Dear Olympia Presbytery Strategic Board,

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I imagine you are facing a great deal of correspondence these days, and I am grateful for your willingness to engage with it. Your diligence is a blessing to the churches within your Presbytery and beyond!

I am writing to express my concern and sadness at the news that your committee is recommending the closure and sale of Sound View Camp. For the last several years my family has enjoyed attending their summer Family Camp and we have felt blessed by the staff, the property, the facilities, and the holy space. My two young boys particularly love the experience and look forward to returning for other events as they get older. As a Pastor in the Seattle Presbytery, I am very grateful to have a Presbyterian-related community beyond my congregation at which my children feel at home. I feel so strongly about the benefits of this “third place” for faith formation, that I have encouraged my church Session to invest in Sound View and to consider developing a long-term relationship with the camp. I have also been helping to plan a joint Sabbath retreat for young families with several other pastors from the Seattle Presbytery, which will hopefully still be able to happen in April of this year.

Having worked at and visited many other Christian camps and conference centers, I have experienced Sound View’s infrastructure and ministry as healthy and as having a great deal of potential for growth. This is why I am surprised and disheartened that the Olympia Presbytery is considering closing the camp altogether. Since I am not a member of your Presbytery and have not been a part of the conversation until now, I am left with many unanswered questions. For example, I wonder why there was not more communication about this discernment in recent years. Was there a significant effort to talk to the larger Sound View community in addition to their board? If finances are the main problem, has there been a significant effort to find other sources of funding—such as through partnerships with other Presbyteries, denominations, Synod, etc? I would be happy to help with this outreach if needed.

I understand that Sound View, like most institutions, has a long history that surely includes controversy, conflict, and crisis. As a pastor of a small congregation that has turned the corner towards a healthier pattern of ministry, I also know that our past does not have to define our future. I hope the Olympia Presbytery will take the long view in regard to this camp’s potential and that you will not discount God’s ability to do new things with younger and future generations. The sale of this property may feel like a relief in the short-term, but it is highly unlikely that the Presbyterian Church (USA) will ever have the funds to re-purchase a camp in the Puget Sound area. If the Olympia Presbytery is currently experiencing significant challenges on other fronts, is this the time to make such a permanent decision?

While Sound View is currently a ministry of the Olympia Presbytery, please keep in mind that its reach is far beyond your own membership, and that its ministry has something of a life of its own. The camp could be seen as a congregation in this way, though an unconventional one. I wonder, in this era when our denomination is being encouraged to start “1001 New Worshipping communities” why the Olympia Presbytery would be closing a non-traditional ministry focused primarily on children and young people—especially one where the board is committed to remaining open. I just read that the average 1001 community has 33 participants. Having the done the math, I believe Sound View puts in as many ministry hours as an average church of 100 members over the course of a year. Is the Olympia Presbytery also considering closing other churches of this size? I would find it concerning if a Presbyterian body was led to only support large, successful ministries, or ministries without challenges.

I hope your committee might still be open to exploring some alternatives to closure in case there might be a way to make space for redemption at Sound View rather than final judgement. For example: If the administration of the camp is causing stress to the Presbytery, perhaps it would help to spin it off as an independent entity while retaining ownership over the property—much like properties are held in trust by congregations. If finances are the issue, then why not first stop giving them money and see what happens? It may be that Sound View’s board needs the autonomy to succeed or fail on their own terms. Or perhaps the land simply needs to lie fallow for a summer or two for some Sabbath time—then see what God may do!

I believe wholeheartedly that our churches (especially small churches like mine) need more resources for youth and evangelism, not less. I know that there are other camps and conference centers in our area, but they also come with their own challenges and frustrations. When we intentionally choose to outsource our youth ministry to other denominations and traditions, is it any wonder that our children often grow up to have no interest in the Presbyterian Church? For whatever reason Sound View may feel like a pain in the neck at the moment, but my experience has been that this is often the case with youth ministries in general. Please remember that young people can be a difficult, but we shouldn’t give up on them.

Eventually (hopefully) they grow up, and we know that the effort was worth it.

Grace and Peace,

Rev. Mark A. C. Zimmerly
Pastor, Madrona Grace Presbyterian Church, Seattle, WA

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