MinistryWatch 1000 Database: Largest Christian Camps and Conference Centers

Summer camp ministries facing staff shortages.

With summer upon us, the mid-June list includes the 20 largest Christian camps and conference centers by total revenue in the MinistryWatch 1000 database.

Total revenue for the 20 camps and conference centers on the list is almost $310 million. The largest is Echoing Hills in Ohio, a camp for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with revenue of about $39 million. The smallest is Sandy Cove Ministries, a camp and retreat center on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Its total revenue was about $7 million.

To learn more about these ministries, click on the ministry’s name and read its complete MinistryWatch profile.

Two of the ministries (noted by an asterisk) do not file Form 990s with the Internal Revenue Service: Mount Hermon Association and The Wilds Christian Association. Their revenue was taken from the numbers reported on their member profile with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

While the list is not meant as recommendations for giving, it includes each ministry’s transparency grade, financial efficiency rating, and donor confidence score.

A few of those included achieve very high donor confidence scores and transparency grades. Grace Adventures and New Life Ranch both have donor confidence scores of 100, Sky Ranches and JH Ranch have donor confidence scores of 98, and Echoing Hills Village has a donor confidence score of 97.

To learn about the Donor Confidence Score, click here.

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Christian summer camps are having a hard time filling their staff positions this summer, according to an article in Christianity Today (CT).

Gregg Hunter, president and CEO of the Christian Camp and Conference Association (CCCA), told CT that staffing has been a problem since the COVID pandemic in 2020. While camper attendance numbers have rebounded, the staff shortage persists.

The CCCA job board includes listings of open positions that need to be filled ranging from camp director to lifeguard.

College students have often filled the staffing needs of summer camps, according to American Camp Association interim head Henry DeHart.

Now, college students seem to be looking for jobs such as summer internships that give them an advantage in future job searches. DeHart believes they are missing out.

“We believe that camp is the best first job anyone can have, and we believe it’s a great résumé builder,” he told CT. “It would be nearly impossible, I think, to find an office internship that provides all of these opportunities like a camp can.”

They also may miss the opportunity to have a spiritual impact on campers.

“The icing on the cake for me is the opportunity to make a deep, life-altering, spiritual impact on campers, sharing God’s love and being a positive role model,” Hunter added.