Our ministry
who we are
Nestled in the foothills of North Georgia's beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains sits Woodlands Camp and Retreat Center. Woodlands is a 131-acre portrait of rolling hills, beautiful forests, and a spring-fed lake. It is a place where you can build lifelong friendships, develop unforgettable memories, and get to know the God who created it all.
Woodlands’ ministry is a miracle! It has been evident since its inception that God's hand is on this place in a special way. Founded in 1997, our mission is simple: to inspire and equip this generation to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).
Woodlands operates week-long summer camps for junior, middle school, and high school age students, as well as weekend or week-long retreats for all ages throughout the year. Our peaceful setting and breathtaking views are ideal for physical and spiritual refreshment, and our facilities are well-suited for both small and large groups.
our story
Jon Estes (Big Jon) is the Director & CEO of Woodlands, a non-profit Christian youth camp and retreat center located in the North Georgia Mountains.
Big Jon grew up in central Indiana with two brothers and a sister. His father, Larry, is a Christian businessman in Indianapolis, and his mother, Diana, is a homemaker. Jon was privileged to grow up in a Christian home, graduate from a Christian school, and attend a Bible-believing church. He made the decision to accept God’s free gift of salvation on January 28, 1986.
In the fall of 1990, Big Jon entered Bob Jones University as a freshman business student. While in college, he had the opportunity to work as a counselor at Christian camps in Hawaii and Pennsylvania. During those summers, God began to plant seeds in his heart for camp ministry that would grow to fruition years later.
After graduating with a bachelors degree in financial management, Big Jon began working at Fifth Third Bank of Central Indiana in their retail management program. God truly blessed his career, and within two years he was named as an officer of the bank and promoted to manager of their main office in downtown Indianapolis.
In May of 1996, however, God presented Big Jon with an opportunity that would change his life forever. During a ten-day mission trip to Ukraine, Big Jon and his teammates saw over 100 kids accept Christ as their personal Savior. Upon returning home, God began watering the seed that was planted years before in Big Jon's heart for young people. After weeks of prayer and wrestling with God, Big Jon moved to Cleveland, Georgia to start Woodlands Camp on January 4, 1997.
Today, Woodlands is a rapidly growing, non-denominational Christian camp for boys and girls between 6 and 18 years of age. Each week of the summer, four programs run on parallel tracks serving a total of 10,000 campers annually - Traditional, Xtreme, Freestyle, and SALT. Woodlands also has a retreat center available to private groups during the fall, winter, and spring. The retreat center serves an additional 10,000 persons each year ranging from young children to adults.
our mission
Woodlands exists to inspire and equip this generation to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
our vision
Woodlands’ vision is to provide an unforgettable experience where the presence of God drowns out culture and its influences.
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First and foremost, it is our desire to see every camper that attends Woodlands leave at the end of the week as a follower of Jesus. They’re not forced or cajoled or manipulated or dragged down an aisle kicking and screaming. They are, however, presented with truth and given an opportunity to respond if they choose.
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We believe that one of the most important elements needed for an individual to walk humbly with God is to love, understand and apply God’s Word. So we set aside time and provide a plan for our campers to get into the habit of reading God’s Word each day. We set aside time and provide a plan for our campers to get into the habit of memorizing God’s Word each day. Then we send the plan home with them to enable them to continue their new habit through the rest of the year.
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Today’s generations are marked by irresponsible living. “It’s someone else’s fault.” “Let someone else do it.” “Everyone owes me.” That’s certainly not the recipe for success laid out in Scripture. At Woodlands, campers are encouraged to live responsibly. They are expected to play by the rules, to clean up after themselves and to be on time. They make their bed each morning and pick up their stuff. They help clean their cabin and their bathroom. They are given opportunities to exercise responsible living here at camp to help prepare them to live responsibly away from camp.
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We want our campers to learn the joys of living life with open hands, not closed fists. To learn that God’s desire for them is to hold loosely to earthly things. To learn that they are managers of the resources God has entrusted to them, not owners. So each week, they are given an opportunity to give a portion of their spending money to the Lord. Campers have given to underwrite Bible translation efforts. They have sent 2,000 Bibles to parts of the world that are hostile to God’s Word. They have also funded a missionary expedition to run a camp on a remote island in the South Pacific that currently has little to no gospel witness!
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We want the experience of our campers to be life-changing from the inside out, but we also want them to have FUN! That’s why we have zip lines and water slides and a blob and a jet ski and paintball and a climbing tower and a dome and crazy games and super cool shirts and incredible coffee and… We want this to be the best week of their lives. Because we have learned that if we can create an environment where kids are counting down the days for months in advance, then they are more willing to listen to what our staff and speakers have to tell them about Jesus.
our beliefs
We believe the sole basis of belief is the Bible, God’s infallible, written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally, and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.
We believe Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever. We believe He lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone. We believe He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died. We believe He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own.
We believe man was originally created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. We believe salvation of man is wholly a work of God’s free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight. We believe it is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God in His written Word.
We believe the Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He continually indwells believers from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. The fullness, power, and control of the Spirit are appropriated as believers yield their lives by faith to His desires.
We believe Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all men, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith. God admonishes His people to assemble together regularly for worship, for participation in ordinances, for edification through the Scriptures, and for mutual encouragement.
We believe at physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing. At physical death, the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation.
We believe Jesus Christ will come again to the earth – personally, visibly, and bodily – to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
We believe it is the call of the Lord Jesus Christ for all believers to love God through a personal relationship with Him, to love others by proclaiming the gospel throughout the world, and to disciple men of every nation. The ministry of Woodlands Camp and Retreat Center is committed to this call by pursuing the priorities of:
Worship: glorifying God through public praise and personal lifestyle
Discipleship: initiating and developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
Workmanship: equipping lives to effectively serve Christ and minister in this world
Leadership: launching ministers to guide present and future generations