Home on the Ranch
Expanding the Southeast’s largest ELCA outdoor ministry
The great outdoors is, in many ways, the perfect place to celebrate faith. By reconnecting with nature, we reconnect with ourselves. Seeing the stars overhead, listening to the birds and crickets, and tasting food cooked on a crackling fire are the types of occasional joys that directly remind us of the beauty of God’s creation.
No one appreciates this fact more than the folks at Lutheridge + Lutherock Ministries, Inc. (LLMI), a ministry of the ELCA. Operating together since 1991, these two incredible locations have been welcoming visitors for outdoor camps and retreats for nearly two decades.
Nestled on the south side of Sugar Mountain in Newland, N.C., the 700-acre Camp Lutherock is a rustic camp that offers a wide array of outdoor activities in a beautiful wooded setting. Youth and family groups can spend days at a time hiking, rock climbing, white water rafting, and exploring the mountain’s natural caves while staying in tents or cozy cabins. Counselors build teamwork with campers and retreat participants through ropes and obstacle courses and other activities.
Eighty miles south, at the 160-acre Lutheridge Conference Center and Camp, “Christian community-building” is the theme of year-round conferences and retreats. People of all ages come here to get away from the daily grind, to reflect, to reconnect in a beautiful lakeside setting with meeting rooms, dining facilities, and comfortable accommodations.
The large percentage of repeat visits at both of these camps is a testimony to the dedication of the counselors and activity leaders, as well as the resplendent beauty of this part of the country.
In the late 1990s, LLMI underwent a visioning exercise to refine its mission and discover how it could better help to respond to a growing number of guests. The refined mission was to provide a place where visitors could grow in faith and become better equipped for ministry. The area synods showed great interest in this mission, knowing well that these types of faith-based programs and opportunities help prepare strong, passionate leaders for the ELCA.
With visitors traveling from 22 states each summer, it was becoming more clear that growth was necessary. The ministry set specific capital goals to purchase more land for expansion.
About a year later, the ministry received a $750,000 private gift. While the LLMI leaders continued to work toward building the nest egg that would help them purchase the land they needed, they invested in the Mission Investment Fund. By investing the $750,000 gift in a MissionPlus account, they were able to grow their capital while knowing their investment would help other ministries of the ELCA.
Around this time, Susan Troutman, LLMI vice president of finance, traveled to Duluth, Minn., to attend the National Outdoor Ministry Conference. She took in all the amazing things the ECLA was doing with outdoor camps while pondering the challenges her own ministry was undergoing. It was here that she met Andy Waters, former vice president of lending for the Mission Investment Fund. Susan told him the ministry’s story. Waters was struck by the amazing things that were happening at both Lutheridge and Lutherock, and the two discussed ways that they might work together to expedite the purchase of a third site for the ministry.
With the support of the Mission Investment Fund, LLMI started actively looking for a piece of land nearby. Their needs were fairly specific: the land had to be located in close proximity to major freeways, while maintaining a sense of remote natural beauty. It had to be large enough to accommodate hundreds of guests comfortably at a given time. And while they didn’t limit the search to North Carolina, the leaders wanted to remain in the same general vicinity to ease in the management of the three sites.
With the assistance of a realtor, LLMI staff began to scout for land, using technology like Google Earth to supplement many drives around the surrounding area. Their selection: a 522-acre ranch in Tallapoosa, Ga., near the Alabama border, about a four-hour drive from Lutheridge. With beautiful rolling hills, two small lakes and a picturesque creek, the ranch was the perfect spot to set up another outdoor ministry. It was perfect, save one small detail – the land wasn’t for sale!
The realtor had worked hard for the ministry, and wasn’t ready to give up on this piece of real estate. Through the process, he had become excited about the good work that LLMI was doing, and had himself contributed a sizable individual gift toward the effort. His enthusiasm proved to be infectious, and with some convincing, he got the owner of the ranch to agree to sell it.
With the assistance of a loan from the Mission Investment Fund, the land officially became “Lutheranch” in 2007. Now serving guests in a comfortable retreat center, the ranch is undergoing continued development to accommodate even more visitors in the future. An RV park and additional campsites are being built. Plans call for an expanded arts and music curriculum to add to the current outdoor activities, which include horseback riding, hiking, and ropes courses. A unique urban immersion program will soon be launched, where visiting campers can travel with Lutheranch staff to the Atlanta area to assist in community-development projects as part of their outdoor camp experience.
As Lutheranch continues to grow and expand, the Mission Investment Fund is proud to be a supporting partner. Through the efforts of outdoor ministries like these, children and families can continue to build memories and strengthen their faith surrounded by the beauty of nature.