Happy Advent and Merry Christmas from our sacred playgrounds to yours! We're donning Christmas hats and embracing Advent as we prepare for Jesus to come...to camp!This season reminds us that our ministries have audiences of influence - ...

Leaders who thrive learn from other leaders.Recently, Jake and Jared got to participate in and lead workshops at annual camp conferences for Lutheran Outdoor Ministries and the Campfire Collective (PCCCA, OMA-UCC, OMI, + more). T...

Sometimes we love to hang out in our camp bubble, don't we? Sometimes even so far as to, at least in part, shut out the outside world. It makes sense, because there's something special about camp being set apart. And yet, we're part of an ecosy...

What's your favorite scary movie? This week, we're embracing the spooky season with our #QuickQampQuestion. Post yours in the comments on our website,

"The most effective way to get campers this summer is to get last summer's campers to come back."On this episode, Travis Allison from Go Camp Pro joins us to talk through what's actually e...

A meaningful camp experience can be a powerful catalyst for family faith formation. That truth is at the heart of the Rhythms of Faith Project, the Lilly Endowment, Inc. funded project that Wheaton College/HoneyRock and Sacred Pl...

Ministry is about impact. It's what we hope for, plan for, program for, recruit for, market for, evaluate for, and pray for. It's maybe the one thing that aligns the entire outdoor ministry industry. We may not even define impac...

Season 4 of the Sacred Playgrounds Podcast is here! We're back behind the mic and behind the research for another season of camp-centric content focused on leaders like you.On this episode, we'll share a quick what-to-expect from this s...

finale {n.} the last and often climactic event or item in a sequenceIt's the last episode of season 3 of the Sacred Playgrounds Podcast! Whether it's your first time or you've been along for the ride since our first episode, th...

On this episode, we're sharing the mic with a good friend and camp research colleague! We're deeply honored to chat with the Senior Director of Research and Education for the American Camp Association (ACA), Laurie Browne, PhD.Laurie jo...

Every now and then, I get a little bit restlessAnd I dream of something wild- Bonnie Tyler "Total Eclipse of the Heart"Eclipse week! Epic, singular experiences are our specialty at camp, and yet, how we prepare campers ...

It's launch week for Holy Ground 2024!It's no secret, so says the research, that summer staff are the heart of camping ministry. We know they need support, agency, and faithful community to thrive. That's why we constructed the H...

Check!We're gearing up,  camp family! For many, it's time to begin forming our plans for staff training, even as we continue to recruit and hire staff. We're bringing you 8(+1) items on a summer staff training checklist to help you...

We're constantly learning. Every season, we take care of each individual and/or group of camps we work with - creating reports, digging in with consults about the findings, and creating ways to help those insights tell stories. And, we take tha...

We're making a new friend in this episode as we talk with author Maria Warner who wrote a book all about her family's transformational experiences at family camp, a specialized kind of camp that can, as Maria passionately shares, help familie...

We're hitting rewind on an episode from last season where we broke down some of what we know about emerging adults today. Knowing who they are, what they care about, and what motivates them makes a big difference in how we connect and communica...

Camp staff outcomes align remarkably well with the top skills employers identify as most important for the 21st-century workforce, including teamwork, communication skills, leadership, and problem-solving. Being a member of a Christian summer c...

Happy New Year! We're back with our third annual New Year's Resolutions episode! We're sharing 5 fresh resolutions for sacred playgrounds like yours for 2024. Here's what you'll find:Build resumes

Merry Christmas from Sacred Playgrounds!Green beans and great songs and cookies and memories, these are a few of our favorite things! (Sing it or it doesn't count)On this episode, we share some favorite fun in an extended, Christ...

Our heart is restless until it rests in you.   - ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO"Spirituality." How do we actually define that word? What's the difference between spirituality and religion? Can one be a non-spiritual person? Wha...

Have you taken a walk through the life of Jesus?  Have you brought your campers through an experience like this in a way that puts them in the story?Immersive experiences have power, especially in the context of camp spaces already ...

We've been doing what we're built for, turning data into stories, and today on the podcast we're sharing some of these findings via 3 questions: What's changed? What's stayed the same? What's surprising? And, most importantly, ...

It's time to set this rhythm in motion.Our brand new project, Rhythms of Faith launches with waves of energy and anticipation of what we'll learn and the impact those learnings will have. Funded by a $1.25 million grant from the Lilly E...

"Of all the pillars of health, spirituality is the one that has a perfectly inverse relationship with anxiety and depression."- Tracey GaslinListen in to this deep conversation with our own Jake Soren...

Have you heard that phrase? "Ok, boomer..." Or how about the not-insignificant number of millennial-bashing parody songs across YouTube?What leads us to slap these "Gen ___" labels on people? Where did they come from? In this episode, w...