Outdoor Youth Ministries

As a youth minister, both part-time and full-time over the years, I think I used “the outdoors” in my ministry possibly more than most youth ministers in the 1960’s to the 80’s.

First, for all ages, the highlight of every year was my summer camps and the ones I designed myself were, I thought, better than the associational and state-sponsored camps!  🙂 And secondly, I included Royal Ambassadors and GAs as the major channels for mission action and mission education and they both included the outdoors for activities a lot, especially the boys in RAs where camping & hiking was a regular part of the program! Plus in Miami I got to work a little bit with the Boy Scouts along with my Boy Scout summer in 1962. What few photos I have in my photo galleries from those days vividly show how the outdoors was central . . .

Charlie Doggett on “Charlie’s Bunion” 1966 on the Appalachian Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on the TN/NC state line with youth from Miami, FL.

And the “feature photo” at the top is me cooking breakfast while camping out with the youth group from Miami at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center near Black Mountain, North Carolina before our AT hike. I had a similar experience camping at Glorieta Baptist Conference Center 1968 with youth from Hillcrest Church, Dallas.

¡Pura Vida!

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