winter retreat 08: yeah, you knew it was coming

This was the best year by far. Here's why:

1. It was the LAST. Yeah, we always have a great time, but it's good to know that high school is finally coming to a close, and even though I will miss my friends dearly, I'm really excited to start a new chapter in my life relatively soon. I was a little sad, but mostly glad to be up on stage with the rest of the seniors singing "You Alone" (the same song sung by the senior class two years ago, by the way), because it really made me realize that things are finally coming to a close.

2. There was snow! Heaps and mounds of it! It snowed almost all day Thursday, and heavily all throughout Friday morning. The best feeling was waking up on Wednesday morning and putting on my sneakers, thinking it'd just be icy and beginning to melt (the snow we had when we arrived had fallen a week ago), and stepping outside to find that the entire landscape was literally blanketed in white fluff, and the ground covered in a deep, fine, glorious powder. The next few days were, for lack of a better word, magical (no homo!) as the snow fell continuously from the sky, and all of us felt like we were in a giant snow globe.

3. As always, I had an absolute blast spending time with my friends. There are too many stories to tell, but the laughter during the trip and Friday night as my friends and I remembered some of our favorite moments was the hardest and loudest I've had in a long, long time. The snow made everything more fun, of course, but I really enjoyed spending time with some of my best friends on this trip, and hope there will be many more times like that to come.

I'm not going to bore you with any more personal details or petty criticism, because I think we all know that our Winter Retreat was awesome in certain areas and definitely less-than-stellar in others. I think changing the situation is going to require a radically shifted mindset regarding the goal and purpose of Winter Retreat, which is something that probably won't happen this year or any time soon.

The current purpose for Winter Retreat, assuming my understanding of it resonates with everyone else's, is for it to be a time of profound spiritual renewal and, perhaps for some, embracing faith as a new and defining aspect of life. Therefore most of the time and effort revolves around the speakers, sessions, worship time, devotions, etc. This, I believe, is a great way for Christians to grow closer to God, because the joy of salvation and the merits of spending time alone in God's word and in prayer have already been established. But for those who have not come to faith, and are frankly not even slightly interested in coming to faith, it is a time of extreme annoyance and perhaps even further repulsion from the idea that faith can somehow radically transform their lives, or bring them true, lasting joy and fulfillment. Yet is it not these very people we seek to reach out to?

I had an extensive conversation with many of our teachers on Wednesday night about this, and was thankful that, on most subjects, we could find a lot of common ground. Some subjects were more touchy, and a few points were tossed around that I didn't entirely agree with, but didn't feel compelled to argue against or add to at the time. Now, in the quiet cowardice of my blog, I feel more readily able to share my thoughts on how best to change the format of future Winter Retreats into something that is not only more fun, but perhaps more spiritually effective.

Having worship, message, devotions, and group time all back-to-back over the course of several hours wears people out--even me! I found myself twiddling my thumbs during devotion time, mainly because I didn't feel inspired or focused whilst being subjected to a particularly horrendous Casting Crowns album, sounding much like a nagging, never-ending chronic illness emerging with its tired, diseased aura through the speakers. But I was also feeling exhausted! I had woken up at 6:30 to attend the 7:00 devotions, which I definitely enjoyed and am glad I participated in, but was tired from nonetheless. Having already spent an hour earlier that morning spending alone time with God, praying and meditating on the word, I'll have to admit that I wasn't really in the mood to do the same thing only a little while later. I'm more of a community person when it comes to that, I guess. Certainly, I think it's essential to have time set aside to be spent alone in the scriptures and in prayer (something I still am not quite as disciplined in doing as I would like), but I think time spent in community is equally important, and perhaps even more important than an isolated, one-on-one approach to faith. To me, it makes much more sense to have a time of optional early morning devotions (as we have had), and make that time the "alone time". Therefore, any Christians who feel compelled to utilize this time for their own benefit may choose to do so, and teachers aren't under the obligation later on to patrol the grounds like jail keepers and make arbitrary judgments as to how far apart people should be sitting. I won't belabor this point any further, as I think the benefits of such a change should be evident.

The shift of mindset needs to evolve from a hollow, revivalist "get-those-poor-lost-sinners-converted" approach to a more full, meaningful understanding that the most effective, proven method for change in people's lives is through community and relationships. Emphasizing the bond of those relationships, as well as uniting the community of the school as a whole, will, I think, make a much deeper impact than the kind of forced isolated contemplation that we have attempted to reinvigorate in past years. We need a new direction--that is, we need to realize that we're not called to convert the people around us, and instead recognize our calling to love, serve, and invest in the lives of the people around us, regardless of where they stand in their faith journey.

Sounds like prescriptions for a church, doesn't it? That's because Alma Heights faces an identity crisis trying to act as both a school and a church. But that's a topic for another post. That's all I have to say about Winter Retreat for now.