.
Emilia Kolbert, children’s ministry coordinator, says coming up with fresh ideas for the camps each year can be a challenge, but seeing the impact on the kids is a much greater reward.
“It definitely is a church-wide effort, but there is nothing like the excitement of seeing a child understand the gospel and then be discipled throughout the camp,” Kolbert says. “I’ve personally seen families start coming to church, or the camps become a doorway of having faith-based conversations with families who don’t normally go to church.”
Planting seeds
Audrey Baloian, a member of the Bethany congregation, has seen the impact firsthand.
“All of the camps at Bethany are amazing,” Baloian says. “Last year, I had the opportunity to volunteer at LEGO camp as a member of the youth ministry. It was so cool to see how it was organized from a leader’s perspective. (We) worked with adult volunteers and ministry staff, forming lasting relationships.”
Audrey’s brother, Jonathan Baloian, says as a participant his favorite camps are the LEGO and Ignite theatre camps.
“LEGO camp gives me the opportunity to participate in challenging building projects in a fun social setting,” Baloian says. “Theatre camp introduced the combination of acting, singing and dancing to me through Bible stories.”
This year, Bethany Church will host two sessions of its theatre camp as well as its LEGO, baseball and worship ballet camps and is looking to expand its camps into more themes in the future.
“We’re looking forward to another year of investing in our youth and looking for new faces,” Nachtigall says. “The skills camps are a fun, hands-on way to engage our youth in a practical way, and we hope (the camps) also will plant seeds and lead to more hearing about and following Jesus.”
Caitlyn Decker is a 2021 graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma State University, having majored in agriculture with a minor in mass communications. Beginning in high school, Decker has written for local newspapers, small businesses, the university campus newspaper and public relations office as well as freelancing. She and her husband, Caleb, live on a farm near New Hopedale Mennonite Church, Meno, Oklahoma, where they are members. They also serve as youth group sponsors.
