Developing Spiritual Competencies During Staff Training

by Nancy Ferguson, M.Div., M.A., Ed.S.

Activity 1

The following forty-to-sixty-minute activity can be used to help staff experience silence and solitude. Staff will need a journal or notebook paper and a pen/pencil.

Tell staff they will have an hour to spend alone in silence. Explain that during this time they are to be by themselves and are not to talk to anyone else. They can use this time to enjoy creation, to journal, or just sit in silence.

Gather the group back together and invite them to talk about the experience. Use questions such as these:

• I wonder what you thought about the experience?
• I wonder what was most difficult for you?
• I wonder what you gained from this time for silence and solitude?
• I wonder how you could make space for silence and solitude during camp?

Encourage staff members to consider how silence, solitude and reflection might be important for campers, and how they might help campers to experience such reflection. Brainstorm activities for enhancing the spirituality of campers and record the ideas for future reference.

Nancy Ferguson, M.Div., M.A., Ed.S., lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she is a church camp consultant and freelance writer. Included among her hats are day camp director at Camp Hanover, an ACA-Accredited® camp; management consultant for the Religiously Affiliated Camps (RAC) Council of the American Camp Association (ACA); and author of several books including Training Staff to be Spiritual Leaders—A Guide for Christian Camp Leaders, available from the ACA Bookstore.

Originally published in the 2008 May/June issue of Camping Magazine.