Sold for $1, Gifted Away or Closed: Baptist Conference Centres Struggle to Pay Their Way

• LifeWay sold the 2,400-acre Glorieta centre for $1 in 2013 and voted to sell Ridgecrest in 2020
• Georgia Baptists gave Norman Park to Shorter University
• Blue Springs in Florida was later sold for $3 million
• California Baptists closed Jenness Park after a $2 million deficit over seven years

Christian camps and conference centres were under financial strain even before the pandemic, Baptist News Global reported in August 2020, and several Baptist bodies had already given them up.

LifeWay Christian Resources sold the Glorieta Conference Center near Santa Fe, New Mexico, a 2,400-acre site, for $1 in 2013, and in April 2020 voted to sell the Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina, which registers about 70,000 guests a year. LifeWay cited “changes in church practices, rising costs and a volatile economy.” Its president, Ben Mandrell, said: “Owning a conference center will require more financial investment than we can bear.”

Georgia Baptists, who had lost between $300,000 and $700,000 a year at the 32-acre Norman Park Conference Center, gave it to Shorter University in 2016. Florida Baptists gave the 90-acre Blue Springs centre to the Baptist College of Florida the same year; it was sold in July 2020 for $3 million. California Southern Baptists closed Jenness Park, a 160-acre camp in the Sierra Nevada, after a $2 million deficit over seven years, and sold it to Gracepoint Fellowship Church.

The report also covered centres such as Shocco Springs in Alabama and Lake Yale in Florida, and one manager, Russell Klinner, struck a hopeful note, saying they were already signing contracts for the following year.

Camps and retreat centres combine large land holdings, ageing buildings and seasonal income, a difficult mix. When bookings fall, fixed costs remain, and denominations can end up subsidising property instead of ministry.

Jamaica’s denominations also own camp sites, retreat houses and conference centres. Keeping them viable means marketing them year-round to schools, businesses and other churches, controlling maintenance costs, and deciding honestly whether a site should be leased, shared or sold before losses accumulate.

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