It’s late January 2026, the last full day of our retreat to kick off planning the 2027 National Gathering. The team is about ten of us - a mixture of UMCRM staff, board members, and the National Gathering leadership chairs. We’ve spent the week filling lots of giant sticky notes with ideas and options and visions; they coat every surface of our meeting space. Every surface except the windows behind us that look out over Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe was formed from the uplift of mountains on the east and west sides, while another smaller block slipped down and the north end filled with lava. Over time, snowmelt and rain filled the basin, creating Lake Tahoe, one of our country’s most beautiful alpine lakes. I can’t really wrap my head around that amount of change, not with my small life.
It’s a good reminder that change is a constant in this life – whether it’s the camp budget this year or the formation of these mountains two million years ago.
At our midday break, I trot down to the waterfront with Ryan, the Hospitality Chair, in my swimmies and a hoodie. Ryan has convinced me that a cold plunge is a good idea. I'd said I’d do it earlier this week, and I’m not really one to back out of something like a cold plunge (even if I am questioning my life choices currently).
On the count of three, we run in, and then as soon as my head comes out of the water, I am hooping and hollering, while Ryan bears the cold a little more stoically. We raise our hands in the air for a quick photo from our friends on the dock, and we run out. We high five and walk gingerly over the pebble beach towards our cabin where a warm shower awaits.
On the other side, we are new.
There are moments like this all through life. It wasn’t just the cold plunge, but the week of planning, too. The time together shapes us anew. As camp leaders, we all know this. Community is formed first in the small moments: sharing a meal or sitting next to each other at the camp fire. But then it’s the big moments – the cold plunges – that solidify that something has changed.
I have found this sense of community over and over again in camp ministry. You have, too, I’m guessing, or you wouldn’t be doing work that asks so many hours and so much energy. In the last many years, the community that has most captured me is at these National Gatherings. These are the friends that I go to when the entire landscape changes.
Come join us January 24-28, 2027 at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center for a time to connect with old friends and new. Learn more and register!
Hope Montgomery is Assistant Director at Camp Magruder, Oregon. She's a singer-songwriter, artist, and, along with Jeff Wilson from Camp Lake Stephens (MS), is bringing her creative spirit as co-Chair of the 2027 UMCRM National Gathering Design Team.
