At 5000 E. Joppa Rd. in Perry Hall, Camp Chapel United Methodist Church is known for three Sunday worship gatherings with distinct characters and for roots in a Methodist camp meeting near the present property. The church's shared calling is to worship, make disciples, and serve.
Three Sunday Services, Each with Its Own Feel
Sunday worship centers on three services. A traditional service is at 8:30 in the chapel, contemporary worship is at 9:30 in the sanctuary, and a second traditional service is at 11:00 in the sanctuary. Each service has its own feel, with the church naming casual traditional, contemporary, and formal traditional worship as the range of styles.
The three-service pattern gives Sunday mornings room for worship and learning. From September through May, the 9:30 hour includes Sunday school and adult Bible study while contemporary worship takes place. Parents may worship, attend adult study, or remain in Fellowship Hall. The congregation also emphasizes Sunday fellowship, classes, small groups, and affinity groups as ways to pursue discipleship through experience and connection.
A Camp Meeting Becomes Camp Chapel
Camp Chapel's story begins in 1776, when Maryland pioneer, circuit rider, minister, and missionary Robert Strawbridge stopped near the present location and arranged a camp meeting for workers in the area. The gathering took place in a grove of trees. Families who lived along Honeygo Run included woodcutters and charcoal burners whose fuel supported forges and iron-smelting furnaces along the Gunpowder River. The outdoor gathering became the beginning of the Camp Chapel story.
The worshipers eventually collected money to build a chapel. Harry Dorsey Gough encouraged them to use the subscriptions for a schoolhouse and said he would help them obtain a meeting house. Charles Ridgely gave an acre for a meeting house and burying plot. John Buck supervised the work of a group described in the history as mostly poor, and by the fall of 1807 they had completed a finished log meeting house large enough for the neighborhood. It stood about 140 feet east of the present chapel, and the deed was written in 1813.
The name Camp Chapel appears in Methodist records in 1809. Bishop Francis Asbury recorded traveling to the camp meeting near Perry Hall and preaching in the chapel on March 19. Freeborn Garrettson wrote on July 6 that the chapel was beautifully situated in a forest away from houses, with many horses and carriages fastened to the trees while people waited for the word. The early gathering place was serving a rural community along Joppa Road, where travelers stopped near springs and workers traveled by water, horse, or wagon.
The building also witnessed the area's turbulent moments. While preaching there on September 12, 1814, Reverend Henry Smith reported hearing the Battle of North Point during his sermon. That history, along with the 1807 meeting house and the 1809 journals, explains why Camp Chapel marks its history as beginning in 1809.
September Through May Learning From Two Years Old Through College
Sunday school runs from September through May, from 9:30 to 10:45, for children age two through college. The hour begins in Fellowship Hall with a music class using instruments and led by Music Director Gary Lushbaugh. The children then move to a classroom to see a video of the week's Bible story and work on a craft connected with that story. Parents can remain for contemporary worship, attend the adult Bible study group, or relax in Fellowship Hall. All children are welcome, and families may join the classes at any time during the year.
Summer changes the rhythm but keeps children central. From June through August, children gather at 10:00 in the sanctuary and proceed downstairs after the children's message for Bible lessons and learning activities. They are divided into groups for toddlers through age five, grades one through five, and grades six through twelve.
Vacation Bible School is held Monday through Friday from 9:30 to noon during the week following July 4. It is part of Camp Chapel's wider Children's Ministry, which provides activities and events for children and youth from the congregation and the surrounding community.
Bible Study for Adults, Men, and Women
The Academy of Faith & Life adult study program offers courses at different times and days, generally from September through early June, with topics that change periodically. The Sunday Morning Adult Group meets at 9:30 in Fellowship Hall. The Monday Morning Adult Group meets at 11:00 in the same location and repeats the Sunday material for those who cannot attend earlier.
Band of Brothers is a men's study group that meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 7:00 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. Members read selected Scripture, Scripture-based studies, stories, and films before discussing how faith relates to real life. The conversations are intended to help the men grow as Christians, fathers, husbands, brothers, and friends while considering difficult personal and family situations.
Circle of Sisters meets on the first and third Tuesdays at 6:30 in the church Conference Room. The group studies the Bible, develops friendships, and serves the church together. Its life has included Christian support during times of need, shared approaches to everyday concerns, fellowship and laughter, correspondence with shut-ins, outreach to people in need, and annual gift wrapping for the Gifts of Love ministry.
Children and Youth Learning, Then Serving
Camp Chapel's approach to children combines activities, Christian learning, and service. The annual Back to School Adopt a Kid program provides children at Eastern Regional Resource Center with clothing, backpacks, and school supplies. In the Children Helping Others project, children and youth identify local organizations that need assistance and then organize ways to help.
Gifts of Love connects Camp Chapel with local schools and Eastern Family Resource Center to purchase clothing and toys for children at Christmas. Gift tags list needed presents, giving children, youth, and adults a concrete way to participate. Camp Chapel also sponsors Scouts BSA Troop 433, whose service and character goals include helping young people make ethical choices.
The Youth Group meets at 12:15 every other week during the school year from September through June. It is designed for students in grades five through twelve and combines Bible lessons with discussion of the highs and lows in participants' lives. Youth also take part in seasonal outdoor activities and mission projects.
Music, Film, and Fellowship Across the Week
Music is a continuing part of Camp Chapel's ministry. The program includes a spiritually grounded volunteer choir that sings weekly and carries the Gospel message through choral music. Gary Lushbaugh serves as Music Director, and music also anchors the opening of Sunday school each September through May.
The Camp Chapel Film Seminar has met since 2009. It watches secular films and then considers Christian themes or ideas within them, connects those themes to Scripture, and discusses the films as works of art. The group meets about once a month from September through May on Saturday evening from 6:00 until about 9:30. Participants must be at least 18. Each season has a theme, but every film stands on its own. Discussions have ranged from fidelity and betrayal in Casablanca to finding Jesus in the marshal of High Noon, passing Christian values to children in The Book Thief, detached evil in No Country for Old Men, sloth in The Big Lebowski, and transcendent friendship in Shaun of the Dead.
J.O.Y., meaning Just Older Youth, meets at 11:00 on the first Wednesday of each month for lunch, games, and fellowship. Participants bring a sandwich and drink, with dessert provided, and may bring a favorite board game, cards, or dominoes. A Thursday fitness class from 10:00 to 11:00 adds another regular gathering to the church's weekly rhythm.
Food, Furniture, Pillows, and Home Repair
Camp Chapel began collaborating with Perry Hall United Methodist Church's food pantry in February 2019. The pantry accepts contributions from both congregations and from other people who want to help eliminate hunger. The church's broader support ministries also work with local organizations serving individuals and families.
The Furniture Ministry provides gently used, donated furniture to families moving from homelessness into a new residence. It recognizes that a new home can remain nearly empty when people leave homelessness with few possessions. The ministry helps newly relocated families obtain some of the basics they need as they settle in.
Since December 2000, the Pillow Ministry has supplied heart-shaped pillows to patients recovering from heart surgery at Union Memorial Hospital and from lung or thoracic surgery at Franklin Square Hospital. Volunteers have sustained this practical expression of care for hospital patients for more than two decades.
Baltimore County Christian Workcamp focuses on home repair and assistance for people in need through volunteers of different ages and abilities throughout Baltimore County. The workcamp is run by volunteer laypeople, making home repair another substantial way Camp Chapel members can serve their neighbors.
Camp Chapel also takes part in Churches for Streets of Hope and United Methodist Volunteers in Mission. The former was created by several Christians after several men in Essex froze to death. The latter is a grassroots United Methodist movement that gives laypeople and clergy an organized channel for volunteer service. Opportunities within these ministries range from hands-on work to organized community support.
Recovery meetings are another practical expression of the church's support ministry. Serenity NA meets at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays, By the Grace of NA meets at 7:00 p.m. on Mondays, and AA meets at 8:30 p.m. on Fridays. Camp Chapel also conducts an annual Blessing of the Animals in the fall, with pet owners from the congregation and surrounding community invited to participate.
Care for the Church Grounds and God's Creation
The Garden Ministry gives participants a tangible way to care for the church's grounds. Each person can adopt a section of the gardens or landscape, nurture it, and oversee its upkeep. This ministry turns the visible parts of the church property into a shared responsibility and a form of service.
Creation Care extends that responsibility beyond the church grounds. The ministry calls Camp Chapel and its people to be stewards of God's creation, including the earth and everything on it. That conviction supports the church's worship, discipleship, service, music, Bible study, youth work, and practical outreach as parts of one ministry.
Pastor Laurel McNeal and Camp Chapel's Calling
Pastor Laurel McNeal is a Maryland native and Towson University graduate. Her faith grew during summer camp at a United Methodist church in Baltimore County, where participation in small groups and Bible studies helped her understand that God's love and compassion are all-encompassing and alive today. She has served in other Baltimore County churches and brings that experience to Camp Chapel's emphasis on worship, discipleship, and service.
The church is located at 5000 E. Joppa Rd. in Perry Hall, Maryland, with a mailing address of PO Box 15, White Marsh. The church office phone number is 410-256-5561.
Camp Chapel's present shape brings together ancient meeting-house roots, three distinct Sunday services, learning for children through college, Bible study and fellowship for adults, music and film, and service extending into food assistance, recovery support, hospital ministry, home repair, and care of creation. In Perry Hall, the church remains centered on its calling to worship, make disciples, and serve.