That old-time religion is still alive in Muhlenberg Township.
The Rosedale Camp Meeting in Laureldale is celebrating its 100th anniversary this week with daily activities and services that run through the weekend.
Ken Pickens, president of the Rosedale Grove Association, has had to navigate the changing religious landscape to keep the 16-acre wooded grove vital.
“Camp meeting 100 years ago, when they started, was all about people getting together to worship for two weeks out of the year,” he said. “As time evolved, it started to change, probably 30 years ago. People didn’t keep coming to camp meeting.”
Instead of two weeks of a summer respite in the shaded surroundings of Rosedale, the camp meeting has had to adapt to changing lifestyles.
Now, events are scheduled on Saturdays or Sundays throughout the year, but primarily through the summer months, Pickens said.
But he still tries to find the balance between the primitive living in tents and having more modern conveniences.
“Well, that’s why they called it a camp meeting,” he said. “You came out and lived in a tent. I used to have 150 tents lined up. People would come on the weekends and for a week to stay for the camp meeting. But now, it’s changed. So we are now doing it a little bit differently.”
One thing hasn’t changed.
“It’s an important part of the children’s life,” Pickens said. “And the kids never forget what camp can be as I know I was at camp, and my wife Gaylene was at camp, and you don’t ever forget what camp life was about.”
Pickens noted the camp recently housed 140 teens for mission work training.
Childhood memories
Joan Evans has been attending the camp meeting for most of her 87 years and has the fondest memories of her childhood spent at the camp.
“I’ve been coming for a long time, since I was a little girl,” she said. “We used to come out with tents and sleep in the tents, and we cooked our meals there. We did everything. It was just home for 10 days.”
She recalls how the nearly century-old, wooden tabernacle would be so crowded on a Sunday afternoon that people couldn’t get seats and had to stand outside.
“Not many come anymore, but that’s how it is,” she said with a weary smile. “People have things to do, places to go.”
Now she enjoys the camp meeting as a way to see and hear her children and grandchildren perform in the Evans Family praise band, which is the featured musical group this week.
Helping hand
But it is extraordinary that the Rosedale Camp Meeting has survived for a century.
At one time, the camp meeting was affiliated with the Evangelical Congregational Church based in Myerstown.
The meeting is now independent but maintains an association with CrossWay Church in Mohnton.
“We do get a lot of support from them — not financially — but spiritually, and also the people there support us and come and do things with us and attend our events,” Pickens said.
The support extends to the pulpit, as the leadoff preacher Sunday for the weeklong celebration was Micah Albrycht, a deacon at CrossWay and a student at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Montgomery County.
“It’s a privilege for me to be speaking, particularly on the important message of the gospel,” Albrycht said before the start of the service. “I am very, very proud of what the Pickens are doing here at Rosedale. Their ministry is fantastic, what they’re trying to do for the community. So anything that I can do to help and support them, but more importantly the people who come to hear the message.”
And indeed, the promise of a week filled with Bible-based preaching was fulfilled in Albrycht’s message, which was based on the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, verses 16 and 17, when the Apostle famously declares, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel.”
Rosedale, too, has nothing to be ashamed of.
“So really, for us 100 years is really important because it means that this place has withstood a lot already,” Pickens said. “And with modern times coming and the things that are changing the world, we want to maintain that balance and say there is a God, and we want to promote God here.”
Services will be held at 6:30 p.m. each night with a 100th anniversary dinner at 4 p.m. Saturday followed by an old-fashioned hymn sing at 6:30. The public is invited to all of the events.
The Rev. David Heffner will present a program on “Memories of Rosedale Over the Years” at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 20.
For more information on the speakers and events, go to www.rosedalecampgrove.org.
Source: Berkshire mont
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