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Community Covenant

Called to Community, Committed to Christ

The Camp Redwood Glen Community Covenant is a commitment to live, serve, and grow together in Christ, upholding faith, integrity, and love

The Salvation Army Camp Redwood Glen is a summer camp for children, a sacred space where children are given the opportunity to thrive. This description alone does not completely define the place or how people experience camp. Camp Redwood Glen is also a temporary residential staff community made up of Christians who are dedicated to creating space where change is possible and hope in Jesus can be found.

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These features in combination mean that Camp Redwood Glen is a complex Christian community of living, learning, and serving that cannot be fit into a box. For example, while camp is not a church, it is still a community of Christians who seek to live according to biblical standards laid down by Jesus Christ for His body, the church. As a community, and for the purpose of fulfilling the community’s purpose, its members voluntarily enter into a social compact. At Camp we call this social compact our community covenant.

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For Camp Redwood Glen’s community covenant to serve its stated purpose, it is crucial that each member of the camp staff understand it clearly and embrace it sincerely. In joining this covenant, we are, before the Lord, joining in a compact with other members of the Camp Redwood Glen community. If we do not wish to live under the provisions of this compact, we should not agree to it. But if we do agree to it, it should be with the full intention of living with integrity under its provisions.

Our Community Covenant

The goal of camp life at Camp Redwood Glen is to live, work, serve, and worship together as a community centered on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our mission as a resident summer camp is not merely to provide kids with a safe week of fun in the sun; it is the development of whole persons who will build the church and benefit society for Christ and His Kingdom. Along with the privileges and blessings of membership in such a community come responsibilities. The members of the Camp Redwood Glen community take these responsibilities seriously.

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Acknowledging our dependence on the power and grace of God, the members of the Camp Redwood Glen community humbly covenant to live according to this ideal.

The Purposes of this Community Covenant are to:

  • Cultivate a camp environment that encourages Spiritual, Moral, & Emotional Growth.

  • Integrate our lives around Christian principles and devotion to Jesus Christ.

  • Remove whatever may hinder us from our calling as a Christ -entered camp staff.

  • Encourage one another to see that living for Christ involves dependence on God’s Spirit & obedience to His Word rather than a passive acceptance of prevailing practices.

Affirming Biblical Standards

We desire to build this covenant on basic biblical standards for godly Christian character and behavior. We understand that our calling includes the following:

  • The call to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ over all of life and thought. This involves a wholehearted obedience to Jesus and careful stewardship in all dimensions of life: our time, our possessions, our God-given capacities, our opportunities (Deut. 6:5-6; 1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 1:18; 3:17);

  • The call to love God with our whole being, including our minds, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Christ-like love should be the motive in all decisions, actions, and relationships (Matt. 22:37-40; Rom. 13:8-10; 1 John 4:7-12)

  • The call to pursue holiness in every aspect of our thought and behavior (2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 4:3-8; Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:15-16)

  • he call to exercise our Christian freedom responsibly within the framework of God’s Word, humbly submitting ourselves to one another (1 Pet. 5:5; Eph. 5:21) with loving regard for the needs of others (Phil. 2:3-11; Rom. 14:1-23; 1 Thess. 4:9)

  • The call to treat our own bodies, and those of others, with the honor due the very temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17-20)

ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE, FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST WILL

  • Show evidence of the Holy Spirit who lives within them, such as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23); “put on” compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and supremely, love (Col. 3:12-14); seek righteousness, mercy and justice, particularly for the helpless and oppressed (Prov. 21:3, 31:8-9; Micah 6:8; Matt. 23:23; Gal. 6:10.

  • Love and side with what is good in God’s eyes, and abhor what is evil in God’s eyes (Amos 5:15; Rom. 12:9, 16:19)

  • Give faithful witness to the Gospel (Acts 1:8; 1 Pte. 3:15), practice good works toward all (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:10; Heb. 10:24; 1 Pet. 2:11-12), and live lives of prayer and thanksgiving (1 Thess. 5:17-18; James 5:16; Titus 2:7-8).

BY CONTRAST, SCRIPTURE CONDEMNS THE FOLLOWING

  • Pride, dishonesty (such as stealing and lying), injustice, prejudice, immodesty in dress or behavior, slander, gossip, vulgar or obscene language, blasphemy, greed and materialism, covetousness, and illegal activities (Prov. 16:18; 1Cor. 6:10; Exod. 20:7; Rom. 13:9; Col 3:8-9; James 2:1-13; Rom. 13:1-2; 1 Tim. 2:8-10; Heb. 13:5-6);

  • Hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and legalism (Acts 15;5-11; Matt 23:13-36);

  • Sinful attitudes and behaviors such as “impurity and debauchery;

  • Idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like” (Gal. 5;19-21);

  • Sexual immorality, such as the use of pornography (Matt. 5:27-28), premarital sex, adultery, and all other sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage between a man and woman (Rom. 1:21-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31).

EXERCISING RESPONSIBLE FREEDOM

Beyond these explicit biblical issues, The Salvation Army Camp Redwood Glen community seeks to foster the practice of responsible Christian freedom (Gal. 5: 13-14; 1 Pet. 2: 16-17). This requires wise stewardship of mind, body, time, abilities, and resources on the part of every member of the community. Responsible freedom also requires thoughtful, biblically guided choices in matters of behavior, entertainment, interpersonal relationships, and observance of worship gatherings.

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To foster the kind of camp atmosphere and experience most conducive to becoming the Christian community of living, learning, and serving that we at Camp Redwood Glen aspire to be, The Salvation Army Camp Redwood Glen has adopted the following standards. These standards embody such foundational principles as self-control, avoidance of harmful practices, the responsible use of freedom, sensitivity to the heritage and practices of other Christians, and honoring the name of Jesus Christ in all we do.

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Camp Redwood Glen, and all Camp Redwood Glen related functions will be alcohol-free, tobacco-free, and smoke-free. This means that the possession or consumption of any of the following substances that could impair or alter physical or cognitive ability, including weed, alcohol, vaping, or tobacco are prohibited. These are all prohibited in, on, or around Camp Redwood Glen, Camp Redwood Glen functions, and in any Camp vehicles or where camp vehicles are used.

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All members of The Salvation Army Camp Redwood Glen community will take care to avoid any entertainment or behavior, on or off campus, which may be immodest, sinfully erotic, or harmfully violent (Eph. 4:1-2, 17-24; 1 Tim. 5:1-2; Gal. 5:22-23). We assume that all members of this community will be guided in their entertainment choices by the godly wisdom of Philippians 4:8 “Whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.”

Conclusion

We, The Salvation Army Camp Redwood Glen community, desire to be a covenant community of Christians marked by integrity, responsible freedom, and dynamic, Christ-like love, a place where the name of Jesus Christ is honored in all we do. This requires that each of us keeps his or her word by taking the commitment to this covenant seriously as covenant keepers, whatever pressures we may face doing otherwise.

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Keeping our covenant may also on occasion require that we take steps to hold one another accountable, confronting one another in love as we work together to live in faithfulness both to God’s Word and to our own word.

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Such loving acts of confrontation are at times difficult, but when performed in the right spirit (Gal. 6:1), they serve to build godly character for both the individuals involved and the community (Matt. 18:15-17). Only in this way, as we are willing to speak the truth in love, will we “grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:15).

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