The idea for Camp Trinity Academy came from three factors.  First, I have to admit that I borrowed it from Christ Academy, which is held every year at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN.  (For information on Christ Academy, visit their webpage here.) The idea of Christ Academy is brilliant.  It offers the wonderful opportunity for young men to visit the seminary and even take classes with professors.  They get to know each other as they study together.  That is the idea I decided to build on for Camp Trinity Academy. 

However, I wanted to focus on the local congregations.  This brings me to the second factor that led to this idea.  As I look back on my adolescent years, I treasure the mentorship I received from my own local pastor who also happened to be my dad.  When I was showing interest in reading theology, having read the Book of Concord and the New Testament in my teenage years, my dad would give me other good books to read.  However, it wasn't only my dad.  Other pastors, whom I got to know through him, played significant roles on my theological development.  Pastor Robert Benson (from Reedsburg, WI) introduced me to the writings of Herman Sasse.  Pastor Roger Fehr (my father-in-law) and Pastor Daniel Faugstad (Redwood Falls, MN)  both helped me understand deeper issues about  the Lord's Supper.  Pastor David Thompson (Mankato, MN) first got me thinking about how to respond to post-modernism.  I learned through my father and the company he kept that pastors are theologians, and it's always helpful to talk theology with pastors.  I therefore wasn't ever intimidated by pastors, because the culture I was given from my home pastor and family presented theological conversations as a very practical and casual exercise.  My brothers and my sister, my friends, their friends -- they all helped reinforce this culture.  

I wanted to go to seminary, because I learned from my local pastor, as well as from other faithful pastors, to love theology, find insight from God's Word, and take comfort always in the gospel of Christ for whose sake God justifies the poor sinner through faith.  If our camp can help support and foster such relationships between parishioners and their local pastors, then we are fulfilling our purpose.  

The third factor that led to this idea of Camp Trinity Academy came when I first visited Camp Trinity.  In the summer of 2019, I had a call to be the pastor at Trinity in New Haven, and some of the parishioners who also ran the camp were showing me around.  The last thing they showed me was the library.  Over several decades, Pastor Herman Otten collected hundreds of books, whether he was writing book reviews for Christian News or he was simply using them for his pastoral study.  Soon after Pastor Otten died, his children and others from the congregation got to work cataloging all these books according to the Library of Congress.  Hidden in this little building on the edge of the camp is a theological library just waiting to be used.  When I first saw it, this thought came to mind: What if we had a camp that makes use of this place?  

I ended up turning down the call, but the idea for the camp still kept gnawing at me.  I talked about my idea to Daniel Sanchez at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca in Iowa, as well as Pastor Bert Mueller, who was serving an hour away from me in Westgate, IA.  They liked the idea, and we were starting to have further discussion.  Then, of course, Covid happened, and nothing came of it.  Then, in the spring of 2021, Trinity in New Haven extended a call to me a second time.  After considering again the needs of the congregations I was serving at the time as well as the needs of Trinity, I decided to accept it this time.  So after getting to know the camp, I started working toward starting this theological camp.  I talked to Pastor Mueller, who had also left Iowa for Minnesota, and we got it arranged.  So in July of 2023 we had our first Camp Trinity Academy.  Six boys, ages 12 to 18, participated in the camp, and they all had a great time.  They took classes, read theology, checked out books from the library, and learned now to do some research.  They also had plenty of recreation time where they truly bonded with one another.  They even had some theological arguments in their cabins at night.  

Five of those six boys returned in 2024 when we hosted 16 campers and four other pastors.  God has been richly blessing our work here.  But we recognize that the real work happens in the local parish.  So we continue to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to provide laborers for his harvest.  

We have also received donations, which have greatly helped our efforts to provide an affordable retreat for these young men.