Perhaps you have experienced it, perhaps your children have joined the happy throngs of giggling excited children arriving on an early summer morning to a horde of enthusiastic coaches and volunteers, bright welcome flags, and loud music to begin a week of sports themed day camp at a local church in your community. One of the men behind the dream that created WinShape Day Camps is Ken "KT" Thomas (UGA '94). That dream began in the spring of 2003 as an idea to help his church, Rolling Hills Community Church, in Franklin, Tennessee, meet people in their community and for the church to serve the people there with a fun community-wide event. Ken and his wife Norma joined the new church while Ken was working at LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Ken has always loved sports. He played college baseball at ABAC in south Georgia for two years before transferring to UGA. Using his passion to help his church connect to their community was a natural fit. Three years later Connect Ministries was born.
Ken grew up in Tifton, Georgia and was a member of FIrst Baptist Church. In college he was active in Baptist Collegiate Ministries, especially intramurals! He majored Science Education. After college he moved to Texas to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He earned his Master of Divinity in 1996 (and later earned a Doctor of Education from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2004). He started working for LifeWay in January 1997 and continued there until August 2006. He did a brief sojourn (wandering in the wilderness for 6 months) as an Associate Dean at a college but returned to LifeWay after he realized his mistake. He started as an Intern at Lifeway, then served as a Consultant, then Coordinator, then Manager of Crosspoint and Centri-Kid Camps. He was in the Centrifuge Department (changed to Student Events) the entire time he was at LifeWay. He was responsible for overseeing the development, planning, training, recruiting, budget, staffing, operations, strategic plans for all Children camps there. Ken says his greatest achievement at Lifeway would have to be,
The 3 on 3 basketball tournaments were the core of their venture in the beginning. Those first events events continue - this year they will do 4-6 big festival-like basketball tournaments in places like Boston, Houston, Athens, and Atlanta. The Connect team will also do several smaller events across the country. Since the inception of Connect Ministries the team has experienced incredible growth. They have had options to grow even more, but decided to remain focused on their core goal of connecting churches with the local community. In 2007 a partnership with the WinShape Foundation was created and the WinShape Day Camps were born. The first year they did two camps and had a total of 180 campers. In 2012 camps were conducted in 13 states with just over 14,500 campers!
In April 2010 the team also began to host 5K races. These too have been incredibly successful! In 2013 they expect to do 35-45 races with a total of 10,000-15,000 runners.
With the growth in ministry opportunities the office structure had to change as well. A few years ago the team decided to move south and relocated to Watkinsville, Georgia, just outside of Athens. There are 8 people working full time at Connect Ministries. They also have a “Leaders in Training” program for Apprentices and Interns, with another 10 people serving in those roles. Ken and Gabe have a vision for helping emerging adults discover their giftedness and to help them hone their leadership skills.
Ken and Gabe have been giving back to BCM as well. Early on they began to invest in our Men's Ministry, hosting events and covering expenses. They also have been assisting us with our leadership training events beginning with our August leadership retreat and continuing with special events throughout the year. Many of their interns come from UGA BCM as well.
You can find out more about Connect Ministries on their website or Facebook page.
"having the opportunity to start Centri-Kid. From its most infant moment through the time I left in 2006 it grew from 0 campers to over 24,000 campers each summer. It was amazing watching God place his hand on a ministry and use it to reach thousands of people each summer."Ken's partner in beginning Connect Ministries is fellow UGA grad Gabe Norris. Gabe and his wife Allyson moved from Birmingham to join the LifeWay staff also joining Rolling Hills. According to Ken, in the Spring of 2005, Gabe, who is also passionate about sports, "jumped right in to helping grow the basketball outreach of the church." A year later they left LifeWay to follow their growing dream of a new ministry.
The 3 on 3 basketball tournaments were the core of their venture in the beginning. Those first events events continue - this year they will do 4-6 big festival-like basketball tournaments in places like Boston, Houston, Athens, and Atlanta. The Connect team will also do several smaller events across the country. Since the inception of Connect Ministries the team has experienced incredible growth. They have had options to grow even more, but decided to remain focused on their core goal of connecting churches with the local community. In 2007 a partnership with the WinShape Foundation was created and the WinShape Day Camps were born. The first year they did two camps and had a total of 180 campers. In 2012 camps were conducted in 13 states with just over 14,500 campers!
In April 2010 the team also began to host 5K races. These too have been incredibly successful! In 2013 they expect to do 35-45 races with a total of 10,000-15,000 runners.
With the growth in ministry opportunities the office structure had to change as well. A few years ago the team decided to move south and relocated to Watkinsville, Georgia, just outside of Athens. There are 8 people working full time at Connect Ministries. They also have a “Leaders in Training” program for Apprentices and Interns, with another 10 people serving in those roles. Ken and Gabe have a vision for helping emerging adults discover their giftedness and to help them hone their leadership skills.
Ken and Gabe have been giving back to BCM as well. Early on they began to invest in our Men's Ministry, hosting events and covering expenses. They also have been assisting us with our leadership training events beginning with our August leadership retreat and continuing with special events throughout the year. Many of their interns come from UGA BCM as well.
You can find out more about Connect Ministries on their website or Facebook page.
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