We held two confirmation retreats last weekend here at Sky Lake (both of which were awesome.) We had 43 youth, pastors, and adults from six different congregations participate in the Friday-Saturday Retreat and 33 from five congregations participate in the Sunday-Monday Retreat.
The theme of the first retreat was IMPACT—more specifically the impact God has had on us and the impact God expects us to have on the world. Using a variety of Bible stories as our guide, we explored the ideas of creation, call, and stewardship. The torrential downpours (at least the rain seemed like that!) may have kept us from walking around the lake Saturday morning, but it didn’t stop us from taking part in one of the favorite activities of the retreat. Each “class” was given an imaginary $50,000 by the “Levert Family Foundation” under the condition that it be divided between one to two eco-justice ministries. The clean water project in Haiti and the Nothing but Nets campaign were the top picks from the ministries presented.
The second retreat focused on how God calls each person. We began with trying to figure out different text messaging phrases, that culminated in “u r cllD”. (For you non-txt savvy folks, that would be “you are called”.) The small groups were given different Biblical characters to explore and a bag of random props. From there each group presented a short skit based on their character. The confirmands did a great job energetically portraying the calls of Moses, Esther, Jonah, the boy who shared his lunch, and the Woman at the Well. Of course, having s’mores right before the performance might have helped… After exploring spiritual disciplines and planning worship, most of the group went for a walk around the lake. Actually the hike turned more into a sliding adventure as the weekend’s rain had turned what snow was left on the path into ice! But we didn’t let that stop us from having an absolute blast.
Information on next year’s confirmation retreats will be distributed to pastors next fall. So stay tuned…
The theme of the first retreat was IMPACT—more specifically the impact God has had on us and the impact God expects us to have on the world. Using a variety of Bible stories as our guide, we explored the ideas of creation, call, and stewardship. The torrential downpours (at least the rain seemed like that!) may have kept us from walking around the lake Saturday morning, but it didn’t stop us from taking part in one of the favorite activities of the retreat. Each “class” was given an imaginary $50,000 by the “Levert Family Foundation” under the condition that it be divided between one to two eco-justice ministries. The clean water project in Haiti and the Nothing but Nets campaign were the top picks from the ministries presented.
The second retreat focused on how God calls each person. We began with trying to figure out different text messaging phrases, that culminated in “u r cllD”. (For you non-txt savvy folks, that would be “you are called”.) The small groups were given different Biblical characters to explore and a bag of random props. From there each group presented a short skit based on their character. The confirmands did a great job energetically portraying the calls of Moses, Esther, Jonah, the boy who shared his lunch, and the Woman at the Well. Of course, having s’mores right before the performance might have helped… After exploring spiritual disciplines and planning worship, most of the group went for a walk around the lake. Actually the hike turned more into a sliding adventure as the weekend’s rain had turned what snow was left on the path into ice! But we didn’t let that stop us from having an absolute blast.
Information on next year’s confirmation retreats will be distributed to pastors next fall. So stay tuned…
