Why Adults Are Going to Summer Camp

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Apparently, camp isn’t just for kids anymore. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, there is a growing market for adult sleep-away camps. These camps offer the nostalgia of bunk beds, hayrides, campfires, cabin competitions with war paint, the whole package … only with more bartenders than camp counselors, and less “lights out.”  

For example, 

At Camp Social, creating chemistry is everything: campers are divided by age, which range from 20s to 60s, into bunks of eight to 10. Each is staffed with a trained counselor who serves as a camp concierge and bonding facilitator—they are even tasked with coming up with a bunk cheer.  

What inspired the creator of this camp for grown-ups? “I created what I wished existed. We’re expected to figure out friendships without a blueprint.”  

For the many who have happy memories of going to summer camp, or maybe just watching “The Parent Trap” too many times, the appeal is understandable. The 1998 film “Indian Summer” portrayed a group of adults hoping to relive the childhood joy of summer camp. What is driving today’s real-life adults back to camp, however, is more than nostalgia. It’s loneliness. As the WSJ article described, “When you’re in your 20s and 30s, you don’t make tons of friends unless you’re doing something that bonds you.”  

Interestingly, most of the people in the photos that accompany the article are women. But this new industry is only one indication among several that points to a lack of connection affecting both men and women. Even more, it reveals an incredible opportunity for the people of God. 

Responding to the WSJ article on X, author and scholar Dr. Anthony Bradley tweeted, “My goodness. How sad is this? Just go to a church.” In other words, what people are looking for from adult summer camps they should be able to find in the Body of Christ. 

Specifically, they should be able to learn from the Church what the epidemic of loneliness reveals about who they are. After repeatedly pronouncing His creation “good” throughout the first week the universe existed, God said something was not good. That was even before the Fall made everything not good.  

“It is not good that the man should be alone,” God said. That He did not say, “It’s not good for man to be lonely,” but rather “alone,” is significant. Being lonely is a subjective matter. You can be lonely in a crowd, and you can feel content all by yourself. God was making a statement about man’s existence more than He was about man’s feelings.  

God had given humans a purpose in the way He created them. With that purpose came the command to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” The same command was repeated to Noah after the Flood. Obviously, the command involves having kids, but it’s also a call to bring human community across the earth. Throughout the biblical story, this theme is fleshed out. God is creating a people for Himself.  

Also important is that, along the way, God reveals to His world who He is. He is Trinity. In other words, God does not merely do relationships, He is a relationship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

An irony of the modern world is that despite all the ways for us to be connected, we are the loneliest generation to date on record. Despite all of our means of productivity, we struggle with why we should do anything. The very same technologies that can connect us with people that, in another time and place, we’d never know, can also interfere with the closest relationships we have. Despite telling people to “love themselves,” “be authentic to who they really are,” and “you be you,” people long for connection and community. Like God, His image bearers don’t merely do relationships. We are inherently relational beings. 

Entrusted with the truth about who we are, Christians have way more to offer the lonely, isolated victims of the modern world than summer camp does. We are the Church, the body and bride of Christ, an eternal community brought together by the love of our Creator. We have the beautiful and robust notion that humans are made in the image of God, an idea that is central to Holy Scripture and crucial in the history of the world. We have God’s brilliant and beautiful design for marriage and family, something an increasing number of young people have never seen in real life but still find themselves longing for. We have sacred space, a place of worship in which even the mundane is made meaningful. Above all, we have the Good News. Not that there’s a campfire tonight, but that God loves His image bearers so much He died so they would not have to live without Him.

Image credit: ©GettyImages/Phil Coffman

John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.