Developing Spiritual Competencies During Staff Training

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

Activity 2

The following 15-30 minute activity can be used with staff to help them to begin to tell their stories to each other during staff training. All you’ll need is a whistle or bell to signal time.

Explain to staff members that in this activity they are to repeat the phrase “Mingle, mingle, mingle” and wander around among each other until you give a signal. When you give the signal, they are to get into groups of four to six. When staff has formed the groups, explain they are to discuss the question you give them. Make up your own questions or use the ones printed below.

• What is your favorite food and your favorite place to eat this food?
• Tell where you were born and a story you know about your birth.
• What is one of your favorite movies and why?
• If you could have dinner with a famous person (living or dead), who would it be?
• Share the reason you came to camp this summer.

Repeat this process for several cycles.

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 telling stories about yourself?
• I wonder how you could make space for this kind of storytelling during camp?

Encourage staff members to consider how storytelling might be important for campers, and how they can help campers to tell stories. Brainstorm games and activities for enhancing the experiences 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.