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About Us
Since 1993, Student Life has served churches through inter-denominational Christian summer camps, conferences, and resources. We strive to support your student ministry with Gospel-centered experiences that transform students into devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Student Life exists to help people know Christ through His Word. We believe God’s Word is relevant and instructive for the challenges students face today. Our camps inspire students through engaging worship, sound biblical teaching, and community-building in small group Bible studies.
We believe discipleship best occurs within the context of the local church. Relationships formed at camp between students and their leaders serve as a catalyst to discipleship that continues long after camp ends. We would be honored to have the opportunity to partner with your group to make Jesus known in the lives of your students.
Amanda Glover
Lead Event SpecialistAmanda Glover
From the age of eight, summer camp was something Amanda looked forward to every year. Camp was where she became a Christ-follower after her third-grade year. When she was old enough, she applied for and worked a summer at Crosspoint, a Christian sports camp. She remembers thinking, “If I could do this for a living it would truly be my dream job!” When she found out Student Life offered full-time positions for summer camp, she was in! She began traveling with the Student Life for Kids team in 2001 and has been here ever since.
Since becoming a believer at summer camp, Amanda has known how impactful one or two weeks in a summer can be. She believes there is something about being away from your everyday life and immersing yourself into a week that challenges you to grow in your relationship with Christ (or begin one) that is life-changing. Even though she doesn’t travel on a camp team anymore, she gets to be a part of the behind-the-scenes prep work and customer service that brings groups to camp. She loves using her gifts administratively in a ministry that facilitates these life-changing weeks. And seventeen summers later, it’s still a dream job. Her role includes brainstorming ways to make things easier on Student Pastors and Kid Ministers and implementing new processes that make camp run smoothly. The less they have to take care of, the more time they get to spend with their students and kids. That’s a big win.
Amanda graduated from Mississippi College and went on to get her Masters in Marriage and Family Counseling from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. She is now married to Matt, who serves as the Director of Technology at The Church at Brook Hills. They have three kiddos, Abby, Jack, and Olivia who keep them very busy.
Danielle Sullivan
Property SpecialistDanielle Sullivan
Danielle grew up attending and volunteering at a summer camp in Kansas City. Whether it was working in the kitchen or the snack shop, if she could be there, she was! This was a place she saw discipleship happen in a unique and special atmosphere and developed a desire to be a part of something similar long term.
Having a love of traveling and hearing people’s stories, Danielle gets to meet and talk with people from all over while exploring new camp locations or returning to many of the same hotels, conference centers or universities year after year. She also enjoys geeking out over excel spreadsheets full of data and camp details.
After graduating from Mississippi College, Danielle began working with Student Life for Kids camp in the summer of 2001. She began full time in 2004 in the production department, coordinating videos for camp and Bible Study. In 2008 she moved to the Events team and into her current role. She loves coffee, chocolate, finding a good deal, the Kansas Jayhawks and spending time with her family. She is married to Wes, a Student Minister at The Church at Brook Hills and has 3 children: (twins) Malakai and Amiya & Nora Layne.
Gabe Cyrus
Event DirectorGabe Cyrus
Gabe surrendered his life to Jesus at camp in 2012, he had no idea how prevalent a role camp would play in his life, but God did. Gabe attended camp for four summers and worked for five — each of which were used by God to teach him more about himself and, more importantly, Himself. When the opportunity came his way to serve in camp ministry full time, Gabe jumped at it!
Gabe is grateful to be part of a ministry that focuses so heavily on discipleship. Personally, Gabe has never felt more like he am doing what he was made to do than when he is actively engaged in discipling others and being discipled. Gabe is excited to travel this summer and walk this journey of discipleship with his team and the churches that make their way to camp!
Gabe graduated with a Social Work major and Biblical Studies minor from Cedarville University. He graduated this past May from Southeastern University with a Masters in Social Work. Gabe loves using these clinical skills to serve the church! Every free moment is filled with volleyball and Chick-fil-A — what more could one possibly need?
Hailea Packard
Event SpecialistHailea Packard
Hailea was born and raised in Orlando, Florida and moved to Virginia when she was 18 for college. Hailea met the Lord when she was 15 working a VBS and then began attending Student Life as a camper soon after. She fell in love with camp ministry during her freshman year of college and realized then that if she could work camp for the rest of her life, she would.
Hailea loves talking to people! Her job provides the opportunity to daily communicate with student pastors and youth leaders. Hailea enjoys utilizing her communication & people skills in getting to both serve and know Student Pastors. Hailea loves to serve the church behind the scenes because it, “Takes me out of my comfort zone.” She believes even inputting info into our system is Kingdom work, and loves being a part of something much bigger than herself.
Hailea just graduated from Liberty University (go Flames) with a bachelor’s degree in Family and Child Development. She has been working seasonally for Student Life since 2015 serving in 4 different roles. This is her first year working full-time with Student Life & she loves it! Hailea loves psychology, corgis, scary movies, youth ministry, and being with people “a latte!” (She also may be obsessed with coffee…maybe).
Jared Shingleton
DirectorJared Shingleton
Jared came to the Student Life team to be the Director in 2021 after serving in the local church for the past 12 years. He is a student pastor at heart and loves pouring into the lives of the next generation and their leaders. It was through serving on a mission trip in Brazil as a teenager that he came to know the Lord and felt a call to pursue vocational ministry.
Since Jared grew up as the son of a student camp and conference director, you could say camp ministry is in his blood. With that he brings both experience and a passion for producing and planning large scale ministry events–like camp. In addition to planning and taking his own students to camp every summer, Jared has served in various leadership roles at the parachurch level to help produce premiere church experiences.
Golfing, hunting and riding motorcycles are just a few things Jared enjoys when he isn’t spending quality time with his wife, Emily and their three children: Shiloh Kate, Judah Wells, and Noa Grace. Jared enjoys eating any and everything spicy, including the five hottest peppers in the world. He studied Ministry Leadership at Williamson Christian College which he enjoys putting into practice with the teams he leads.
Lacy Pauley
Event DirectorLacy Pauley
Lacy grew up attending Student Life camp all throughout high school. She ended up giving her life to Christ at camp when she was a junior in high school. After coming to know Jesus, Lacy fell in love with serving the Church. As soon as she got college, she knew God wanted her to partner with Student Life Camp, giving her summers to serve the Church.
As an Event Director, Lacy’s summers are dedicated to traveling across the country serving churches, in the offseason, she works hard to prepare the best camp experience possible. She loves creating an environment for students to see God fully and believes God has given her a creative spirit to help others encounter Jesus. For Lacy, the best part of her job is seeing youth groups leave camp unified by the Holy Spirit.
Lacy graduated from Liberty University (go flames) with a degree in Counseling. She served 3 summers on the road as seasonal staff. Last year was her first summer as an Event Director for Student Life for Kids and now she will lead a youth camp team. Lacy loves her husband, Nathan, going to concerts (a lot…like, a lot), French bulldogs, and a nice aesthetically pleasing coffee shop.
Melissa Nicholson
Event SpecialistMelissa Nicholson
Melissa has always loved details and organizing. School supply shopping was a favorite activity each year (and was really the only kind of shopping she enjoyed). A combination of that love of administration and a calling to ministry and discipleship in college was the perfect setup for what she gets to do every day at Student Life.
For the past ten years, Melissa has coordinated the community projects for Mission Camp participants as they go and serve each week in the summer. Getting to talk with churches about their student’s desire to serve, and placing them in a setting to stretch these muscles is so rewarding to her. As an Event Specialist, she serves through camp preparations, behind the scenes details, and communication directly with churches. It is a joy to be a part of serving the local church in this capacity, especially when coordinating logistics is a favorite past-time.
Melissa received her undergraduate degree from The University of TN, Chattanooga in 2000 and a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2005. After spending 3 summers with Lifeway through Centrifuge during seminary, and another couple years in ministry within the local church, Birmingham and Student Life became “home” in the fall of 2006. She is married to Josh, and has two children, Levi and Lydia.
Sarah Beth Shepard
Event SpecialistSarah Beth Shepard
Sarah Beth went to Student Life Camp with her youth group and always wondered who the people with the nametags and worked behind the scenes were. In college, she began to feel a calling to support and enable ministry and found a home to do that here at Student Life.
Sarah Beth’s position allows her to combine her detailed and process-driven mind with her deep-rooted belief in the role of the local Church. Day to day, she helps prepare staff training, meets with our Advisory Board, and works on the details of Mission Camp. She loves that, at Mission Camp, students are able to realize serving and opportunities to share the Gospel can happen anywhere. She hopes that a light bulb goes off, that there are nursing homes, apartment complexes, food banks, etc. in their own hometowns and God has called them to be ministers of the Gospel there every day.
Sarah Beth graduated from Auburn University in 2013 where she studied Agricultural Communications and Public Relations (cue the cow jokes). She began seasonal employment with Student Life in 2010 and joined the full-time staff in 2013. Sarah Beth and her husband Billy live in Birmingham, AL. Together they love serving in the Student Ministry at their church, hosting dinner nights with friends, and keeping up with their toddler son, Beau.
Sarah Preston
Event SpecialistSarah Preston
Sarah grew up a little bit of everywhere in North Carolina (like 6 different towns everywhere) before she joined the SL4K team in Nashville. Growing up a PK meant a lot of moving and a lot of restarts. Because of that, she got to make friends all over the state and see the local church in a multitude of perspectives. Some of Sarah’s favorite childhood memories were centered around going to a local camp (think “The Parent Trap”). During those weeks of the summer, Sarah saw how having fun and knowing Jesus could go hand in hand. Little did she know that the Lord was going to use those incredible weeks of fun to cultivate my love and passion for serving kids, students, and ministers.
Sarah was always the one who had fun organizing her desk, redecorating her room and helping plan events around school and church, but it wasn’t until college that she realized her love for those things could collide with her love for the local church. What she loves most about her position as an Event Specialist is that no day looks the same other than the opportunity to serve the local church!
In May of 2019, Sarah graduated from Campbell University (GO CAMELS! — yes, you read that right, their mascot is a camel) where she majored in business marketing and minored in Christian studies. In the summers of 2018 and 2019, Sarah worked for SL and SL4K as a hospitality coordinator and office director. During her junior year of college, she studied abroad in London and lived there for 3 months. Some of Sarah’s favorite things to do are travel, run, cook and take way too long in Bath and Body Works smelling candles.
Tanner Brack
Event SpecialistTanner Brack
Tanner is a proud Texan (surprise, surprise) from a northeast Texas town called Mount Pleasant. Despite being one of those dreaded PK’s, he not only grew to love Christ, but also His Church.
Tanner’s position sends him across the country during the summer, leading a team of college students to serve Student Pastors in their mission of making disciples. Throughout the year you’ll catch him answering phone calls, creating recreation games, and helping with the interviewing and hiring process for summer staff. One of Tanner’s favorite parts of his job is getting to know and serve Student Pastors.
Tanner graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2015 with a B.A. in Biblical Studies. He began seasonal employment with Student Life in 2013 and joined the full-time staff in 2016. He enjoys Little Debbie snacks, Dr. Pepper, board games, and is the biggest baseball fan in the office.
Anna Archer
Event SpecialistAnna Archer
Anna grew up attending Student Life camps with her youth group. Realizing what a spiritually impactful experience summer camp can be, she applied and served 2 summers on the Student Life office team. She fell in love with the administrative side of ministry and working in the details to ultimately see The Kingdom proclaimed. She felt called back to the Student Life team full-time in 2021 to continue the work she loves to do.
Anna is the most extroverted introvert you will ever meet. While spreadsheets and documents make her happy, she also very much enjoys being on the ground floor of serving churches as they prepare for camp and developing relationships along the way. Her role allows her the privilege of personally communicating with churches and watching what The Lord is doing through student ministries across the nation, while also handling the nitty gritty data details that allow her introverted side to thrive.
Anna has a degree in communications and lives in Birmingham with her husband and their 2 daughters. She enjoys reading, usually more than one book at a time, and impatiently waits for the Olympic Games to cycle back around. Go Team USA! She’s never said no to a bowl of popcorn and is always up for iced coffee.
Beliefs
God
There is one and only one living God (Deuteronomy 6:4). He is eternal (Revelation 1:8), omnipotent (Mark 10:27), omniscient (Romans 11:33-36) and omnipresent (Isaiah 43:1-13). He is perfect in every way (Psalm 18:30) and exists in three Persons (Genesis 1:26): the Father (Luke 10:21-22), Son (Matthew 3:17), and Holy Spirit (John 16:7-15). He created the universe (Genesis 1:1) and is worthy of worship (1 Chronicles 16:29-31) and the obedience (1 Samuel 15:22) of humanity.
The Bible
God has provided humanity with His revelation (2 Timothy 3:16-17), written through men divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). God’s Word is entirely true, without error (Psalm 19:7-8) and speaks on faith and life with complete authority (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The Bible is instructive, teaching God’s law (Joshua 1:8) and helping His people grow into the righteous likeness of Jesus (John 17:16-18).
Jesus
He is fully God (Colossians 2:9) and fully human (Hebrews 2:14-18). He is the sinless Messiah (1 John 3:5) who was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18). He was crucified on a cross, buried and rose again on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He is the only path to reconciliation with God (John 14:6), currently resides in heaven (Hebrews 12:2) and will return again (Matthew 16:27) at a time appointed by the Father (Mark 13:32) to judge sinners and reclaim His people to enjoy Him and worship Him forever (Matthew 24:30-31).
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit baptizes all believers into the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:4-6), indwelling them at the point of salvation (Acts 2:38). Christians who yield their lives to the Holy Spirit are empowered to boldly witness (Acts 4:31) and faithfully serve (Romans 12:6-8). The Holy Spirit works in a Christian’s life by convicting them of sin (John 16:8-11), molding them into Christ likeness (2 Corinthians 3:16-18), revealing Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:9-16), teaching all things, reminding what Jesus said (John 14:26), and sealing them until the return of Jesus (Ephesians 1:13-14).
People
Humanity was created by God (Genesis 1:26) in His own image (Genesis 5:1-2) so that He might be glorified (Isaiah 43:7). God created all things, but people stand as His crowning work (Psalm 8:3-8). Nevertheless, sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam (Romans 5:12). This disobedience is called sin (1 John 3:4) and all of Creation suffers upheaval because of it (Romans 8:19-22), especially humanity with its sin nature (Romans 8:1-5). Sin ultimately brings the demise of both body and soul (Proverbs 21:16). Since every human being has chosen to rebel against their Creator (Romans 3:9-12), every person desperately needs salvation from sin (Psalm 40:12-13), which can only come through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16-18) by God’s infinite grace (Isaiah 30:15-18).
Salvation
Every single person is born cut off from God (Psalm 51:5) having sinned against their perfect and holy Creator (Romans 3:23). The punishment for sin is eternal separation from God. (Romans 6:23a) Jesus Christ accepted our punishment upon Himself, dying on a cross for the sin of mankind. (Romans 4:25) Salvation from our desperate state only comes through a faith relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ (John 14:6). A person forms a faith relationship with Jesus by repenting of sin and placing saving faith in Jesus alone (Romans 3:22) for forgiveness and eternal life (Acts 3:19). Human work plays no role in salvation (Titus 3:4-7), only the grace of God in response to the sacrifice of His Son Jesus upon the cross (Romans 3:21-26).
The Church
The Holy Spirit binds all Christians into a single unified spiritual body called the Church (Romans 12:5), which is under the leadership of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16). The Church exists to glorify God (1 Peter 2:9) by spreading the Good News of His Son to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) and by encouraging Christ likeness in all believers (Philippians 3:7-11) through Bible teaching and study (1 Timothy 4:13), prayer (Acts 12:5), worship (John 4:23-24), service (Matthew 20:25-28) and fellowship (Acts 2:42-47). Jesus established the Church upon earth (Matthew 16:18-19) until His return, when members of the Church will unceasingly praise and glorify King Jesus for eternity (Revelation 21).
The Future
God is not distant, but present, involved in His people’s lives and in control of the future (Psalm 139:1-4). Historically, God foretold His plans through His prophets (2 Peter 1:19-21), specifically the redemption of His sinful people (Psalm 49:12-15) due to the miraculous birth (Isaiah 7:14), sacrificial death (Isaiah 53:4-6) and miraculous resurrection (Hosea 6:2) of His one and only perfect Son Jesus (Matthew 17:5). Jesus ascended to sit at the right hand of Father God (Acts 2:32-33) and promises to return to earth for all to see (Matthew 24:30) at a time ordained by God (Matthew 24:36), initiating the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:22-23) and judgment of all mankind (Psalm 96:13). God’s will is perfect in every way and deserving of our complete trust over today and every day in the future (Romans 12:1-2).