Recently I attended the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Atlanta. It was the first assembly I’ve attended in years. There were a lot of things to celebrate, but something I noticed may have gone unnoticed by most.
My doctoral dissertation focused on the call experiences of Baptist women in ministry. In my research, I discovered several themes that are helpful in determining how individuals and faith communities can nurture the call of women specifically, but overall, all Christians. Women in ministry and call continue to be of great interest to me.
Sarah Boberg
While I hope most people at the General Assembly noticed the encouragement and support of women in ministry, especially in response to the Southern Baptist Convention’s recent response to women in ministry, I also noticed the encouragement of call through one ministry in particular — Passport Camps. (As the influencers would say, this is not sponsored, just real-life personal experience.)
I began attending Passport youth camps in my first year of youth ministry. I researched multiple camp options for our group, and Passport became the clear choice. We attended the first year and I was impressed. I was impressed by the program and the staff. I was impressed by the intentionality of the ministry choices. My youth had transformative experiences that week. We continued to attend Passport for 13 summers as I served as a youth minister. Each summer I continued to learn more about Passport and their approach to ministry.
Throughout the years attending Passport, I met many young adults working as staff. I saw many of those young adults at the CBF General Assembly because of their involvement in church ministry. I attended the assembly with colleagues and when I would talk to someone they often asked, “How do you know that person?” Often I responded, “Through Passport.”
I saw former Passport staff serving as professional ministers, attending seminaries, presenting on stage, serving on panels and being awarded leadership scholarships.
It was through these experiences Passport’s ministry and intentionality were on full display.
While Passport provides summer church camp opportunities for children and youth, they also invest in young adults. They employ young adults to serve as staff. These staff lead teams, teach Bible studies, plan worship, plan events, build safe atmospheres and spaces for camp participants and so much more. It is obvious to me: Passport is cultivating an atmosphere of call.
In my research, I saw patterns in how the women interviewed experienced their calls, including three I have seen through Passport’s work with young adults: within Christian faith and community, while participating in Christian service, and while being affirmed by individuals and communities. Passport offers a space for young people of the Christian faith to experience community on many levels — community within the larger Passport organization, community with their team, community in the places/settings they serve, and community with the churches and individuals who attend camp.
Passport invites young adults to participate in Christian service. And more specifically, Passport invites young adults to explore their gifts through service. Passport also provides an atmosphere of encouragement through words, actions, resources, references and trust. Understanding the patterns for how people experience God’s call and seeing how Passport embraces many of these patterns, it is no surprise that many of their former summer staff have experienced and embraced a call to professional ministry.
Continuing further in my research, I focused on how individuals and churches can help nurture and encourage specifically female ministers in accepting and responding to their calling: Creating safe and welcoming communities of faith, encouraging women to serve, making women visible, recognizing and affirming women and sharing stories.
“One of my favorite things about Passport is the safe and welcoming community it creates.”
One of my favorite things about Passport is the safe and welcoming community it creates. This is why I felt drawn back to Passport summer after summer, even as a youth leader. In these safe and welcoming communities, people feel most comfortable and open themselves up to opportunities and possibilities.
Passport encourages people to serve. Passport has been very intentional about encouraging women and minorities to serve. But most importantly, Passport gives young people opportunities to serve.
Too often, churches limit the involvement of young people in leadership. Passport offers young adults and even younger campers opportunities not just to serve but visibly to serve. The young staffers inspire the young campers because their leadership and service are visible to the young campers looking on.
Finally, Passport does a beautiful job of sharing the stories of its staff and campers, of the transformations in their lives, and of their work outside Passport. Making these connections on how Passport nurtures and encourages ministers in accepting and responding to God’s call on their lives, it is no wonder the CBF General Assembly was sprinkled with Passport-influenced growing ministers and leaders who embrace and live out God’s call on their lives.
This atmosphere of call is something to be celebrated. Nowhere in my observation of churches and faith communities have I seen such an impact.
Passport is creating an intentional atmosphere where young people are experiencing God’s call and being nurtured and encouraged in God’s call on their lives. In a society where the number of young people involved in churches and faith communities is declining, Passport is a testimony of cultivating an atmosphere of call.
Sarah Boberg serves as program coordinator for the Boundary Spanning Theological Education program and adjunct instructor for Christian education at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, N.C. She earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and a master of divinity degree from Campbell, she earned a Ph.D. in educational studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her dissertation research focused on the call experiences of Baptist women in ministry. She also serves as minister of children at Ox Hill Baptist Church in Chantilly, Va.