The Summer of a Lifetime Starts Here!
What is Host Rally?
Less than one week from today, our Day Camps team will be all-hands-on-deck for one of their biggest events of the year—Host Rally! WinShape Camps for Communities will take their day camp experience to 80+ cities around the country in 2023! (more on that later) In order to bring WinShape to a community, our team partners with a host church and a locally-owned Chick-fil-A restaurant in the area. WinShape provides the Summer Staff, programming, and most of the equipment to help teleport campers into a whole new world while never (or barely) leaving their home zip code. However, while camp is in town for just 5 days, a ton of work goes into making those 5 days happen. That’s where our church hosts come in!
Host Rally is an annual training and equipping event where camp hosts from all over the country are brought together to not only kick off their camp preparation season, but also to experience spiritually enriching, community-building moments. Host Rally includes training sessions, breakouts, worship and speakers meant to inspire church hosts for the incredible work they do year-round in their community. And of course, like with any WinShape event, a lot of FUN can be expected.
ExtraORDINARY
At this year’s Host Rally, attendees are invited to experience the theme of “extraORDINARY” where we acknowledge that while camp is awesome, it’s just one week. That week, jam-packed with remarkable moments, is bookended by 51 other weeks that are probably more frequently ordinary in nature than they are extraordinary.
So often, we can fail to understand that in the routine of the ordinary, God is deeply forming us. It’s in daily obedience to God that the long trajectory of faithfulness in our lives is established — and it’s often these moments of steady faithfulness that God is most pleased with. Every moment has the capacity to be a holy one because we live in constant, unhindered communion with our Holy God. And when we look at scripture, we often see the mundane preceded the majestic.
Before Jesus fed 5000, someone packed a lunch. Before Peter helped establish the global Church, he was catching fish day after day to bring home a paycheck. Before Jesus solidified a new and everlasting covenant between God and humanity on the cross, he had a very simple meal with his friends. God consistently intersects our lives in remarkably ordinary moments.
Throughout the event we will explore how God is at work in our ordinary days, the consistency of our presence, our unseen acts of obedience, and the work of our hands.
Host Rally 2023 Sessions will include talks from keynote speakers like Grant Partrick, Rev. Dr. Nicole Martin, Dr. Crawford Loritts, and, WinShape Camps’ very own Senior Director, Chris Witt as well as worship moments lead by Christy Nockels. In addition to powerful Session moments, Hosts will get to choose from a range of Workshops that will teach them everything from how to market camp in their community to partnering with other organizations in the community to make a lasting impact.
Keep up with Host Rally
Join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on February 6-8 as we share a few highlights from the event! We can’t wait to see you soon for the Summer of a Lifetime! Interested in hosting camp in your community? Check this out.
