The National Brotherhood Retreat will be held again this year in Nashville, Indiana. The venue will again be the Abe Martin Lodge. The dates for the retreat are August 26-28, 2010.We really look forward to a high time in the Lord this year. More information will be posted here as plans develop in the coming weeks.
2008 National Retreat Snippets
On August 27th the Brotherhood of the Churches of God Sanctified descended upon the The Brown County State Park and the hotels with a shout!! Some stayed at the Abe Martin Lodge while others stayed at the Brown County Inn.
Brothers came from near and far… the Southeastern district, the Northern district, Central district and the Tri-State district. All came looking to enjoy a spiritual uplift, fun, frolicking, and recreation for mind and soul. This retreat was the first such event for the national Brotherhood in over a hundred years of our existence. Bishop Mosley was the lone bishop attending this auspicious event… we appreciate you! This endeavor was spearheaded by our spiritual “guru” and national president Elder Charles Harris. The orchestration and implementation took two years of planning with his superb team to enable the retreat to come to fruitition.
If you did not attend, you missed a powerful and spirit filled three days of relationship building and spiritual growth. God was in the forefront and in the midst of our retreat.
There were spiritual sessions held on the first evening where some one hundred men and boys listened and participated in our “Men to Boys to Men” workshop. God was lifted up in song and in Word. After this session we all retired to our rustic cabins to anticipate the next day’s activities. There were activities for us all on Friday…golf, horseback riding, swimming, fishing, hiking softball and cooking! The talent pool was varied from event to event, but a great time was had by all. At 1:30 p.m. all participants were informed that lunch/cookout was being served so it was imperative that we conclude our morning activities and come to lunch. There was a workshop on developing and growing for God during our lunch. We later enjoyed more leisurely activities that led to the evening workshop.
During Friday night, there was another cookout bonding service where relationships were made and strategies were discussed and shared from district to district. We talked about the best practices in each of our districts to enhance the organism known as the Brotherhood.
The men came armed with their golf clubs, their fishing rods and reels, their baseball gloves and bats, their horseback riding gear and their finely tuned voices to sing to the glory of God. Once we had worked up voracious appetite, we readied ourselves to partake of the exquisite cuisine cooked up by our excellent cooks. Deacon Tyner headed up a superb team of cooling connoisseurs that absolutely “threw down” both meals at the retreat.
The surroundings were beautiful and it bode well with our mission statement “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” On Saturday morning we had breakfast early at the lodge so we could begin our wrap-up for the retreat. Our session consisted of analyzing what went well at this event and making suggestions on how to improve things for the next event. We also diagnosed some of the things that could be done better so that we could have a better turnout next time. We prayed the Lord’s blessing upon us as we all headed home and we said our fond farewells to each other. We concluded our meeting on August 29th.
A great time was experienced by all… thank God that no brother got sick or was injured during our weekend. All brothers were able to return home safely after the retreat. We salute our national president Elder Charles Harris for his untiring efforts to bring this retreat to fruition. Great job Elder Harris!! We will do better next time…each one reach one.
God Bless our efforts!!