The CAMP FARTHEST OUT (CFO) is based on the knowledge that…
Society is a living whole, and it must become conscious of this wholeness and integrate itself as a whole, or it will never be at rest. Moreover, this consciousness and this integration must come from within or it will rot and die…
The purpose of the Camp Farthest Out is to create an atmosphere and lay the foundations for experiencing that wholeness that all seek. Here we combine the tools of science, art, and religion to get a more clear understanding of this wholeness… and to do this in an effective, creative, irresistible way. – Glenn Clark, from The CFO and World Problems
The CFO DAILY PROGRAM is a breathing in, breathing out experience in wholistic, living prayer. It is designed to tune the whole person – body, mind, and spirit – in to the work that God is already doing in our midst.
The program assumes that religion involves the whole man, and that spiritual laws can be learned only through actual experience. The entire fellowship is conceived as a training for ‘athletes of the spirit.’ Lectures, forums and discussion groups clarify principles that are further explored through active participation in the rhythmic arts and creative motions.” – Glenn Clark, from Facing the World with Prayer Groups
The CFO DAILY PROGRAM
MORNING MEDITATION: Morning Meditation is an inward time of listening and reflecting on God’s message for our personal lives and the course of the gathering we are attending.
The morning is a good time to slow down and get the ‘code’ or language of God. Learn to sit quietly before the symbolism of nature [for] the depths of heaven itself are there if you will slow down and ‘decode’. – Glenn Clark, from a talk at Lake Koronis, CFO, 1930
SINGING: Group singing is as much an essential part of the CFO Day as it is fun. Singing together helps each of us to open more fully to God and to each other. Singing takes us from an outward expression of praise to an inward reflection and prepares us for the morning talk.
How come the Joy?
How come the Praise?
How come the songs to God we raise?
Where does it come from? Yes, we know;
It’s the love of Jesus in our soul.
– Joel Hayden, CFOer from Maine
MORNING TALK: Speaking leaders in CFO are very different from other conferences one may have attended. The role of a speaking leader is one of sharing experience, NOT preaching or teaching doctrine. CFO speaking leaders share the story of what God has done/is doing in their lives and how they have experienced God’s presence and guidance in the course of their days. CFO speakers are unique as they are (along with all other CFO leaders) ‘campers first’ and their talks are part of the greater camp experience. CFO talks weave into the greater CFO Daily Program and those experiences shared by the speaker are accompanied by the greater experience of the entire CFO Program. In this sharing, we bond, we love, and we grow.
I yearned to see a camp where people ceased merely talking of and about God and the Kingdom – prepositions that too often implied separation – and started immersing themselves in God and the Kingdom, in every area of their lives. – Glenn Clark, from A Man’s Reach
RHYTHMS or DEVOTION IN MOTION: Through rhythms, we honor the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. As we let go in the physical, we allow the Spirit to fill us with vitality, releasing a sense of play and freeing the part of us that is childlike to experience the Kingdom of God, Here and Now.
Another discovery made at the Camp Farthest Out was that to truly pray, to pray with the greatest abandon and with all of one’s power, one should pray with all one’s being. For this reason it was early discovered that if there was to be any technique of prayer it must be a technique that would include one’s body as well as one’s mind and one’s soul. – Glenn Clark, from The Lord’s Prayer and Other Talks
CREATIVES: Creatives is an inner time to find out what the Holy Spirit is doing within us and to express what we are receiving from God during our time at The CFO. This expression could be through writing, painting, drawing, movement, drama, or conversation.
To my Father and Mother, who taught their children around the evening lamp and before the open fire place that to see life imaginatively was to see life truthfully. – Glenn Clark, from “A Manual of the Short Story Art
HORIZONTAL HOUR: After lunch, one hour of inner time is set aside each day for rest in order to absorb and assimilate all that we’ve been experiencing during the morning part of the program.
When we are content with the motionless motion of resting in the Love of God in the Here and Now, we are experiencing heaven. – Glenn Clark, from God’s Reach
This period of silence is a training in relaxation, in effortless motion, in selflessness, in complete self-effacement… an exposing of self completely to the sunshine of God. – Glenn Clark, from Two or Three Gathered Together
RECREATION: Following Horizontal Hour, the time for recreation and socializing, while fun and refreshing, is not without purpose in the CFO Daily Program…
Let us try to think like children – full of daydreams, looking at life with continual expectancy and an ever-renewed sense of wonder. Children expect each day will provide a new adventure. …Learn new hobbies, read new books, travel to strange new places. Ask God to give you beautiful dreams and greater visions. And above all, EXPECT LIFE TO BE BEAUTIFUL. – Glenn Clark, from Widows of Heaven
PRAYER PREPARATION: This is a time of led centering and reflection meant to prepare our hearts and minds for participation in a prayer group.
The first step in preparing ourselves for prayer is the clearing of the channel, making ready for the inflow of God’s love. – Glenn Clark, from The Soul’s Sincere Desire
PRAYER GROUPS: Glenn Clark envisioned the prayer groups, originally called prayer laboratories, as the heart of the Camp Farthest Out; a growing, searching adventure among open-hearted, loving, accepting, people. While prayer groups have a facilitator, the group seeks consensus as to the direction the group will take. Here are some of Glenn Clark’s thought’s on prayer groups from Facing the World with Prayer Groups.
The group must possess a genuine harmony.
There must be complete honesty and sincerity.
There must be a real humility, a selflessness. Not only self-conceit must be abolished, but even such a minor affair as self-consciousness.
Effective prayer groups establish their routine of meeting not upon conscience and duty, but love and joy.
There should be sincere enthusiasm and lilt of expectancy (insert link expect God) in every meeting.
The more the group is completely released into the hands of the Creator the more completely the group can depend upon inspiration and intuition as to the form and shape the hour shall take.
Silent prayer should have a big place. Petitionary prayer is a powerful thing where the group is high enough.
Quietly repeating some psalm or hymn in concert is a beautiful way to close.
When two persons come together and ‘agree as to what they shall ask,’ their unity unlocks the doors of love in their hearts. – Glenn Clark, from Windows of Heaven
But the highest art of living consists of making prayer such a natural and continual expression toward God that it works itself into the muscles, and the mind process, then every act of our daily lives reflects the Love and Joy of Christ’s presence. – Glenn Clark, Windows of Heaven
SINGING: Following dinner is another time of singing.
EVENING TALK: Following the evening sing, is the evening talk.
NINE O’CLOCK PRAYER FOR PEACE: Following the evening talk, CFO’ers join hands and pray together, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” The heart of the CFO movement is the saying and living of this prayer around the world. For background and the complete story of how this tradition began, click here.
Each day of a CFO Camp is structured as listed above. Engaging in this program for four to seven days in a row can be life changing providing one remembers that CFO does not exist to teach anything other than how to relinquish one’s self to the Holy Spirit’s guidance so that you may hear what you need to hear from God, and be part of what others need to hear from God.
It is impossible to indicate the exact course the spiritual orchestration at the Camp Farthest Out will take before the members of the group come together. Out of their individual needs and out of God’s Divine Plan for them we shall expect the message of each camp to be born. – Glenn Clark, from an early CFO brochure
Here we climb a mountain and get still together and secure a true perspective of things. We adventure on a voyage of discovery to find the wholeness of the spiritual life. – Glenn Clark
To read Glenn Clark’s reflections on The Camp Farthest Out from his Autobiography, A Man’s Reach, click here.
To read Miles Clark’s reflections on Glenn’s philosophy behind The Camp Farthest Out from his biography of Glenn Clark entitled The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of Creative Power, click here.