Men's Retreat

     This past weekend i had the opportunity to participate in a men's retreat. Eight brothers attended, ranging in age from sixteen to seventy-eight. Half i had not previously met. Although i have been going on men;s retreats for decades, it was in March, 1993 that began to organize and teach the Word of God at them. Since then have had the privilege of coordinating over forty of these, most of them with my brother Doug Chase. Our wildly dissimilar personalities but common appreciation for the Word of God and reverence for the Lord has combined to make us a good team. This time we were joined in the preparation by a younger brother named Tom who brought other things to the table including the site, a large cabin in the New Hampshire woods. Although in the past we have purchased and cooked our own food, this time that was done for us by Greg, the owner of the campground.
    Several of the men had never been on a men;s retreat, and expressed some apprehension about it, and there was the usual last minute dropouts of those who had indicated they would attend. I am thankful that those who did arrive were serious about what we were doing, and demonstrated receptivity.
   One new approach that we took was to give mini-topics during our meal times to direct the conversation into productive channels, something i would want to do again. Friday night i began with the question, "How do you know that God loves you?"
   On Saturday morning Tom led a discussion with many Bible verses on knowing God with good participation. In the evening i taught on the Kingdom of God, and discipleship. Sunday morning we had a time of prayer before our departure.
   While it is sad to me, and indicative of the spiritual temperature of the Church in North America, that it is so difficult to induce men to get away on these type of weekends, i entrust God with the next step of the journey.