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Young Adults Retreat · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On our podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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  to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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  what God is doing in us and in our community.
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  This fall, we're living in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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  and John and learning how to live from our model, Jesus.
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  This conversation was inspired by our series The Gospels.
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  You can find more information about our church at
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  fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for joining us for this
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  conversation. Welcome to a special edition of
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  the podcast, and I am joined here by.
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  Elizabeth Boswell. And Rebecca Andrade?
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  And myself, you should know me by now.
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  We're here to talk a little bit about the young adults retreat
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  that we went on this past weekend, since Scott has
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  abandoned the ship to go to Kentucky on vacation.
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  What a destination. I'm just saying that everybody
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  at this table would love to be in Kentucky for various reasons
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  right now. My reason is because Asbury is
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  great and I had a wonderful time there, even though it was
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  intense. Why would you want to be in
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  Kentucky? I.
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  Don't know. I thought you were going to tell
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  me. Elizabeth.
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  Oh. I'd have fun.
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  That sounds horrible. She likes Kentucky just as much
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  as everybody else does. Anyways, any who's, for those
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  that have not talked with anyone that has been on a previous
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  young adults retreat, can one of you share with us kind of what
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  the retreat looks like? Because I think most people are
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  familiar with, like, you go to a retreat center, organize buffet
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  meals and then like, corporate worship with whoever's there.
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  And then you get hotel rooms and whatnot or cabins, depending on,
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  you know, the type of retreat center with all the amenities
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  that are on the property. But what does ours look like?
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  Well, it was Elizabeth's first time, so I guess maybe she might
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  not know that. They always kind of look like
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  this, but looks like us going up to the Poconos.
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  New addition is being able to go out to eat beforehand.
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  I feel like normally we just cruise all the way up there and
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  then we do something, you know, a session the first evening,
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  usually short because we're getting up there late and
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  everybody's tired from the day. The next day we usually do 2
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  sessions along with activities like swimming, gyming,
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  pickleballing, eating yummy food.
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  And then the next day we usually do one session in the morning
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  and then come home. Out of this year, it seems very
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  interesting since I've done now. This year we did a boys retreat
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  up there, girls retreat for our youth and then the young adults
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  retreat up there. Every single one has been unique
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  even though the general flow has been the same and so I'm
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  curious. Top few memories from the trip
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  that you'd be willing to share and won't get me fired.
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  My top three, I'll say from the weekend, were in no specific
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  order. It's very specific.
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  We're playing pickleball. Shout out to my All Star
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  teammate Kim. We definitely did it there.
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  When she said did it, she doesn't mean won the games.
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  We won one. Just one out of like I can't
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  remember how many if it. Was famous first time.
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  Ever playing hey, hey, hey, we don't need to add any caveats to
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  that. Getting to sleep in because my
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  children were with my mother and father and the quiet time I had
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  out in the woods. So she kind of stole mine.
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  That's. OK, that's OK.
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  Playing with Kim. And.
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  Losing pickleball with Kim. No, I got to, I got to see
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  Kirsten after a whole while. That was really fun.
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  And Aaron, I haven't gotten to talk to them for a while.
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  And it was just nice to be like not having something to do.
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  Like I guess like being at college for the past couple of
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  months, I've been like one thing after another and then coming
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  home, I have one thing after another.
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  So it's nice to just like sit and breathe.
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  And so then I guess like, I really enjoyed my quiet time,
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  like out in the woods, just like sitting and being with God and
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  like, which is so which is so weird because like going to a
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  Christian School, you would think you'd have time with God
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  and it's like very hard to find like individual time with God.
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  And so that was very nice. For sure Now for those that know
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  Kirsten, you can ask her why she was absent for multiple hours on
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  the retreat. We're.
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  Not going to go into detail here on the podcast.
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  I would say that would only be her second mistake on the
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  retreat. That's what I'd say, yeah.
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  Ask Kirsten about that if you know her.
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  But since you both brought up going into the woods, can
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  somebody explain or I'll explain the activity if you?
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  Make it back great if you don't. Make sure you find Jesus while
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  you're out there. Kim fell, though.
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  She really? Thought she really did follow.
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  She heard her knee, actually. I got I almost.
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  Got hoping we don't get a lawsuit.
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  I almost got tetanus on the girls retreat because there was
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  a random metal spike sticking up out of the ground in the woods
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  and it went through my shoe into my foot anyway.
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  But it didn't happen to a student, so it's all that
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  matters. It was me.
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  Yeah. So the the activity was to go
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  out into the woods behind the house.
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  There's like 5 acres of woods with a nice little stream back
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  there and a bunch of family of deer or doe foes and kind of
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  spend time with God and prayer and scripture with him.
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  And we would send everyone out one at a time so they just got
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  that individual time with a comfortable chair so that they
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  didn't have to focus on their hurting feces.
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  Why did that time stand out to you?
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  How did God meet you in that time?
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  Well, we got to pick a scripture Jeremy had set out.
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  I think it was like 3 or 4 different scriptures with loose
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  like themes in them to pick. I believe I picked Psalm 19,
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  which I think was just about like reflecting on God in
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  nature. But it was nice because it was
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  far enough out there there was nobody really around.
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  So it was nice to read the scripture out loud like a couple
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  times over. It was nice to pray and talk to
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  God out loud without, I don't know, being self-conscious or
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  worrying about like someone else listening or whatever.
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  And the time went by, we did like 20 minute increments, and
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  the time went by very quickly. Like I didn't even realize that
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  I was at the end of my time. What happened, I don't know.
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  It's just not something that I get to do often.
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  So I think that's probably why. And living here in Collingswood,
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  there's trees and grass, but it's not the same as being out
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  to be where you can't be seen or you can't be heard.
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  So just getting that like away time felt good to me.
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  Oh, yeah. I guess it's just like I picked
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  my scripture. I think it was Matthew 6.
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  I want to say that was the one that I'm like, on anxiety,
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  right? Yeah.
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  So I guess it's just necessarily like, it's a very common
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  scripture. I feel like you hear a lot kind
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  of like, like God takes care of the sparrows and like, do not
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  worry about tomorrow or tomorrow.
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  Worry about stuff like that kind of whole general theme.
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  But like, I don't know, I think just sitting there and
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  marinating on it and reading it over and over and then it kind
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  of gets in your head and then you actually start to like
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  really like think about and believe it.
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  I feel like so easy to just like read something once like, Oh
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  yeah, I know this already. And it's kind of glaze over it.
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  And then the fact that I was sitting out there for like 25
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  minutes just like in my own thoughts helped with that.
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  Because I think that when you don't have any distractions,
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  they know like people screaming in the hall or like outside or
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  no, like roommates in the room doing whatever while you're
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  trying to like talk to God or something, it's a lot less
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  distracting. So you can actually like, focus
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  solely on God without anything else.
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  I was going to say, I did find because I'm in the emotional
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  healthy spirituality class and in that class, part of our daily
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  devotional is 2 minutes of silence before and after the
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  devotional every day. And I was surprised at how much
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  easier it was to focus on being silent in the woods.
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  I mean, there were parts where I was talking out loud, right?
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  But when I was trying to be silent, it was a lot easier for
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  me to focus being silent in the woods.
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  And not like my head get clouded with stuff than it is when I'm
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  like here at home in the house or, you know, on the front porch
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  or whatever. So I don't know bonus of nature.
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  I guess, yeah. And I even find in that setting
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  that like your distractions, unless like someone's mowing
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  their lawn somewhat nearby and it echoes, it's like the
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  distractions also point you to God because you're seeing his
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  creation and him reflected through his creation.
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  And so, yeah, it reminds me, I forget some authors, someone
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  wiser than me talked about how all of like, the sounds of
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  nature are made by and for God. And so it's like his creation
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  singing out to him and being surrounded by that is always
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  wonderful. And relating to what Elizabeth
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  said about like kind of breezing over a scripture that you feel
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  familiar with and not letting it maybe fully sink in.
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  I was having that that trouble today and in one of my textbooks
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  because it was like, let me find a section for you to just
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  visually see as a group since where they can see it.
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  Look at this, like this is the the scripture quote that it's
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  like the entire page. And I was like, I just taught on
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  this last week or like in the past month, like do I really
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  need to go back through these? And so I like had to be like,
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  there's always value the speaker, the spirit can always
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  speak and illuminate something new.
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  Like to go through it instead of just for the sake of time to
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  just breeze over the scripture. And so yeah, I, I would highly
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  recommend maybe not overlooking certain passages just because we
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  feel a sense of familiarity with them.
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  How would you like to be intentional because we talked on
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  the retreat about being intentional about creating space
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  and time like that with God. How do you plan on doing that
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  post retreat? That's a great question.
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  That's why it's my job. Have me quit my job and we move
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  out in the middle of the woods. No, I mean, I would like to move
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  out in the middle of the woods, but I don't want you to quit
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  your job. I leave you in the boys behind,
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  and I live in the woods. Oh, how would that help me get
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  quiet time? I didn't work out the details.
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  No in mind. I mean, we'll probably have to
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  be either getting up before the kids know you're going for a
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  walk or on nights when Jeremy's home at bedtime, maybe trying to
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  go for a walk before it's like super late and super dark out by
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  myself because I don't really get a lot of alone time.
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  So yeah, that's probably where I would have to carve it out.
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  I thought it's going to and I hope to.
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  Yeah, for me, I just have to be very intentional of like setting
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  aside like a scheduled time every day because I just feel
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  like, especially transitioning into college, it's been like,
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  oh, I have to get up here and do this, but then I have work to do
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  now. So then once I get that done,
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  then I have to go straight to this.
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  Otherwise that's skip eating this or doing XY or Z.
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  So then I feel like it's like me having to like write down my
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  whole schedule and then be like, OK, this time I'm doing this and
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  then like actually build everything around it rather than
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  like trying to cram it. And when I do have time and like
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  I would say before classes, but realistically, I don't think
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  that's going to happen. But I think probably best time
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  would probably be when I'm like going for a run or like walking
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  around like the campus, like further back at the campus where
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  there's not many people. It's very pretty out there.
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  I was going to go in my Delilah voice and be like and so
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  listener. When are you going to find the
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  time to go out and be alone with God?
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  It's hard to do it in the suburbs surrounded by nature,
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  but there are parks within 1520 minutes where you can not see a
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  house while standing in the woods.
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  So if God has allowed you the opportunity and the ability to
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  go be there, take a nice chair, get comfy, spend some time with
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  God, bring your Bible, not just your phone Bible, because then
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  guess what? Phones can be distracting.
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  That's the big surprising news here that you're only going to
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  get on this podcast. We're all attached to these
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  little cubes of useless information for the most part,
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  but we'll convince ourselves it's for connection anyway.
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  Do you have any parting words for the people?
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  If you are a young adult and didn't go on the retreat, you
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  missed out. Make sure you go next year.
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  A lot of fun. And we went early enough in fall
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  that we got to see all the fall leaves and we got the star gaze.
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  Didn't even mention that. My favorite part of that was the
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  pointer. Oh my gosh, that thing is
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  awesome. So laser pointer St. straight in
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  the sky in point of the star. Exactly.
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  That's pretty much all I wanted to do after I saw it.
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  But anyway, yeah, come to come to the next one.
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  It's a good time. What Rebecca said.