Take a Camping Trip -- this is suggestion number 8 from Chris Smith's book, Growing Deeper in our Church Communities.
I don't know about a camping trip, but in the 8 years we've been at Cornerstone we've never had a church-wide retreat. We've had a couple of weekend overnight gal events, but that's it.
I like retreats. Granted, they're often exhausting and they're a boat load of work to plan, but usually there's enough free time scheduled in that you can get away into the woods to spend some time in nature and in silence. And it's a great opportunity to hang out with others in a different setting than usual for an extended period of time.
Prior to your coming to Cornerstone, I was in charge of the church activities and retreats. I organized four men's retreats: A four day raft trip outside Saratoga, Wyoming, a three day camping/fishing trip to Laramie Lake in the Rawah Wilderness, and two three day backpacking/fishing trips to the Sugarloaf Wilderness in the Medicine Bow area near Centential, Wyoming. For families, I organized and hosted a three day camping trip at our Ranch in North Park, during a major meteorite shower. I also organized a sledding day with Northwoods up in Wyoming and a few local day activities for Dads & kids to the fish hatchery in Bellvue, and bowling here in Fort Collins. All were well attended and did a lot to bring families together. I'd be glad to help pull something together this summer if you think there's enough interest.
ReplyDeletemaybe we should start talking about it and see what people think. we could start small with a hike or something like that. (a three day camping trip with a major meteorite shower sounds good, though. think you could whip up another meteorite shower again?)
ReplyDeletein previous churches I've been, we had church weekends away and from my experience I'd highly recommend these. you get to know people on a different level when you've sat with them at breakfast/gone for a challenging walk together/had a barn dance or whatever. and being in a different setting - it can really free people.
ReplyDeleteThat's the fairly easy part:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theastronomer.org/forthcoming_meteors.html
In 2010, moonlight conditions will be favourable for the maxima of the Perseids, Taurids and Geminids. The Quadrantids, Lyrids, Eta Aquarids, Orionids and Leonids will suffer from significant moonlight interference, whilst the Delta Aquarids-S and Ursids peak close to Full Moon and thus will be severely affected.. lol! sounds like a quick summary of a new sci-fi show coming out. ;-)
ReplyDelete