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Disciples Men Retreat
2005
March 11 thru 13, 2005
Christmount
Christian Assembly (Click on any photo to
see a larger image) It
was a beautiful weekend in the North Carolina Mountains for the 2005
Men's Retreat. It snowed a bit Friday night and by Saturday
afternoon it was almost 70. The fellowship was just as warm and
the program just as varied too.
Friday Night
Friday night began with dinner in the
Christmount dining hall where all the meals were excellent as usual.
The staff at Christmount is always so friendly and accommodating.
Jerry Gladson and
Jim Farris load up. |
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After dinner we gathered for our first session which
began, as all our sessions do, with singing. Bob Grant leads while
Greg Holmes plays the piano. Bob exhorted us "This is our time to
recharge, so soak it up! . . . and smile when you sing!"
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These guys love to sing. |
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There is always coffee
in the back. |
 John
Anderson brought the opening devotion on Ephesians 4:1-6. John
stressed the importance of unity in Christ and working together as
Christians. He pointed out that astronomers, when setting up a
telescope, first find their pole star and track everything else from
there. We must make Christ our "pole star."
 Charles
Maddox then introduced our speaker for the weekend, Rev. Arnold Nelson,
Jr., President Homeland Missions. Arnold told us he would bring us
a "Clinic on Evangelism" by sharing stories. He began by reminding
us of the plot of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, a futuristic story
where books are banned, and burned by the government. In this
story, people memorize books to preserve them. "If that really
happened," he said, "I hope someone would memorize Matthew and
especially the story of Jesus on the road to Caesarea - Philippi."
In this story, Jesus finds himself in need of a Men's retreat - so he
tries to take the disciples off to a place where they can get some
peace. This trip was the first time that one of the disciples said
"You are the Christ." That confession, by Peter, thrilled Christ,
according to Arnold, so he began to talk about the
 necessity
for the cross. And that's when Peter blows it. Peter takes
Jesus aside to rebuke him for taking about his death. Things were
going good for Peter and the Disciples and he didn't want Jesus to ruin
it. He didn't want to be inconvenienced. And this causes
Jesus to tell him to "Get behind me Satan!". Do we remember,
Arnold asks, the first time we made that confession that Jesus was the
Christ? And how do we follow up on that confession.
"As a people we do a great job of
creating requirements to fellowship" Arnold points out, "And we have no
right to do that because we all belong to Christ. We have had
fights over the silliest things," he notes, "and we must stop that!
Why do people have to exist in the world without knowing the love of
Christ because we Christians can't be inconvenienced to tell that
person."
 Friday
nights program concluded with Vespers sung to us by Rev. Dean Phelps.
Dean sang a hobo song about freedom on the rails. He pointed out
that the hobo is the personification of personal freedom. He gets
on whatever train and just rides it to where ever it is going.
Dean pointed out that sometimes we can be spiritual hobos, and we have
taken some strange trains. But Christ must be our pole star.
We must follow Christ where he leads, not simply head where the next
train heads.
Following Vespers we gathered around the
fireplace in the Christmount lodge for the traditional Ice Cream Social.
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Rocking chairs are
a great place to eat
ice cream! |
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The "other religion" at
Men's Retreat - the ACC
Basketball Tournament. |
Saturday
Saturday began with a great country
breakfast followed by more signing led again by Bob Grant and backed by
Greg Holmes.
 It
is traditional for the Layman of
the Year to offer the devotional, so 2004 Layman Jim Farris brought
a message entitled "When responsibility becomes frustrating". Jim
quoted Psalm 27. He pointed out that when we get frustrated we
need to remember to follow the instructions in this Psalm: to seek the
Lords face and wait for the lord. An answer, said Jim almost
always comes. After the devotion,
Rev. Arnold Nelson made his second presentation based on John 4, the
story of the woman at the well who led an entire village back to Jesus.
Arnold pointed out that today, elders who go door-to-door in
neighborhoods knocking on doors to do evangelism are rarely welcome.
Yet in this story, an outcast woman who said "Come meet a man who told
me everything about me!" led a whole village to Christ. "There
ought to be a lesson in that for us," said Arnold. If we stay in
touch with that part of ourselves that falls short of the glory of God,
we can use that for the glory of God.
 During
the business meeting, Charles Maddox presented the slate of officers who
were elected unanimously. Archie Jenkins (Guyton) was elected
President, John Anderson (Augusta Central) was elected President Elect,
Gary Wall (Winder First) was elected Secretary/Treasurer and Charles
Maddox became Past President. Arnold Nelson installed the new
officers later that evening.
 During
the business meeting, Michael Weeks announced the
Extraordinary Regional
Assembly to be held April 16, 2005 at First Christian Church in
Macon to consider Dr. Ray Miles as Regional Minister. He also gave
an update on camp and encouraged the
Men to consider being councilors. Michael gave more news about the
"Created
to be Me" camp to be held at Christmount, Camp Baalam and the
upcoming workday. Michael encouraged everyone to consider donating
to support Camp Baalam (which you can do online
HERE).
 Dean
Phelps talked about his work in Congregational Development and
emphasized a new program from the Board of Church Extension that gives
our Congregations or Camp credit if we invest funds with the Board.
Dean also gave a report on Interim Regional Minister's son, who has been
ill with a staff infection. Medie
Still announced that the guidelines for the new Lifetime Achievement
award were now set and would be posted on the web site. He
encouraged all Men to consider who should be nominated for this award.
Following lunch is a time for fellowship,
recreation or reflection and solitude. Some play golf together,
some hike, some explore the local countryside.
Saturday Evening
 In
his third presentation following dinner, Dr. Arnold Nelson worked from
Acts 8, the story of Saul giving approval to the stoning of Stephen
through his conversion to Paul. Arnold asked us to put ourselves
in Ananias' place. Ananias was a man with lots of reasons to
question God when he is told to go and heal Paul. He had every
reason to hate Paul, to fear him, to not want anything to do with Paul
since he and his friends had just been saved from this man by an act of
God. Sometimes it is hard for us as Christians to let ourselves be
inconvenienced. But Ananias went.
Every grown-up, according to Arnold, has
people they have every good reason to hate. But look at the power
of forgiveness and what can be gained from forgiveness as shown in this
scripture. Rev. Dean Phelps again
brought Vespers Saturday evening. He again sang us a folk song
about a loose woman. He then explained that physics teaches us
that you can't touch something without being touched by it. Dean
said that to minister to people, like the woman in his song, we have to
touch them. But, like a Shepard, if you touch sheep, you are going
to smell like sheep. Or to put it another way, "If you are going
to do ministry, you are going to get some on you." If you minister
to people you are going to take on their hurt and their pain and their
problems. Sunday Morning
 Following
more great singing led by Bob and Greg, Rev. Jerry Gladson taught bible
study. Jerry gave a condensed history of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) including how we came to have that name through
compromise. He led a discussion on who we are as disciples that
led us all to think about our denomination and our congregations and how
we approach evangelism. Rev. Arnold
Nelson then gave his fourth presentation from Acts 16 when Paul
circumcised Timothy after just making a case for the unimportance of
circumcision. "Sometimes you have to take people where you find
them and 'pick your battles'" Arnold pointed out. He also told a
bit about the Lewis and Clark expedition emphasizing that they
considered much of that expedition a failure - they failed to find a
northwest passage yet they had actually done a great work. "We
will have failures as congregations and as a denomination, we should
expect that but not let it define us." he said. "but when God
calls us to do hard things, we must be ready!"
 At
Worship, Medie Still of Guyton Christian Church preached from
Philippians 2:1-11. Medie gave testimony to his faith journey and
the importance of Men's work in that journey. He acknowledged that
there were problems in the region and in local congregations from time
to time but pointed out the importance of humility as explained in the
scripture. Philippians teaches us that encouragement, Christ's
love, unity of the spirit, tenderness and compassion are important.
"We can't solve the problems of the region unless we have Christ at the
center," he pointed out. "We must find Christ's spirit in
ourselves and move outside our comfort zone to do the work he calls us
to do."
 We
closed with Communion served by the Men of First Christian Church of
Marietta. Another spiritually
enriching and refreshing Men's Retreat. |
