ENCOUNTER RESPOND TRANSFORM
Since 1946, Camp Lake Stephens has been a place where people of all ages can encounter God and respond to His call to transform the world.
Throughout our history, we have presented the good news of Jesus to everyone who has come through our gates, no matter their spiritual background. We want everyone to experience God in His fullness when they gather at CLS.
In the 1930s, Methodist minister Dr. John Ellett Stephens began creating outdoor camping experiences for children and youth throughout North Mississippi. These camps were generally held at several locations, such as Pickwick Lake, but Dr. Stephens had a dream of something more. He believed that a permanent camp where young people could experience community, outdoors, and faith should be established in North Mississippi.
In 1945, that dream took a major step forward. The Junior Chamber of Commerce in Oxford offered to donate 87 acres of woodland southeast of Oxford as a potential site for the camp. Dr. Stephens, along with several other Methodist ministers and lay leaders, embraced the opportunity and began preparing the property.
By July 1946, a Building Committee was established and built 16 cabins (8 duplexes), the Dining Hall (the Dining Hall still in use today), the site of the lake was cleared, a well was dug, and a dam was built. The first camps were held in July and August of 1946, and the camp later was named Camp Lake Stephens in honor of Dr. Stephens, whose vision and persistence brought the dream of a permanent camp to life.
From those first summers, Camp Lake Stephens quickly became more than a summer camp. By 1947, the grounds were being used for meetings, retreats, school groups, youth assemblies, and gatherings of all kinds throughout the year.
Today, Camp Lake Stephens has continued to grow beyond its beginnings as a summer camp into a year-round camp and retreat center, serving people of all ages as a place where they can gather, learn, worship, explore, and build relationships.
After 80 years, Camp Lake Stephens remains what it was envisioned to be in the beginning. A special place where people can step away from everyday life, experience creation, build community, and grow.
"MORE THAN A FACIILITY"
Summarized from a report written for the 1975 Annual Conference
Lake Stephens is more than a facility. It is more than a tradition. It is an alive, valid ministry. It is a or setting in which a great variety of experiences have taken place in the name of Jesus Christ. The contribution of Camp Lake Stephens has to be measured through the years in terms of the persons who have gone there for camps, meetings, leadership schools, retreats, workshops, or any of the other events.
Camp Lake Stephens is many things to many persons.
The best way to understand Camp Lake Stephens is to sit quietly among the trees or on Vesper Hill and listen to the silent testimony of what has happened to persons there through the years.
For many, Camp Lake Stephens was the place they met Christ. For others, it was the place that their Christian faith took on full meaning. A number of our ministers heard or answered the call to preach there. Countless children and youth have had their horizons of faith and understanding expanded through a tradition of gentle guidance. Camp Lake Stephens continues to be a place where the Spirit of God can move in the hearts and minds of all who gather here.
A wide variety of activities and experiences have taken place at Lake Stephens. Some have been spectacular, while others have been ordinary and seemingly routine. Yet even without the spectacular, those everyday moments bear witness to the thousands of lives that have been touched in the name of Jesus Christ.
From the beginning, Camp Lake Stephens has been a place of meaningful ministry. Through generations of campers, staff, and guests, its impact has been felt in countless lives, and that legacy continues today.
SALLY J. STEPHENS DINING HALL
The Dining Hall is the only remaining facility from Camp Lake Stephens' first summer in 1946. Sixteen cabins and the Dining Hall were completed in preparation for those first camps.
The building was named for Sally J. Stephens, wife of Dr. J.E. Stephens, whose vision helped establish Camp Lake Stephens. Sally served for many years as the camp's “Dining Room Superintendent.”
For generations of campers, the Dining Hall has been more than a place to eat. It has been a place where campers and staff have gathered together, shared stories, celebrated birthdays, sung songs, and experienced the everyday community of camp.
80 years later, the Dining Hall remains in use.
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Do you have a CLS story?
Eighty years of camp history can't be captured in photographs and dates alone. Much of CLS's history lives in the memories of the people who have walked these trails, slept in these cabins, gathered around these tables, and watched sunsets from Vesper Hill.
If you have photographs, stories, memories, or information about Camp Lake Stephens' past, we'd love to hear from you.