350 More Days To Go...
Tuesday 23 September 2008 at 8:27 pm. Used tags: bible, mens, peace, retreatThis is a post that I wanted to make about 3 weeks ago and just couldn't get to it. It was supposed to be about how excited I was about the upcoming Men's Retreat, but instead will be about how excited I am about how the retreat went.
The theme of the weekend was "Fighting For Peace." This goal was to help the brothers to understand on a Biblical level how to righteously deal with each other while not in full agreement with one another. There have been many disputable matters that have come up as of late and as a result there has been disunity. Far be it from us, as members of a unified Body, to allow disunity to set in! And so, we needed to start "Fighting For Peace" instead of fighting each other.
First, I am super fired up to say that we had the privilege of having Fred Faller as our guest speaker.
Fred is one of those 10-talent guys (Mat. 25). He is a graduate of MIT, a blacksmith, an artist, the author of 2 spiritually-based novels; "A Sword For The Immerland King" and "Lonama's Map," he headed up a church planting in one of the Scandinavian counties (can't for the life of me remember which), he's a mechanical engineer, and he is one HECK-OF-A teacher of the Bible. (I think he also plays the fiddle...but I can't verify that.) How he ever finds time to do all of that, I'll never know.
Fred had taught a lesson on "Building With Differences of Opinion" (which you can listen to by clicking here...) at our New England Christian Conference this past August and his class had well over 2,000 people in it. And we were fortunate enough to get him to come up and teach our little group of 50 guys at the retreat.
Normally, when I put the schedule for the retreat together, I build into it about 4 hours of free time on Saturday afternoon. But this time, because we had such a great opportunity for spiritual growth with Fred being the speaker, we took a much different path. We decided that Fred would teach 2 lessons, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But after each lesson, the guys would take off for about a half hour and pray and wrestle with what the Scriptures said. After that, we would all gather again and Fred would facilitate a discussion about those questions. I pray that in a very short amount of time we see the fruits of this past weekend by way of "unified disagreements."
On top of the fantastic teaching, the retreat was also a blast. Much fun was had during the oh-so-late night hours of Friday and Saturday night. It was so much fun that when I put my head on my pillow at 3am Saturday I couldn't go to sleep. I was just too wired and raring to go. And when I finally did fall asleep around 5am, someone's alarm clock went off. Now I ask you: WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD BRING AN ALARM CLOCK TO A MEN'S RETREAT AND SET IT TO 5am SATURDAY MORNING!!? But alas, I suppose this would be a disputable matter. As it turns out, it was a brother who was going jogging out in the wilderness of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
And so now, another retreat has gone by. And now there's about 350 more days until the next one. I better get crackin' on the plans!
sixteen comments
Sounds like a great time and theme.
btw . . . really like your header picture. Did you take it?
Nephos (Email) (URL) - 23-09-’08 23:20Hi Nephos.
Yes, I took it at this last men’s retreat. I’m glad you like it. I think it’s a keeper…at least for a while, anyway.
Danny Kaye (Email) - 24-09-’08 07:14Why can’t folks just agree to disagree (unified disagreements)? I understand some folks might be more stubborn and hard-headed than others, but I believe every relationship, no matter what kind of relationship, needs a bit of compromise from both parties to make it work. And if that compromise means giving in to some extent, well, then…… do it.
Chic - 24-09-’08 16:28It doesn’t mean one person is right and the other wrong. Just agree to disagree man, and let the matter go.
Maybe you are talking about something bigger than that, but that’s my tiny thought. On a side note, I have to admit that I used to be one not to compromise, no giving in for me. Did that get me anywhere? No. Just a bunch of heated arguements that typically ended badly and with hard feelings. I also used to be one who didn’t forgive easily, held a grudge, too. “YOU HAVE TO SEE IT MY WAY BECAUSE MY WAY IS THE RIGHT WAY!” I used to love an arguement. Not so anymore. Now I try to take the time to see the other person’s view of things.
I could go on, but I think that will be all for today folks. Class dismissed. :)
We hate to be wrong and we hate the idea of someone not agreeing with us. What a great subject for a retreat. I miss having a ladies retreat. My churches women’s ministry was run into the ground by a woman who no longer attends and those of us who could revive it are already over stretched.
I’m coming to yours next year. ;-}
Glad to have you and Chic back!
Where’s Dave?
Milly (URL) - 24-09-’08 17:10Ya’ gotta be a dude!
So unfair!
I can fish I bait my own hook and cook and make real cowboy coffee and stuff
Fine!
Milly (URL) - 24-09-’08 17:11Good questions, Chic. And I can totally understand your thinking. But let me give you an example of something that might cause some people to disagree with one another in order that you can kinda “get” what I’m talking about.
Example: Picking Elders for a church that has none. (This is an EXTREMELY vague example. There are way too many facets to this topic to throw at you right now. I’m using this one because you don’t really need to understand the entire Bible to “get it.”)
Elders are the ones who shepherd and direct the church. They are the leaders of the ministry. Therefore, you might understand why church members want to make sure the right ones are chosen. Let’s say that a church has no elders and is going to appoint some. Well, the Bible is not 100% clear on how to do that. Who appoints them? Who is qualified to be an Elder? etc… There are different schools of thought on eldership and the process for appointing them and none of them can be proven 100% correct. And some of the passages about Eldership in the Bible can be taken in a couple of different ways. For example, the Bible teaches that and Elder has to be the “husband of but one wife.” Well, does that mean that he can only be married to one woman at a time? (Keep in mind that back then, and in that culture, a man could have had more than one wife.) Or does it mean that he can’t have been divorced and then remarried? And what about someone whose spouse passed away and they remarried? Are they still qualified? Not if we use the second interpretation. If the former interpretation is used, then no problem. That’s illegal in America. (Though other countries still practice polygamy and this is a big issue for the churches over there.) If the latter interpretation is used, then some candidates would be disqualified because of a past divorce. See? It’s not 100% clear. And because the choosing of elders is so important for the welfare and future of the church, people want to make sure we get it right. Bottom line, even Christians are human. And we like to make sure that we are heard and have been understood, same as every one else. And if one Christian believes the Bible says one thing about the goings on of the church, but the leadership believes otherwise, how does a body deal with that. If it’s a serious enough issue, then that person will have a real hard time just sitting there and going along with something he or she believes goes against the Bible. Danny Kaye (Email) - 24-09-’08 18:30Can I just say that I don’t like the way this new format diplays comments! I gotta look at fixing that.
Danny Kaye (Email) - 24-09-’08 18:32Ohhhhhh…… I get it.
Well, can you do this:
Have the members of the church have a vote to decide on the type of Elder to be appointed (married one wife: married previous wife but now has current wife, etc)?
Then when that is decided (which, indeed, might take some time), the members can vote an Elder in.
I guess I am looking at it from when I was working. We had a Board of Trustees (Elders) and the unit owners (church members)voted them in to be on the Board. Sort of like that I suppose.
Maybe it’s not as simple as that. What do I know man.
Chic - 25-09-’08 17:07You’re right, Chic. It’s not as simple as that. There are many other aspects to the elder issue that I didn’t mention. And they aren’t as clear as the “husband of but one wife” question. (Besides, we can’t go turnin’ the church into a democracy, now can we?)
I know it sounds weird, but it’s actually a really good thing for the folks in the church to have to struggle through these kinds of issues together (not just the eldership issue, but dozens of others…). When we come out on the other side, we will have forged a unity that will strengthen the church as a whole. Church members will have deep convictions about things because we really did wrestle with them rather than having someone tell us to believe it “because I told ya’ so.”‘Zat make sense?
Danny Kaye (Email) - 26-09-’08 07:03Uh huh. Uh huh.
Chic - 26-09-’08 12:21Sorry Mil-Gurl. I don’t mean to offend. But it’s obvious that our Father didn’t want you to go on our retreats or he would have made you a dude!
I’d argue with Him if I were you.
I will, however, allow you to steal the theme of this year’s men’s retreat from me and you can organize your own. Hey…that’s what I did a few years ago and now I’m in charge of the little blessin’!
Go for it!
Danny Kaye (Email) - 26-09-’08 15:23Ah-ha, I found you, DK! I have not been getting this on my RSS feed in google. I thought you were still resting.
Hi, Chic!
Anyway, I just wanted to raspberry all y’all (or you’s guys), because I got to meet Chic!
I think I’d like to vote that elders must have mustaches.
Missy (URL) - 30-09-’08 18:01Hey, it was good to meet you too, Missy. Sorry we didnt’ get to spend much time though. Maybe next time?
Milly, what color might that real cowboy coffee be?
Forgive me, for I do not know, and forgot to ask previously, but why is it that the Elders must be men? Curious I am.
I do agree with my brother. The format of the comments is annoying. It’s like a newspaper column. The logo thingie doesn’t bother me much, it’s all the scrolling down just to read a few words.
Chic - 01-10-’08 00:15Chic, I beleive it’s because men have the best mustaches! ?? Good question. Come to church with us over the next month – we’re supposed to be studying this Elder thing out. You can stay with me, I’ll be running a bed and breakfast for the next couple of weeks.
And, yeah, I didn’t get to visit much with you til the end – I get shy beleive it or not. But I should be around for a while – or we’ll lose our britches on a house we bought when the market was high.
Missy (URL) - 01-10-’08 18:24Danny,
I sure don’t have the time to organize a retreat. I have a ton of stuff to do and very little time to do it in. As soon as the house is gone I have to start living. After the divorce that is. Nope not there yet. I’ll update everyone soon.
Chic,
Real cowboy coffee is cooked over a camp fire. You put the water in a pot and add coffee. Some add other stuff. Bring it to a good boil not one of those mamby pamby boils. Take it off the fare and let the grounds fall to the bottom. The last couple of cups are the strongest, you’ll need to strain them with your teeth. Be polite when you spit by not spit’n on your friends boots.
The color of the stuff is black. And as a former coffee angel I have seen black coffee. Frog Water loved the black thick stuff so I kept a pot on the back burner just for the man. He called it battery acid. Frog Water was what we called him because he called that tea. I miss that old man. God bless him.
Missy you’re so lucky! I want a meat everyone!
Milly (URL) - 01-10-’08 18:59Money can`t buy Happiness?Whoever said that doesn`t know where to buy.
Hermes Birkin (Email) (URL) - 06-09-’10 03:06No matter it is the classic Birkin bag, or the Kelly and Lindy bag,
http://www.buyhermesbirkin.com/