Camp meeting

== Practice by denomination ==
=== Methodism ===
[[File:PLEASANT GROVE CAMP MEETING GROUND, UNION COUNTY, NC.jpg|thumb|The [[tabernacle (Methodist)|tabernacle]] of [[Pleasant Grove Camp Meeting Ground]], owned by the [[United Methodist Church]].]]
{{Methodism|expanded=worship}}
[[Francis Asbury]], the first bishop of the American [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], was a staunch supporter of camp meetings.<ref name="Ingersoll2009">{{cite book|last=Ingersoll|first=Julie|author-link=Julie Ingersoll|title=Baptist and Methodist Faiths in America|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|language=en|isbn=9781438102504|page=25}}</ref> At Methodist camp meetings, which continue to occur today:<ref name="Kimbrough2007">{{cite book|last=Kimbrough|first=S. T.|title=Orthodox and Wesleyan Ecclesiology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_jlgflH2ALcC&pg=PA221|access-date=19 June 2018|year=2007|publisher=St. Vladimir's Seminary Press|language=en|isbn=9780881412680|page=221}}</ref>
{{Quote|... both the [[Eucharist]] and [[Lovefeast|Love Feast]] were celebrated. But the focus of the camp meeting was on preaching of the "way of salvation," and the physical layout of the camp meeting assembly area came to be a sacred space representing the stages on the way of salvation. The [[altar rail]], originated the point for receiving Holy Communion, came to represent the surrender of oneself in conversion and entire sanctification. The "[[mourner's bench]]" (or "anxious bench," as it was decried by the theologians of the Mercersburg movement) was placed in front of the altar rail and represented the experience of spiritual "awakening" that typically preceded conversion in understanding of the "way of salvation." In a weekend format, one might expect a sermon on sin, awakening and repentance on Friday, sermons on conversion and assurance on Saturday, and preaching on [[Sanctification#Methodist|sanctification]] (including [[entire sanctification]]) on Sunday.<ref name="Kimbrough2007"/>}}

Throughout the United States, several camp meeting facilities were founded, many of which remain operational to this day.<ref name="Ingersoll2009"/> For example, the [[Balls Creek Campground]] is a popular Methodist camp meeting that was formed in 1853.<ref name="McMurryAdams2000">{{cite book|last1=McMurry|first1=Sally Ann|last2=Adams|first2=Annmarie|title=People, Power, Places|year=2000|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|language=en|isbn=9781572330757|page=143}}</ref> In 1869, the [[Ocean Grove, New Jersey#Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association|Ocean Grove Camp-Meeting Association]] was founded, running a popular Methodist camp meeting at [[Ocean Grove, New Jersey]].<ref name="Aron1999"/> Methodists flocked to the area, especially around major feasts of the Church, such as during [[Christmastide]].<ref name="Aron1999"/> [[Sabbatarianism#Sunday Sabbatarians|Sunday Sabbatarian]] principles were practiced, with swimming being forbidden on the [[Lord's Day]], as well as the gates to the city being locked on that day. Ocean Grove "prohibited other activities deemed not consonant with Christian living--dancing, cardplaying, and the sale of liquor."<ref name="Aron1999">{{cite book|last=Aron|first=Cindy S.|title=Working At Play: A History of Vacations in the United States|date=13 May 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|isbn=9780195363630|pages=105–106}}</ref>

On Sunday, 31 May 1807, the first Camp Meeting was held in [[England]] at [[Mow Cop]]. At the time, [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Wesleyan Methodists]] disapproved and subsequently expelled [[Hugh Bourne]] "because you have a tendency to set up other than the ordinary worship.".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kendall |first1=Holliday |title=History of the Primitive Methodist Church |date=1919 |publisher=[[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]] |location=London |oclc=606574049 |page=20}}</ref> He eventually formed the [[Primitive Methodist Church]]. The Wesleyan Methodist Church and the [[Primitive Methodism in the United Kingdom|Primitive Methodist Church in Great Britain]] later [[Methodist Union|reunited]] to form the [[Methodist Church of Great Britain]]).

During his visits to England, [[Lorenzo Dow]] brought reports of North American camp meetings. Hugh Bourne, William Clowes and Daniel Shoebotham saw this as an answer to complaints from members of the [[Harriseahead]] Methodists that their weeknight prayer meeting was too short. Bourne also saw these as an antidote to the general debauchery of the [[Wakes week]] in that part of the [[Staffordshire Potteries]], one of the reasons why he continued organising camp meetings in spite of the opposition from the Wesleyan authorities.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Origin of the Primitive Methodist Connexion |work=[[The London Quarterly Review]] |issue=133 |publisher=T Woolmer |date=October 1886 |location=London |page=30}}</ref>

The pattern of the Primitive Methodist camp meeting was as a time of prayer and preaching from the Bible. In the first camp meeting, four separate "preaching stations" had been set up by the afternoon, each with an audience, while in between others spent the time praying.

From May 1807 to the establishing of Primitive Methodism as a denomination in 1811, a series of 17 camp meetings was held. There were a number of different venues beyond [[Mow Cop]], including [[Norton-in-the-Moors]] during the Wakes in 1807 (Bourne's target venue), and [[Ramsor]] in 1808.

After Bourne and a significant number of his colleagues, including the Standley Methodist Society, had been put out of membership of the [[Burslem]] [[Methodist Church of Great Britain|Wesleyan Circuit]], they formed a group known as the '''Camp Meeting Methodists''' until 1811. That year they joined with the followers of [[William Clowes (Primitive Methodist)|William Clowes]], known as the "Clowesites".

Camp meetings were a regular feature of Primitive Methodist life throughout the 19th century,<ref>Continued mention in Circuit Plans and the Minutes of Circuit Meetings</ref> and still survive today. The annual late May Bank Holiday weekend meetings at Cliff College are one example.<ref name="Cliff College">[http://www.cliffcollege.org/ Cliff College] is a Methodist training college in Derbyshire. The meetings are an annual attraction for many Methodists.</ref> A number of tents are set up around the site, each featuring a different preacher.

The [[Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection]] holds its camp meetings annually at Methodist Camp in [[Stoneboro, Pennsylvania]]. Each conference of the [[Bible Methodist Connection of Churches]] owns land on which its camp meetings are held each year. The Primitive Methodist Church also has camp meetings in its districts. Many [[United Methodist]] churches also hold yearly camp meetings, such as the Shiloh United Methodist Church Camp Meeting, Northport Indian United Methodist Church and Trinity United Methodist Camp Meeting, for example.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://northportindianumc.org/summer-camp-meeting/|title=2018 Summer Camp Meeting|year=2018|publisher=Northport Indian United Methodist Church|language=en|access-date=9 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historicshilohumc.org/historic-campground/|title=Historic Campground|year=2018|publisher=Shiloh United Methodist Church|language=en|access-date=9 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.knoxtrinity.org/campmeeting/|title=Camp Meeting|year=2018|publisher=Trinity United Methodist Church|language=en|access-date=9 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612142743/http://www.knoxtrinity.org/campmeeting/|archive-date=12 June 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many [[Free Methodist]] churches hold camp meetings every year, such as those that take place at the Tri-State Free Methodist Campground.<ref name="Vindy2015">{{cite web|url=http://www.vindy.com/news/2015/jun/27/camp-meeting-is-in-july/|title=Pastor Dwyer is evangelist for Tri-State Free Methodist Campground|date=27 June 2015|publisher=The Vindicator|language=en|access-date=9 June 2018}}</ref>

{{See also|Sterling Camp Meeting Grounds}}

=== Presbyterianism ===
In 1825, the Presbytery of Hopewell established a network of camp meetings.<ref name="Ivy1968">{{cite book|last=Ivy|first=Emma Plunkett|title=As I Find it: A Partially Documented History of Some of the Butlers, Early 1700s to 1968, Including a Few Allied Or Related Families; a Partially Documented Record of Some Butler Families of Newberry, Edgefield, Saluda Counties, South Carolina, and of Newton and Rockdale Counties, Georgia|year=1968|publisher=Peachtree Letter Service|language=en|page=152}}</ref>

The Smyrna Presbyterian Church, a congregation of the [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]] continues to hold an annual camp meeting at its Camp Smyrna.<ref name="Ivy1968"/> The [[Red River Meeting House]], belonging to the [[Cumberland Presbyterian Church]], also has a yearly camp meeting.