For Emily Marschner, summer camp is life.
For about twenty years, Emily and her family have lived and worked year-round at Hume Christian Camps, a youth camp in the middle of the Sequoia National Forest. While summer is their big event season, the camp hosts off-season retreats for adults, as well as science camps and winter getaways.
Photo from the Hume Lake Christian Camps website.
This wasn’t always the plan, though. “I’ve been up here for about 20 years,” Emily explained “I moved up here after college as an in-between until I start real life. And then…”
The Marschners, along with over a hundred other staff members and their families, live permanently in staff housing. While the camp land is scenic and full of fun things to do, its rural location is about an hour and a half away from the closest city. “Even grocery shopping is a big deal,” she shared.
Living and working at the camp has only grown Emily’s love for hospitality. Rather than approach hospitality as a means of entertainment, Emily and her family love preparing a space for people in whatever way they might need. Enter house concerts.
The Marschners have hosted a handful of Porchlight artists so far, including Kevin Schlereth, Trailand Elztroth, and J Lind.
“I love the idea of just having a musician in your home,” she said. “But I think there’s really a sense of humility for those musicians to come, too. All of them have said ‘It doesn’t matter how many people show up, I just want to share my music.’ And I think that’s so special. They’re so humble in their attitudes, not looking to promote themselves. They’re just looking to share the beautiful, rich music that they’ve made…and bless people with that. I love that. I want to be able to provide whatever space I can for them to just do their thing.”
Trailand Eltzroth performing at Emily Marschner’s in Hume, CA | April 2024.
Meeting Challenges
Like many hosts, getting people to actually show up to a house concert can be a little tricky. “It’s sometimes hard to get people on board to come in and really be immersed in this music,” Emily expressed, “to take the time to sit and listen.” Attention and listening are access points to an experience and need cultivation and care to thrive. Most musical encounters, such as a streaming playlist or a big stadium concert, don’t require them. Yet, attention and listening are key ingredients of house show magic.
“The people who have come and been a part of it have loved it,” Emily continued, “I feel like it’s kind of hard soil. I don’t want to say it takes work because it doesn’t feel like work on my end, but it takes time. And you have to keep doing it over and over again in order to really get people to go like, ‘Oh, this is important. It’s more than just being entertained.’ That’s what I want people to experience.”
For Emily, this format is reminiscent of what pre-internet music listening was like.
“As a teenager, when one of my favorite artists would come out with an album, I would run down to the Bible bookstore,” she recalled. “The first thing I would do was open up the jacket and scour through all the lyrics, because that was so important. Now, I feel like I don’t even know nearly as much as I used to because I don’t have the lyrics in front of me. But, sitting down in a small room of people, you have to listen well.”
Bringing Community Home
Alongside hosting house concerts, Emily is also the organizer of the Creative Arts Conference, a gathering of faithful artists hosted by Hume Christian Camps. In 2021, Emily joined a group of women on a getaway to experience the online version of Hutchmoot together. On the way home, inspiration struck.
“When I came back home, I felt so filled up, but I was also mourning the fact that I didn’t have that same community where I live,” she said, “I kept hearing more and more people just go like, ‘Man, I wish I had this community around me,’ and I thought, ‘We’ve got to be here. There’s got to be more of us around here.’ And then, ‘Well, I live at a conference center. Why don’t I just do a conference?’
The Creative Arts Conference returns for its third year in October 2024. The conference typically focuses on writing, music, and visual arts, but will also feature dance and animation this year. Some workshops are hands-on, others more lecture-based. According to Emily, the Creative Conference aims to explore the ‘whys’ of Christian creativity: Why are we making art as believers? How can we love people? ‘Through our art,” Emily insists.
En plein air at Hume Creative Arts Conference | October 2023
The Heart of Creative Calling
These efforts are all rooted in Emily’s belief that creativity is a God-given calling each of us are invited to participate in:
“Going back to my childhood, I’ve always loved artistic things. Creativity was always encouraged in our house but almost seen as a cute hobby. That has changed for me a lot. I am a firm believer that every person is creative. That doesn’t mean that every person is artistic, but because we’re all made in the image of God, we are all creative in some sense. My husband is not artistic, but he is so creative when it comes to problem solving or fixing broken systems.
I long to pull that out in people, for them to understand the ways that they reflect God in their own creativity. So often you’ll hear people say, ‘Oh, I’m not creative,’ and they’re just associating that with artistic things. But everyone is creative. I really long for people to see that. When it comes to hosting people, at least for the three [artists] that we’ve hosted, it’s so clear that they’ve discovered [how] they reflect their Creator. And, it’s in a way that then blesses other people, which is just the way God works anyways. That’s how He’s designed the church, to use our gifts in order to serve people, and then ultimately point people back to Him.
Because of that, I want to make a space, even if it’s a small space, for people to come in and be able to use those gifts in a way that’s fulfilling for them. And then, ultimately, to give that as a gift to the people that they’re singing to.
For those wanting to explore hosting as a means of both practicing and encouraging Christian creativity, Emily is emphatic.
“Just go for it and do it! Jump in. And if it feels like a flop the first time it happens, don’t give up. Figure out what you can do differently and then do it again!”
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Learn more and register for Emily’s Creative Arts Conference in Hume, CA:
https://hume.org/retreat/creative-arts-conference
“Just go for it!” and begin your journey toward arts patronage as a Porchlight host:
https://porchlight.art