RETREAT!

Finally, a long overdue reflection on Saturday's congregational retreat.  For starters, I was very, VERY pleased with our retreat.  I believe that all who attended found the time together relaxing and refreshing, which was the main goal.   I also believe that we had some fruitful discussions, about ourselves and about Central Christian.

There were minor hiccups along the way (despite planning to caravan, we still should have had printed maps available for all cars, including those that wandered through random parking lots playing follow-the-leader).  And why a CD player that played a CD roughly twelve hours before decided it couldn't read the same CD still eludes me.  But the rough edges are sometimes the charm (or at least the humor) of an experience.

Silly things aside, though, I thought it was a very positive experience, and I have heard lots of favorable comments from those who attended the retreat.  We had time to relax, we had time to eat (and eat and eat and eat... given all the food we took, we could have stayed all weekend and still have been well fed).  We had time to talk to each other, as a large group and in twos and threes throughout the day.

We had a couple of good discussions.  Each of us had the opportunity to share a little bit about ourselves and about our childhood, which included a little about our faith development.  Later in the day, we had a discussion about where we think the church is now and where we might direct our energies in the future.  Nothing concrete was decided (it was not the time or the place for that), but we have begun defining our present context, our challenges, and our opportunities.

To the Ad Hoc Committee, which planned the retreat, let me offer a big "thank you" and congratulations on a job well done.  To those who could not attend, I hope that you will talk to those who went to the retreat, ask about what we did, and make plans to attend the next congregational retreat (to be held sometime next year, I imagine).