Clayton King Ministries is celebrating 30 years of introducing students to a life-changing experience through Jesus Christ.
Dr. Clayton King and his wife Sharie co-founded Crossroads Summer Camp. Married for more than 26 years, Clayton and Sharie work as a team, serving alongside a dedicated staff that leads students in the camp, discipling them into spiritual growth so they can be better equipped in their spiritual walk. Crossroads Summer Camp is filled with a lot of fun activities, ranging from fast-paced sports and fun games to providing spaces for students to express their creativity. At the same time, the camp’s main goal is to create an environment for each camper to be seen, known, and have a life-changing encounter with God.
Crossroads Camp in 1997
As Crossroads Camp completes its third decade of impacting students, King sees a growing desire among students to seek a personal relationship with God.
“There’s a spiritual awakening happening right now, not only in America but all over the earth,” King said. “It seems like there’s a new article and a new report and a new data-driven study every other day about how they’re returning to faith, how they’re returning to church, how they’re seeking spiritual things. I have seen it myself experientially, because I’m preaching 150 times a year. We’re seeing it at our Crossroads Summer Camps. We’re seeing it everywhere we go.”
King points to several factors explaining youth and young adults seeking God, including an increase in voices on podcasts and in social media proclaiming Jesus and taking a stand against the moral relativism that has negatively impacted Gen Z and Millennials and was especially prevalent during the COVID pandemic.
“They didn’t know who they could trust. It feels like the Holy spirit is drawing people to the truth of the Gospel,” King said.
King looks back on his own teen years as transformative ones.
Adopted as an infant, King was raised in a Christian home. As an eighth-grader, he went to a youth rally at a small church in Greer, South Carolina.
“That was the night that I accepted Christ and surrendered to ministry,” King recalls. “It almost never happens to anybody. I’ve only met a handful of people in my life that had that similar experience. I was down at the altar. I was on my knees. I was praying the sinner’s prayer and I just sensed an almost audible voice telling me to preach the gospel, so my calling was sort of a Damascus Road experience.”
The beginning of King’s spiritual journey was marked by God opening doors and ultimately taking him around the world as an evangelist. He started Clayton King Ministries (CKM) in his dorm room at Gardner-Webb University. An outpouring of the love he and Sharie have for students led to Crossroad Summer Camp.
Whenever King spoke on the Anderson University campus, King got to know President Evans Whitaker and God has used this bond to lead CKM to Anderson and a new era of growth and expanding God’s Kingdom.
“President Whitaker invited us to relocate our ministry from Gardner-Webb to Anderson, which we did in 2014,” King said. “Part of that partnership is that I’m one of the primary voices on campus, basically in campus ministries in the spiritual development of students. I preach multiple times a year in campus worship… Our offices are on the campus at the university and we’re very deeply involved in in campus life. That comes in the form of my wife and I speaking at the various events on campus throughout the year as well as us hosting all our camps exclusively at AU.”
“We are incredibly proud to celebrate 30 years of Clayton King Ministries and the profound impact Clayton and Sharie King have had on countless lives,” said Dr. Whitaker. “Their unwavering dedication to discipling young people and fostering a life-changing encounter with God is a testament to their faith and vision. I’m so glad they accepted our invitation to join the AU Family more than a decade ago. We love and ‘think the world’ of them and their ministry. At Anderson, our core mission is to teach and research, but by far the most important thing we do is bear witness to Christ and the education of ministers—it is a priority for us. The Kings and their two sons and many associates are key partners in that important work. It is a tremendous blessing to have Clayton King Ministries call Anderson University it’s academic and operational home, and we look forward to many more years serving God’s Kingdom together.”
Not only is Anderson University home for Clayton King Ministries, King also serves as minister-in-residence at Anderson University.
“Being minister-in-residence means that all of the ministry endeavors that my wife and I are personally involved in and that our ministry is collectively involved in, we make Anderson University our home base,” King said.
Clayton and Sharie are pictured with their sons Joseph and Jacob. Jacob is a 2024 Anderson University Biblical Studies graduate who is currently enrolled at Clamp Divinity School. Joseph is a rising sophomore at Anderson University double majoring in Kinesiology and Spanish.
An anniversary event is planned June 28, 2025, including a worship gathering featuring friends from across the decades to reflect on God’s faithfulness, reconnect with friends and look ahead to the future. You can learn more about this event by going to claytonking.com. There you can also share memories of how God has blessed you through this ministry. You can find out more about Crossroads Camp online at www.crossroadssummercamp.com.