About our Founder

The Birth of a Dream: The Story of Crowders Camps

Jay Oliver likes to say he was shaped by, small task of faithfulness. 

He was born in a small town, Jefferson, South Carolina. He grew up in another, Forest City, North Carolina. The kind of towns where people know your name, your story, and sometimes your struggles before you ever say a word. Those towns teach you something early: “faithfulness is obedience, and being faithful with what you have is important. You can’t hide behind titles or big stages. You learn how to serve when the crowd is small… and you learn how to stay humble when it grows. 

For more than two decades, Jay lived in the trenches of student ministry, serving in churches in both small and large communities. He’s seen it all: ministries with three kids and ministries with four hundred. He understands the pressure of both worlds, the exhaustion of doing everything yourself and the weight of carrying leadership at scale. And through those years, Jay discovered a pattern: Kids don’t just need programs…They need encounters. They need moments when God feels near. They need people who stay long enough to love them well. That’s what made his vision of camp ministry different. 

At first, it wasn’t a dream to build camps. It was simply a burden, a burden to help kids get to camp. Jay would fundraise, problem-solve, beg if he had to, and do whatever it took to remove the barriers. He watched what happened when a kid stepped onto a camp property for the first time. Walls came down. Laughter returned. Tears surfaced. And when the Gospel was preached in that environment, something holy happened. That calling didn’t feel like an idea. It felt like a fire. And Jay didn’t just see camp as an event. He saw it as architecture. Not just buildings… but experiences. 

A carefully designed space where distractions are stripped away and hearts become soft again. Where kids who never talk open up. Where students who are angry finally breathe. Where teenagers drowning in insecurity hear, maybe for the first time, that their life has purpose and worth and that Jesus Christ died to claim them.That’s when Jay started calling himself what few people would dare to call themselves: A camp architect. Not because he cared about construction. But because he cared about transformation. 

The “Now” that changed everything 

In 2014, Jay stepped out in faith and started a nonprofit called Now Outreach. The name wasn’t catchy branding. It was a statement. A conviction. A holy urgency. How can we reach this generation now and beyond with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? That “now” became the umbrella over everything that followed. 

Later that same year, the dream became visible on the ground: Crowders Ridge Camp was born. Ten years later, it wasn’t a small idea anymore. It has become a place where over 10,000 campers walk onto the property each year. Thousands and thousands of stories. Ten thousand names. Ten thousand chances for the Gospel to change a life, a home, and eventually a community. 

But Jay saw the future coming. He knew what success would create: A new problem.

Crowders Ridge began filling up. Demand grew. More churches wanted dates. More parents wanted their kids in. More kids needed scholarships. And Jay refused to let the story of camp ministry become the story of scarcity, where only the families with resources could participate. 

For Jay, building camps was never about assets. It was about access. 

So in 2019, Now Outreach purchased another 57 acres less than a mile away, launching a five-year faith journey that would become Crowders Springs Camp. That season wasn’t easy. It was a lot of prayer. Paperwork. Permits. Pressure. Failure. Late nights. Construction questions. 

And the “Lord, we’re trusting You” moments stacked back to back. And still… Jay kept designing. He and the team expanded the experience: Day camp for individuals, Kindergarten camp for the youngest campers, A full fleet of life-change opportunities, with a combined total of over 20 weeks of camp every summer. 

And here’s the part that sounds impossible until you realize God is in the story: 48% attended for free, because partners made scholarships possible. That’s what Jay calls victory: Not packed cabins. But open doors. And then came the moment many prayed for: 

On January 29th, 2026, Crowders Springs opened, already with groups on the books ready to sell out the entire summer of 2026. That’s not strategy alone. That’s providence. 

A handshake with legacy 

But Jay’s story isn’t only about what he built. It’s also about what he was trusted to carry. 

In 2018, Jay stood in a lobby at a camp conference and came face to face with a legend: Captain O.A. Fish, the founder and longtime leader of South Mountain Christian Camp, established in 1974. The lobby was full, people moving, laughing, networking. But for Jay, the moment felt bigger than the room. He looked into Captain Fish’s eyes and shook his hand, and it wasn’t just a handshake. It felt like a passing of something sacred. Like a quiet nod across generations: It was like they communicated silently.. We don’t know what’s coming… but we trust the Lord. 

Years passed. Captain Fish went home to be with Jesus in 2022. But his family wanted the vision to remain strong. They didn’t want the camp to become a memory. They wanted it to keep breathing, keep preaching, keep discipling, keep sending young people into the world with a fire for Christ. So in 2026, Jay received an unexpected invitation: Would he consider helping South Mountain Christian Camp carry that vision into the next era? Jay didn’t answer quickly. He prayed. He sought counsel. He weighed the responsibility. And after time with the Lord, he said yes. And just like that, South Mountain Christian Camp joined the Now Outreach/Crowders Camps family. Not as a takeover. AS AN INHERITANCE. A continuation. A faithful “yes” to the next chapter of a story that began in 1974. 

Three camps. One mission. Thousands of names. 

Jay once believed his mission was to see three camps started before he turned 60. Life has a way of humbling big dreams. But God has a way of surpassing them. At the age of 49, Jay watched that mission become reality not because of personal ambition, but because camp ministry had impacted so many lives that people rallied behind the vision. 

And here’s what makes it more inspiring: Jay didn’t build alone. He works alongside his wife, Carrie, his steady partner in life and mission. He serves beside his son Noah, and a staff team that feels less like employees and more like family. Over the years his other two daughters Anna (NC State) and Abby (App State) have also served in many different capacities at different camps. Many have years of relational equity, friendships forged through ministry, hardship, prayer, and shared vision. That kind of unity can’t be manufactured. 

It has to be built the same way camps are built: With time. With trust. With sacrifice. With joy. 

Today, Jay and his team aren’t just operating three properties. They’re building an army of disciples. They’re providing safe spaces for students to encounter God. They’re making room for kids who can’t pay. They’re preaching the Gospel to the next generation. They’re living the Great Commission through an amazing tool called camp ministry. And the vision isn’t slowing down. 

Three camps… with a goal to impact 20,000 campers per year. Not 20,000 customers. 20,000 souls. 20,000 lives shaped. 20,000 destinies influenced. 20,000 chances to say to a generation: “You are not forgotten. You are not too far gone. Jesus is the Son of God and He loves you.” 

The Real Story 

When people hear the numbers, acres, campers, weeks, buildings, it’s easy to think the story is about growth. But Jay would tell you something different. The story has always been about one kid. One kid who shows up guarded. One kid who doesn’t trust adults. One kid drowning in sin, shame, addiction, confusion, anxiety. One kid who thought church wasn’t for them. One kid who never knew a father’s voice. One kid who never heard, “I’m proud of you.” 

And then one night at camp…A song breaks them. A message reaches them. A counselor listens to them. The Gospel awakens them. And the Holy Spirit meets them. That’s what Jay builds for. That’s why he says “Now.” Because tomorrow isn’t promised. Because kids are hurting right now. Because the Gospel matters right now. Because the Great Commission is urgent right now. 

Jay Oliver is a founder, yes. But more than that He’s a builder of access, A camp architect. A designer of life-change. A carrier of legacy. A servant of the Gospel. And if you follow his story all the way down to its roots, you’ll realize the most inspiring part: God took a small-town kid… and gave him a blueprint big enough to change generations.