ARNES, MB—Christian camp director Will Wear is a good example of how hard work and life experience can add up to a well-rounded education—a hands-on approach to learning that has done a good job of preparing him to head up a significant ministry. A love for woodworking determined the route.

“I chose a field of working with my hands rather than just papers and thoughts,” he says. “I went into carpentry at technical college and later apprenticed at millwork factories.”

Wear did well, emerging as a master cabinet-maker and working for seven years in product development for Palliser, a major furniture company based in Winnipeg. He also gained experience in the company’s training department, developing programs to integrate new employees.

Wear says that his time at Palliser was “very beneficial” to his current position as director of Camp Arnes, a well-established Christian camp on the western shores of Lake Winnipeg. As well as developing and maintaining the 360-acre property, he oversees the camp’s programs and manages a year-round of staff of 20 (more than 100 in the summer) and a $4.5 million annual budget.

“I worked with some very good people who took me under their wing and taught me about the financial side of running a business,” he says. “They also helped me learn about the human resources and people management side. Lots of those principles and issues apply to my current work.”

One of those people at Palliser is Irene Loewen, president of the DeFehr Foundation and a co-chair of the board at Camp Arnes. While she knew Wear from the workplace, she saw another side of him as he helped out at Camp Arnes, often leading canoe trips. “I knew him in terms of his character,” she says, and as a camp volunteer.

Three years ago he joined the staff as operations director and then spent a summer as program director where, Loewen says, “he did a remarkable job. He’s very organized and is willing to do anything himself.

The staff all look up to him and he spends a lot of time with them.” So when the program director left in spring last year, and the executive director in fall, “we asked Will to be camp director.”

Skills develop
At this point, some of Wear’s lack of formal training began to show. “Will had a lot of personal skills and leadership skills, but not the executive skills,” says Loewen. So she was pleased to hear of an executive training program for ministry leaders and signed Wear up for the inaugural group of Executive Arrow, run by Arrow Leadership Ministries (www.arrowleadership.org).

With two five-day training sessions now under his belt, Loewen can point to progress in Wear’s ability to work with boards, budgets and financial statements. “It’s made quite a bit of difference already in how he tackles difficult issues. He’s more pro-active. His level of professionalism has improved, as has his time management.”

As Wear sees it, “Executive Arrow has helped me identify the areas of my greatest strengths and to look at my areas for growth (or weakness) and make them stronger. It has specifically helped me to becoming a better encourager of my staff and family, helped me develop a stronger self image and is teaching me to balance my life and family with my career as a leader.

“I now look at my role as camp director with more purpose and a deeper respect for its responsibilities,” he says.

According to Wear, some of his best decisions as a director have come in selecting leaders for the team that reports directly to him. “That plays a big factor on the success of our summer and ability to work well together. We call it our staff council, made up of coordinators, supervisors and managers.

“Each individual in our staff council is picked according to character, competency and chemistry. Though they may have competency and character, if the chemistry is bad in a camp setting, it won’t work. All our current council are tight on all those items and they’re doing quite well.”

Wear is very unassuming, insisting that “camp will run whether I’m here or not.” Resorting to a carpentry metaphor, he describes himself as “the glue,” working behind the scenes to hold things together. “At this time of the year I see my job as resourcing the leadership team. I like to spend time with them, challenge and encourage them.”

Education matters
Education is a factor in his assessment of potential staff. “One of the things I look for in a resume is college—not necessarily Bible college,” he says. A successful college experience demonstrates, among other things, “that they took something they were interested in and followed through with it,” he explains.

But he is eminently practical, looking for education that applies directly to the job at hand. “I gravitate more towards someone who’s gone through outdoors or adventure-based programming,” he says, looking to find those people—especially when they come with camp experience—who “would like to make a career out of Christian camping.”

Loewen agrees, and has a “big beef” to share. “There’s no place that trains executive directors especially for camps,” she says. “Leadership development is critical. We need to work together with colleges to get the training and experience for executives. We need to work with the churches as well.

“Just Bible school or college isn’t enough,” she explains. “We need a slower process that mixes both training and experience, plus a mentor or accountability group.”