From A Recording Studio in Nashville to Summer Camps Across the US
By Travis Hawkins
My little girls are still singing and dancing to songs they learned at camp a year ago. My 5-year-old learned the jingle from my 11-year-old, who learned the lyrics and dance at summer camp.
And in that song is the core of their camp message. It’s uplifting. It’s exciting. It’s fun, and catchy enough for them to easily remember a year later. It contains all kinds of memories now, for both of them.
This is the tremendous power of music.
It brings joy, connection and truth to young children when it’s done right. That’s why we take songwriting and development so seriously at WinShape Camps.
We’ve been working with world-renowned Nashville songwriters for 11 years to write and record original singles specifically for summer camp season every year. But the process doesn’t just take songwriting talent or expertise. A technically excellent song isn’t enough!
There is also an extensive, intentional process of message development. First, we dream. Our camp leadership staff gets together and comes up with a vision. We always highlight two characteristics of God to explore with campers each year, and a lot of care goes into selecting what of the Lord to communicate with them — and how.
So we build out a whole world to set campers in. This is what they’ll see on their t-shirts, on banners, in their booklets. It’s a fun, accessible world; one where they can feel safe, called and seen.
And then our musicians do what they do best. They help us give voice to the truth, with joy and creativity, for all of our campers to join in the following summer. They write two songs, one pop and one worship.
This year, our theme song is “Ascend.” Our campers will be surrounded by mountains, forests and peaks. They’ll be seeking “mountaintop moments with God,” yelling and dancing and worshipping alongside fellow campers in a place where they can feel safe and have fun.
Once completed, our camp songs go all over the world — to over 20,000 campers and their families! So we translate them into Spanish and Portuguese. We localize them, too. The songs take on a new shape, a new feel.
But the truth and joy within that music remains the same. Campers all over the world are singing and dancing to these tunes for months, just like my daughters are — and they’re singing praise of God, singing descriptions of His goodness and faithfulness.
And when they sing, they join the rest of the Christian faithful in joyful worship. They unite play and praise, giving them the space to explore their faith and make it truly their own — for the rest of their lives.
About WinShape Camps: WinShape Camps’ mission is to glorify God by creating experiences that transform campers and families with the message of Jesus Christ. For more information, please visit https://camps.winshape.org/.