Though summer may come to an end; Fellowship Continues Year-Round!
The favorite question we receive from those who don’t fully know what Fellowship is all about is this: “What do you do now that summer camp is over and the campers and summer staff are back in school? It must be pretty boring, dull and quiet!?”
When the last summer camper heads home, the final campfire is extinguished, and the sounds of summer begin to fade across the lake, Fellowship Camp and Conference Center takes on a whole new rhythm reminding us that Fellowship is much more than just a summer camp for kids. Throughout the fall, our grounds, meeting spaces, dining room, trails, and shoreline have continued to welcome people looking for places to gather, learn, rest, connect, and grow.
Sometimes, the best way to understand the ministry of Fellowship is simply to look at who gathers here.
Gathering with Our Community
One of the joys of the shoulder season and the ministry of Fellowship is the opportunity to contiune to strengthen Fellowship’s connections with the wider community. From partnerships with Connect Lake Greenwood to Preserving Lake Greenwood and others, we love to be a part of the lake community.
Again this year, Connect Lake Greenwood’s Lights on the Lake gave us an opportunity to welcome thousands to our property and to the lake the annual Lights on the Lake event. This year’s event included a re-designed family-friendly focus with more games and activities just for kids. Children youth and adults from Greenwood County, Laurens County, and across the region attend this community-focused celebration that is anchored on land at Fellowship each year. Events like this remind us of the gift of this place—not simply as property we care for, but as a place we can share.
That same spirit of community took a different form with our Community CPR, AED & First Aid Training offered as a part of our TLC/Lake Campus programs. Several of our camp staff joined with participants from area churches, non-profits and community members learning practical skills that can make a very real difference when someone needs help. It was a different kind of gathering than you might associate with camp, but one that fits naturally with our desire for Fellowship to be a place where people learn together and leave better equipped to care for their neighbors.
And then there is our monthly Community Lunch - perhaps one of the simplest expressions of what Fellowship seeks to be! There doesn’t always need to be a complicated program. Sometimes community begins with an open invitation, a shared table, good food, and the opportunity to spend time together. One community lunch participant recently remarked, “I look forward to the first Tuesday of the month because I know I’ll be able to enjoy good fellowship and good food!”
Many of our Community Lunch gatherings are preceded by special programs, workshops, and opportunities for gathering with friends and neighbors that are a part of “The Learning Current” our newest series of adult programs, that also includes field trips to nearby destinations - yet another opportunity to Explore - Connect - and Grow!
A Place to Step Away
This fall has also reminded us how important it is to have places where people can step away from their normal routines. Earlier in September, Fellowship partnered with the Discipleship Resource Team of Trinity Presbytery to host a Pastor’s and Church Leader’s Sabbath Day.
Pastors and church leaders were invited to spend a day without another meeting to attend, program to plan, or problem to solve. Instead, there was space. Space to walk. To talk with a colleague. To sit by the lake. To share a meal. To enjoy a pontoon ride. To simply be still for a while. And to master the selfie-taking technique on our group hike!
In a culture that often measures our days by how much we accomplish, creating space for rest can itself be an important ministry.
Creating Space for Connection
There is that same need for connection in the many groups that have made Fellowship their home for a day, a weekend, or several days so far this season. Some have come for planning and team building. Others have come for retreats, recreation, learning, worship, or simply time together away from their normal surroundings.
Among them was the Rewind Knitting Retreat, which filled Fellowship with conversation, creativity, laughter - and plenty of yarn. This is just another reminder that retreat doesn’t have to look just one way. Sometimes renewal comes through silence beside the lake. Sometimes it comes through prayer and worship. And sometimes it happens gathered around while creating something alongside new and old friends.
Camp Is a Season. Fellowship Is Year-Round.
Summer camp will always be at the heart of Fellowship. There is something extraordinary about watching children and young people spend a week here discovering new things about themselves, one another, creation, and God. The end of summer doesn’t mean the end of those possibilities - but instead the widening of opportunity for all ages!
The faces change. The schedule changes. The activities change. But the invitation remains remarkably similar:
Come away. Gather together. Learn something new. Build relationships. Find rest. Experience creation. Make room for what matters.
Over these past few months, that invitation has been accepted by pastors and knitters, neighbors and community members, retreat groups and lifelong learners - and by countless people who simply needed a place to gather.
That is the story we continue to see unfolding at Fellowship. And as one season gives way to another, we’re excited about the people who will arrive next, the conversations and faith-transforming explorations that will happen around our tables and on our trails and lake-shore. We’re excited about the new ways this place will continue bringing people together - “In Faith and Fellowship.”
There is always something happening at Fellowship - and there is always room for you to be part of it.