Important Camp Cheraw Update

Dear Church Family,

Thank you so much for your patience, support, and prayers as we have worked to finalize our plan for Camp Cheraw 2026. Our goal with Camp Cheraw is to connect our children and students to Christ.

Unfortunately, the state agency that oversees Camp Cheraw is still in the process of making regulatory changes to how many people can be on-site for overnight groups. We began these conversations with the State in June of 2025, but they still do not have an updated capacity for Camp and anticipate it will be a few more months until they finalize their regulations. This leaves us in an incredibly tough position. Camp Cheraw has grown every year for the last five years, resulting in us taking 185 people to camp during our student week last year. This year, the state park has begun the process of determining a new group camp capacity, with a final number expected to be delivered in May. Their initial projections for this number were at or below a capacity of 100. Without a final number, we would be forced to open camp registration for an unknown number of campers and counselors, and potentially forced to turn away over 85 people with just a few weeks’ notice. After multiple meetings and many months of prayer, the Camp Cheraw Leadership Team unanimously agreed that the idea of so many of our students or children being left behind due to capacity limitations is unacceptable. Not only would leaving students and children behind be unacceptable, but opening the registration in the first place would be unfair, as we genuinely don’t know how many people we can take until the state gets back to us. Each student and child would be stuck anxiously awaiting to see if they “made the cut” for Camp Cheraw, which would be divisive and exclusionary.

With the state continuing to delay the date that they will provide an occupancy limit month after month, we’ve reached a breaking point. We cannot wait any longer to make a decision on Camp Cheraw this summer without the fear of being left empty-handed should the capacity (and other potential regulations) they determine not fit the needs of our group. As a result, and to ensure that as many of our students and children as possible can attend a summer camp this year, the Camp Cheraw Leadership Team has unanimously agreed that it would be best for us not to go to Camp Cheraw this year. Making this hard decision today allows us to plan for our summer in a manner that honors all of our students and children, ensuring that they are all welcome and invited to join us at a summer camp where they can encounter the life-changing hope of the Gospel.

As hard as this decision has been, God has truly gone before us. After the Camp Cheraw Leadership Team unanimously made this decision yesterday, we were able to secure enough spots for our children, students, and adult counselors to participate in CentriKid (grades 2nd – 5th) and CentriFuge (grades 6th-12th) this summer to ensure that as many of our children and students as possible are able to have a life changing week of camp, surrounded by their friends. In God’s kindness, the dates even fall during our originally reserved dates for Camp Cheraw, keeping this change from impacting your schedules and planned vacations. In light of this:

• Our Students will be able to register to attend CentriFuge on June 8-12.
• Our Children will be able to register to attend CentriKid on June 15-19.

Since we will not be going to Camp Cheraw, we will be allocating our summer camp budget to help offset the cost of CentriFuge and CentriKid, resulting in a cost per camper of $275, instead of the listed price of almost $400. We know this is still a $50 increase per camper, so the Next Gen Team has already begun brainstorming fundraisers to help your campers offset the cost. As always, our church wants to make sure that camp is available to every single student and child, regardless of finances.

To help everyone better understand what CentriFuge and CentriKid camps look like, we will have an information meeting on March 8th at 3:00pm in the Crosswalk. We would love for you to join us and catch the heart behind CentriFuge and CentriKid.

We are all heartbroken at the thought of not returning to Camp Cheraw. It is the place where many of our adult members got saved, many of our children got saved, many of our members met their spouses, and the place that we all love and count on for an encounter with the Lord. We cannot express what it means to us, or how much we will miss it this year, but we are so thankful that we serve a God who promises to meet us where we are, and to be with us, even when the venue unexpectedly changes.

We will continue our conversation with the state to better understand how these policy and regulation changes will impact a potential return to Camp Cheraw in 2027, and will provide more information as soon as we hear back from the state.

This decision was not made lightly, and we thank God for an incredible group of leaders who have prayerfully sought God’s will for the benefit of His people, and ultimately, for His glory. Please join us in praying for our Camp Cheraw Leadership Team, thanking God for all they have done, and continue to do, to accomplish our Church’s mission of connecting our children and students to Christ at summer camp.

To hear more from some of our Camp Cheraw Leadership Team members and our Next Gen staff, click here.

Camp Cheraw Leadership Team
Gray Brock
Julie Lunsford
Jennifer Schumpert
Jeremy Poole
Keri Mills
Matt Mills
Meagan Watts
Reagan Thiess
Adam Lezan
Dawn Maness
Blake Patton
Ford Pfister