The Importance of Retreats - Opportunities

Opportunities

There are several opportunities to "bring something back" to your gathering.  The first is to implement good and scriptural techniques that would help your tribe engage more deeply with God.  At worst, there are new discussion points as you may have to scramble to perform damage control due to an over-zealous but under-informed/-educated/-prepared preacher poor self-restraint and lack of a governor between brain and mouth.  In any case, when retreats hand out lemons as part of the registration fee, do not neglect the opportunity to make lemonade.

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The Importance of Retreats - Shared Tribe Experiences

Shared Tribe Experiences

The community that is built in 48 hours of immersion as a community at a retreat is worth more than 12 weeks of 2-hour meetings.  The depth of community that happens as students worship together for hours and hours over the course of a weekend is unobtainable through the normal youth gathering structure, and it is not to be ignored.

New Friends

The friendships that are formed not just within the tribe but with other students from the area are great to see.  It's a subtle encouragement that says, This is not limited to you.  God is moving all over the place!  You are not alone.

Witness

At retreats and camps, students are able to witness several things.

1. Other people worshiping God
2. Other ways people worship
3. God moving in others
4. God moving in their friends

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The Importance of Retreats - Road Trip

Road Trip

A weekend retreat or a week-long camp are a different type of experience.  They may travel together, yielding great road trip stories.  I was at a retreat this weekend.  One carload told me how their GPS navigation setup had failed them in the backwoods, with them turning onto a snowmobile trail, and ending up with the nose of their car vertically in the air and puppy-chow spilled everywhere as they hoped they wouldn't tip over.  Nice.

In the comments section, tell us about your tribe's hilarious road trip stories!


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The Importance of Retreats

Retreats, camps, lock-ins, and conferences are a staple of student ministry.  While many of my articles up until this point have been toppling sacred cows (games, music, etc.), this is one with which I agree.  The benefits are myriad.

Depending on your geography, it's possible that the students in your tribe only meet once or twice a week for a couple of hours.  Your kids may be congregating and converging from many different schools, and the only shared experiences they have involve circling their chairs, playing an ice breaker, singing songs, sitting quietly and listening to a sermon, and praying.  Those are good, but they are incomplete.  It's a 90 minute or 2-hour stint, and then nothing for another 7 days.

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Open Letter: Extreme Snow Days 2010 Recap

Grace and peace to you!

The weekend of January 22-24, 2010, I traveled with my wife, two sons, two students, and two youth leaders to Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch in Stewartville, Minnesota. We descended upon the ranch for Extreme Snow Days 2010 Jr./Sr. High Retreat.

The message I brought, and the challenge I presented, was that of discipleship. Preaching primarily from the book of Luke, we discussed what it means to follow Christ. It's more than saying a prayer and then getting a ticket to Heaven. When you commit to being a disciple, it means that you are disciplining (not punishing) yourself so that you can be like that person.

In this case, we are trying to be more like Jesus. In order to be more like Jesus we must learn from scripture about who Jesus is and the things that are important to him. That first requires opening the Bible and reading about him. We learn that Jesus prayed, fasted, feasted, partied, and took care of those who needed help (among many other things).

Here are some of the practical tools I mentioned on Sunday morning, for reference:

YouVersion.com - an online Bible with Bible reading plans. I completed the Gospels in 30 days plan. Tell me about your plans and completions.

Advent Conspiracy and Living Water International.

Start a home church / small group. Eat pizza, read and study the Bible, and pray for each other.

Ironwood Springs Youth - a Facebook group. Join this you will receive occasional messages from Sam to encourage and challenge you.

If you are in charge of student ministry at any church, make sure that discipleship is a priority. "If all you do is hang out and play games, then you don't have a student ministry. You have a youth group." - Eric Robbins. Join the Disciples Tribe group on Facebook and get support. Talk to others about what you are trying to accomplish in your ministry and get support.

Be more than a youth group. Stop "going to church" and start "being the church."

I look forward to hearing what how you do that.

In Christ,
Adam Posegate