Innovative Program Award

Lutheran Outdoor Ministries will present the Innovative Program Award to an LOM member organization that has highlighted an innovative program in their organization.  The $1,000 award will be for a program that could include but is not limited to: a new program, serving your population in a new way, reaching out to new populations in your area, or something that benefits the environment or teaches environmental issues, etc.  All materials, including the google form, application cover sheet, and all required emailed attachments, must be completed, and returned by October 1st to be eligible for the award. The award will be presented at annual LOM Conference. 

Click here to submit nomination electronically


The past winners of this award are as follows:

2023- LOM presented the 2023 Innovative Program Award to Crossways (WI) “Rooted.” Camp Staff Training is one of the most impactful tools of the church. We foster a love for ministry leadership in young adults that keeps them engaged in church communities for the rest of their lives. Knowing the impact – how can we keep this experience to ourselves? Pine Lake Camp invited all adults, wherever they are on their journey of faith, to attend Rooted, a faith enrichment experience parallel to staff training to join in this learning retreat. The experience provided faith development, community building, and cross- generational relationships.

This unique program ran parallel to camp staff training at Pine Lake Camp. Utilizing leaders who we already invited in to lead and train camp staff, an additional session was added for the Rooted cohort.

Amidst the full speaker schedule, they set aside intentional time for recreation that we encouraged Rooted guests to use however served them best including kayaking, hiking, journaling, or visiting and connecting with other participants. The overnight component allowed us to share stories and laughter of a charcuterie board and enter an additional tier of connection. The experience with Rooted accomplished a variety of goals: a unique, quality, faith formation experience for adults of all ages and roles; an expanded community of people invested in our young adult staff and in turn provided young adults with more faith centered mentors. We shared the unmatched experience of exceptional Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Summer Staff Training with a new audience.


2022- LOM presented the 2022 Innovative Program Award to Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp’s (CO) “Beloved Community: Joshua Station.” Rainbow Trail partnered with Joshua Station, an agency that provides transformational housing for those who have experienced homelessness, to provide family camp for eleven families. Thirty people joined the staff for an amazing three days. It was not always easy, but it was life changing for all. They built sandcastles, hiked, wove baskets, carved wood, shared devotions, played bingo, and created community in a whole new way.

One of the most powerful moments of the experience was when they were leading devotions following playing bingo. Two staff were playing their guitars upfront and everyone was singing a quiet song boldly. Two of the moms brought their babies up next to them and began to sway to the music as they snuggled their children and sang to God. It was powerful ministry!

If you want to view the video that was shown about the program, visit https://vimeo.com/755807473


2021- LOM presented the 2021 Innovative Program Award to Fortune Lake Lutheran Camp’s (FLLC) Musical Theatre Week.  This camp program culminated in “One Wonderful Day: An Original Musical.”

FLLC will offer Musical Theatre Week as part of their summer program in 2022. This unique program is open to people of all ages who will gather at FLLC to rehearse and prepare “One Wonderful Day,” an original musical celebrating God’s work through FLLC for 92 years. The week will culminate in a single performance at the historic Crystal Theatre. Participants will be actors, vocalists, instrumentalists, stagehands, set builders, and/or technical support people; they’ll come together for the purpose of producing one amazing performance! The music for the show consists of camp songs that have been rebooted, some orchestrated by Evan Premo (http://www.evanpremo.com/), to elicit fond memories of days around the campfire. Volunteers and camp supporters have been working on the program and script for over two years, and we can’t wait to deliver it to our camp community!


2020- LOM presented the 2020 Innovative Program Award to Cross Roads (NJ) and Luther Crest (MN) who shared in the Innovative Program Award for their collaborative program – “Crest Roads” as part of the Bold Transformational Faith Initiative (BTF).  The two sites teamed up to create a year-round program that takes the tools that they learned from virtual summer camp in 2020 to congregations in Minnesota, New Jersey, and beyond. BTF provides congregations with faith formation resources and support from trained camp professionals. Churches have the option of inviting families to Sunday School hour live with youth from around the country, on-demand using pre-recorded videos, or using our unique Sunday School curriculum on their own. The BTF team also creates children’s messages for churches to incorporate in their virtual services and at-home faith formation newsletters for families.  The BTF program is not only designed to provide faith formation programming, but also leadership trainings for youth leaders and other congregational leaders. Facilitated trainings, led by the BTF team, include discussions of the Sunday School curriculum and best practices for engagement and carrying out the programming; introductory trainings on virtual tools like Remind, Zoom, Facebook Live, & more; and sessions for congregational leaders on topics such as small-group process, conflict assessment, & youth well-being.


2019- LOM presented the 2019 Innovative Program Award to Camp of the Cross Ministries (ND) for their program, “Building Bridges with the Three Affiliated Tribes.”  The camp would like to create an atmosphere of trust with in the three Affiliated Tribes so they can have another Day Camp this upcoming summer in one of the segments called “White Shield.”  The camp would also like to offer scholarships to campers to come be on site with in 2021.


2018-  Outlaw Ranch (SD)’s Connecting Cultures at Camp program.  Connecting Cultures at Camp brings together English and Spanish-speaking families for a week of intentional community in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Families from Pueblo de Dios, a congregation based in Sioux Falls, and a mix of other families are welcomed into a week of prayers, worship, and camp activities experienced in both languages. With the effort and excitement of bilingual-focused counseling staff, musicians, and resource leaders, this family camp is one expression of our varied and vibrant Lutheran faith. This was Outlaw Ranch’s fourth summer partnering with Pueblo de Dios, and they have seen this program develop from a budding community into an authentic exchange and appreciation of what we all bring to the table.  The idea for the program began when Director Matt Rusch was visiting with Pueblo’s pastor at the time, Jeanette Clark, who was at Outlaw Ranch for Youth Camp. At the time, it was identified that while youth campers attended a Lutherans Outdoors camp, there was not something set up for families to attend camp together. In partnership with Pueblo de Dios, this program was born.  The foundation of this program is the Spanish-speaking counselors. They shine during the week as they translate and ensure that everyone is on the same page.  The camp is blessed to have a staff that includes both international and domestic speakers who lead the way toward inclusion with their ideas and consistency. Without these staff, camp would have still happened but with many missed opportunities to make adjustments and deconstruct language barriers.  In their application form, the camp indicated that “Our hope for this program is to continue facilitating communication and relationships between families across South Dakota and beyond. When we spend time listening and learning from one another, we build relationships that strengthen the Lutheran Church and give new life to outdoor ministry. When we remember that we belong to one another, we glimpse the Kingdom of God.”


2017- Agapé + Kure Beach Ministries’ (NC) Reach 100 program.  “Reach 100” was designed to fill slots which have not been filled in previous years of summer registration.  “Reach 100” is a board initiative started in April of 2016.  It is a two-year program designed to initially reach out into their local community and provide a positive Christian resident camp experience to children in severe financial need or are homeless.  “Reach 100” is a partnership between several local school counselors (who are

identifying families and children), local businesses and business leaders (local chamber of commerce members), the camp’s traditional donor base, and Agapé + Kure Beach Ministries.  The children are mainstreamed into each week of camp and a variety of programs. Local school counselors have identified 60 homeless students between grades 3 and 8.  These counselors are doing all the communication with the families, collecting forms and assisting the families with transportation to camp.  One of the unique characteristics of this program is that funds being raised cover the entire cost of camp and are not at the subsidized camp fee rate.  Each camper requires $600.00 to be raised to attend one week of camp.  Business community leaders have offered to supply items like sleeping bags, backpacks, water bottles, towels, cloths.  The $600 also includes funds on the camp store card for each camper.In their application form, the camp indicated the program “has been powerful for staff, donors and our community.  We had college students apply to work on summer staff because they wanted to work at a camp making this kind of impact on children.  Second, one of the joys has been to help these children be like anyone else.  Counselors do not even know which of their campers are Reach 100 kids.  Reach 100 is the most exciting, impactful, and positive program initiative we have ever launched.”


2016-  “Living Water Ministries Bridge Building Project” by Living Waters Ministries and the two ELCA synods in the lower peninsula of Michigan.  The goal of the program is to develop young leaders for the church and world with a raised awareness and understanding of the realities of racism.  In the grant application, C.J. Clark, executive director, stated, “It is our hope that raising young leaders in the faith formative community of camp can be a place where real change in the world and church can begin.  By exploring systematic racism, we hope to inspire campers to a greater sense of responsibility to make change as they grow into adults of faith and leaders in the church and world.”   To learn more about this program, watch this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x32AEZof90


2015- “Jacob’s Well Leadership Initiative” by Voyageurs Lutheran Ministry (MN). More and more campers and summer staff members are coming from non-church backgrounds; they are not the people sitting in the pews and may not know the language of “the church”. If we continue to use traditional church language or assume that our campers have a basic understanding of the Bible, we are going to miss the chance to truly share God’s love with them. This project begins to address this challenge by engaging our year-round leadership and summer staff in how to talk about God, Jesus, faith, and church with those who are coming to our sites but not coming from our congregations. It also challenges our summer staff to see how they can be leaders in the church in traditional and non-traditional church settings, both now and in the future.


2014- “Vocation Discovery Program” by Upper Missouri Ministries (North Dakota).  This program gathers a group of young adults to create community, cultivate character, clarify calling, and connect with culture. The program has been designed to disciple the participants in 3 areas of life : grow in their relationship with God, understand their Identity as a son or daughter of God, and grow in their relationship capabilities with other people.


2013- “Camp for Grieving Kids” by Camp Frederick (Ohio).  This program allows kids who are grieving the loss of a parent the opportunity to come together to support one another in the safe setting of camp.


2012- “Piece Together” by Crossways’ Imago Dei Village (Wisconsin).  Piece together is a program created for families with members on the autism spectrum.  Through catering to the dynamic and unique needs of families affected by autism, Piece Together provides respite for parents, space for siblings to be with other siblings, and opportunity for those with autism to grow and learn.