"A bruising exposé of Christian summer camps as an extension of a poisonous white evangelical culture...This is sure to spark debate."
—Publishers Weekly 

“This evocative book is an elegy over white evangelical church camp culture from one who was once among the leaders of this multibillion-dollar industry. Church Camp deconstructs the theology and culture of this industry, making it a significant contribution to the comprehensive reconsideration of white evangelicalism currently taking place. Highly recommended!” 
—David P. Gushee, author of The Moral Teaching of Jesus 

“As someone who has spent many years wrestling through the scattered carnage of my own experiences with white evangelicalism, I didn’t realize how important it was for me to hear this particular story told in this particular way. If you’ve experienced church camp from the ‘inside’—either as a camper or as a staff person or (as is the case for most of us) both, I cannot recommend Church Camp highly enough. I want to get it in the hands of everyone I shared that experience with, to give us a chance to voice what was troubling and to consider how to live into a different way of experiencing the sacred together.” 
—Jessica Floyd, therapist and former camp program staff  

“Speaking the familiar language of chilly mornings and muggy days, Church Camp peels back the nostalgia and shines light on both the fruit and the flaws of an evangelical rite of passage. Through personal experience and detailed research, Cara Meredith points toward faith formation that refuses shame, squashes fear, and embraces hope in the mystery. This book is for every camper who fought to belong or started asking better questions. It is for anyone who wants to sit in the warmth of God’s unconditional goodness.” 
—Shannan Martin, author of Start with Hello and The Ministry of Ordinary Places 

“Church Camp captures the feelings and love that camp life engenders, but then asks the hard questions about the institution itself. Cara Meredith doesn’t shy away from writing about complicated subjects that plague modern religion and camp: race, gender, and ultimately if evangelicalism is even a viable path forward. I found it to be a surprising page-turner and read it in one sitting, intrigued by the structure of following a week at camp, entertained throughout, and curious from start to finish. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who ever set foot in a summer camp.” 
—Buren Renick III, COO and former senior camp counselor  

“I spent many childhood summers in the colorful, complicated world Cara Meredith describes so deftly in this thoughtful and searingly honest book. I remember the gooey s’mores, the star lit hikes, the cheesy skits—and the powerful, quietly insidious culture of white evangelicalism that undergirded the whole experience, especially for those of us who attended church camp as children of color. Meredith doesn’t shy away from this insidiousness; she exposes and dismantles it. Using the very words and stories she once shared so earnestly with children during her years as a camp speaker, she describes a religious subculture bent on priming and converting children not simply to Christianity but to the cultural norms, beliefs, and assumptions of white American evangelicalism. She describes who benefited from this endeavor, and who got hurt. Who found faith, and who lost it. Most importantly, Meredith shares her own journey of an evolving and nuanced spirituality—one that allows her to remember church camp as a sacred place that formed her in so many beautiful ways, even as she also grieves over the God it misrepresented, the culture it perpetuated, and the children it harmed. This is a searching and necessary book—a testimony to the power of telling hard, healing truths about the places we have loved.” 
—Debie Thomas, author of A Faith of Many Rooms and Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories 

“With humor and tenderness, just as Cara tells my story, I am confident she describes many of your stories too. Readers should prepare to measure their own experiences as they sift through the pages of Church Camp, entirely because Cara brilliantly paints and weaves her own church camp life alongside many of ours.” 
—Joey Lynne, business owner; former camper and counselor 

“If I could trade attending church fifty-two times a year and attending church camp for one week per year, I’m pretty sure I’d pick camp. That’s how powerful camp experience was in my spiritual and human upbringing. But it would not be the kind of camp I grew up with. It would be the kind of camp Cara Meredith points to in her book Church Camp. This book tells the truth about what’s wrong with conventional Christian camps while celebrating the undiscovered promise camping holds for those who dare to seize it.” 
—Brian D. McLaren, author of Do I Stay Christian? and Faith After Doubt 

“Cara Meredith tackles the topic of evangelical church camp—something so many of us deeply love and are also deeply wounded by—with bravery, kindness, and incisive truth-telling. Her experiences resonate with those of us who spent decades of our lives working in Christian camping: we loved it but didn’t understand at the time the damage it was doing, and many of us have now come to realize it was incredibly problematic. Cara handles these issues with an unwavering honesty, inviting us to reexamine why we held church camp dear and to advocate for a more inclusive, Christ-centered way forward. If you grew up attending or working at this type of camp, I recommend that you read this book.” 
—Holly Hoeksema, professional development coach; former camp director and camp speaker 

“It’s rare to find a book that’s capable of holding the tension of the both/and when it comes to the sacred, but Cara Meredith has accomplished just that in her newest release, Church Camp. As a former church camp kid, I experienced a flood of memories upon reading, during which I found myself both laughing and nodding in agreement. This book will not only help you reminisce about the past; it will spur you to dream about what the future could be.” 
—Jonathan Merritt, award-winning columnist and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch  

"If you grew up in white evangelicalism, you probably had an experience at a Christian camp of some sort. In Church Camp, Cara Meredith does a magnificent job of meshing the historical view of this phenomenon alongside personal insights to normalize and maybe even move on from these sometimes utterly bizarre experiences. I highly recommend!”  
—Kurt Kroon, co-pastor at Cascade Church Portland and former camp program director 

“In Church Camp, Cara Meredith transports me to the world of so many of my own summers. Beautiful settings in the mountains, the buzz and energy of a group of young people in a place set apart for something special, late-night conversations about a world-shattering faith. Walking us through the fascinating subculture that is a staple of evangelical Christianity, Cara does not hold back from the historical, critical, and theological in her weaving together a variety of first-person narratives with song lyrics and the sequence of familiar talks. She shows us the hidden but not always subtle entanglements of whiteness and privilege in the overarching project around conversion. But Cara offers, too, a surprising and different way into an experience—with all its flaws and quirkiness—that might actually tell us something surprising about humanity. She gives a glimpse in the prologue: ‘…it’s a book about the tenacity of plain old human beings like you and me who learn how to hold on tight to a thing called hope.’ So grateful for the immense thoughtfulness and care in this work.” 
—Mihee Kim-Kort, author of Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith 

National and online publicity campaign targeting news media interested in this topic and Christian and spirituality media

Trade and Christian advertising

Social media and digital campaign targeting millennials and Gen X, progressive Christians, and those interested in faith deconstruction/exvangelicals

Deconstruction/exvangelical and progressive Christianity influencer outreach

Events and speaking opportunities including bookstore readings and guest preaching

Limited podcast series based on the book's themes