Trinity Bible Church
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February 29 – March 2, 2008
Newsletters:
• Jan. 08, 2008 »» retreat intro and overview
• Jan. 17, 2008 »» "down time" opportunities
• Jan. 23, 2008 »» Saturday night variety show
• Feb. 06, 2008 »» something for all ages, "The Corner"
• Feb. 20, 2008 »»
Cell phone coverage at Singing Hills is spotty. Most users can find reception somewhere on the grounds to make calls, but shouldn't rely on cells for receiving any expected calls. In an emergency, someone can get a message to you by calling Singing Hills at 469-3236, a phone that will be monitored by staff the whole time we're there.
20 February 2008
Dear Church Family:
You'll be happy to know the deacons are making arrangements this week to reclaim our
parking lot from the snow banks. I heard it was a little crazy out there this past Sunday!
Some of my earlier letters about our upcoming retreat (9 days and counting!) have
focused on the fun, frivolous, fellowship side of things. While that is intentionally part of
the design for our weekend together as a church family, we're also going there to
Singing Hills to be spiritually fed and to be challenged to grow in our walk with Christ.
As you know, our theme this year is "Inside Out". During the four main sessions our
speaker, Ron Blue, will be sharing from several passages in Isaiah to help us explore
God's desire not only to work within us as His people, but to work through us as we look
outside ourselves and learn to love and care for others near and far.
Here's how that will map out during the course of the weekend:
Friday evening
Saturday morning
Saturday afternoon
Sunday morning
Inside Out before the Lord
Inside Out with the Brethren
Inside Out in the Community
Inside Out to Touch the World
— Sense His Passion
— See His Purpose
— Share His Provision
— Sound His Praises
I'm confident that you'll be both challenged and encouraged by Ron's messages as we
take a fresh look together at our relationships with God and with others. Once again
this year there will be a book table for those who may want to dig a little deeper in one
aspect or another of the retreat's focus. We'll have a few copies of several titles
available for purchase, as well as some "idea" books that you can pick up and browse
during a quiet moment while we're together. Even the jigsaw puzzles set up in the
lounge will reinforce the theme in some surprising ways! I look forward to watching how
the Lord uses our weekend to shape us for what He has in store for our ongoing
ministry together!
If you've already registered, I'll enclose some details with this letter; if you haven't, this
Sunday is not too late!
Your fellow servant,
Dr. Ron Blue has served on the faculty of Dallas Seminary off and on since 1965, also serving as a
missionary in Spain and Guatemala and later president of CAM International. I got to know Ron as
part of a small group of first-year students who met with him for lunch every other Friday, and also
was in his Intro to World Missions class. You'll enjoy his teaching; if you'll also connect with him
during some of the unstructured time of the retreat, you'll appreciate his genuinely positive and
encouraging nature. Ron will be traveling alone this time, but he is married to his wife Libby, and
they have three grown children: Lisa, Laurie, and David.
Dear Church Family:
So far over 70 of us have registered for the Church Family Retreat, with three Sundays still left before the big weekend (Feb. 29 - March 2)! If you haven't signed up yet, you can do that in the foyer when you're here, or e-mail me if you want to go ahead and get your name in. Beth has the info posted on the website.
The retreat really is designed for the whole church family, from the smallest children all the way up to…… Well, it might be unwise to specify the other end of the spectrum, but it's for adults too, and all those in between. In previous letters I've written about some of the free time options for "kids" of all ages, but here are a few of the younger age groups and what they can expect in and around the programmed part of the weekend:
| Nursery | K4 thru 2nd grade | Grades 3-5 | Middle / High Schoolers |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Quality childcare in the comfortable, carpeted Sunset Room, in one wing of the Chapel Complex.
Questions or concerns? See |
Clues and secret messages will await their arrival! Get ready for tents
under the stars, a surprise party, and adventures to China, Africa &
the Arabian desert! We'll join our families for worship in song at each
meeting, then head downstairs together to find out who God wants us to be
friends with, and how He tells us to do it!
Questions? Contact or |
Come expectng the unexpected! Ron "Blue's Clues" Trivia? Door prizes? Your
own conference tables during the meetings? Private food stashes? If you were
afraid you'd be bored, get ready to turn your expectations inside out!
Questions? Contact |
Process the teen-focused take-away point of the main sessions in a group discussion with other teens and your leaders.
Hit the tubing hill by afternoon, play Apples to Apples by night. |
We want to learn and to grow together that weekend as a church family, so the program content for the younger children will parallel the "Inside Out" theme that the rest of us are focusing on with keynote speaker Ron Blue. Parents should be set up for some interesting conversations between sessions as they compare notes with their kids.
Your fellow servant,
P.S.
This Sunday I'll have some significant progress to report in our search for an associate pastor!
23 January 2008
Dear Fellow Members of "the Herd",*
Today I've got another piece of our upcoming Church Family Retreat to unveil.
For those of you who are just catching up on your mail, we're preparing for our
second annual all-church retreat at Singing Hills in Plainfield the weekend of
Feb. 29 - March 2, with the theme "Inside Out". I hope you're clearing the calendar
so you can join us; let me know if you need me to pray specifically for you in that
regard, e.g., if you're asking your boss for the weekend off. Registration and
information are available in the foyer and on the church website.
The new detail for today is that we'll once again be having a variety show on Saturday evening at the retreat. Last year I invited you all to come up with something interesting, fun, edifying, even outside the box, to share with the rest of us in a low-key, kick-back-together program where we could just "be family" and enjoy one another. Since it was our first attempt at such a program, most adults were understandably reluctant to take the risk of embarrassing themselves. Well, those who were there last year know that I effectively brought down that barrier with the video my family put together! : Now that I have set the standard for "lighten up", nobody has any reason to hold back!
Sooo… it's time to dust off your creativity, talk about it around the dinner table
and in your small groups, and come up with your "act". It can be funny or serious, one
person or a whole group. Sing a song. Juggle. Prepare a short skit. Read a poem. Do
a kazoos-and-armpits rendition of "1812 Overture". Play an instrument. Do an interpretive
dance. (Not you, Ernie!) Be a standup comic. Pull a rabbit out of a hat……… Do you get
the general idea? To provide some incentive, if there's a good response to this invitation,
we'll bring out the Deans' DVD for an encore showing! When you get your idea, run it by Kim,
who's handling the lineup this year.
The variety show will round out a great day - after the encouragement and biblical
challenge from our speaker, after an afternoon of hiking or sliding or games or fireside
chats, we'll look forward to relaxing in the chapel for an hour of listening and laughing
and loving our church family.
Your fellow-servant,
PS
* For those who weren't here on Sunday, I talked about the church as a
"weird herd of animals".
The sermon is available online if you missed it.
17 January 2008
Dear Church Family,
I'd like to add to the "picture" I started painting for you last week of our second
annual church family retreat coming up the weekend of March 1, particularly for those
of you who weren't around or were unable to join us last March for our first one. Last week
I mentioned the program for that weekend, with our keynote speaker addressing the theme
of Inside Out during our four main sessions, starting Friday night. (Stay tuned for news
about the children's program.) But the structured parts of the weekend, the meetings and the
content, are only one side of the retreat. The other side, equally important, will be the
opportunity to just hang out together as "family" and strengthen our relationships in a fun
and relaxed setting. Like last year, the schedule will include chunks of time for us to take
advantage of what Singing Hills has to offer:
• an awesome tubing hill if our winter continues the way it's started
• trails for snowshoeing or cross country skiing (rentals available)
• ice skating if they've got the pond cleared
• comfortable fireside lounges with a ready supply of coffee, tea, and hot cocoa
• a rec room with ping pong and foosball
• a dining hall with views of the western New Hampshire hills and decent food that none of us has to prepare!
For indoor activities, we're bringing back Skip BoBo, introduced last year as the
"official" retreat card game, along with other table games to enjoy together. (I understand
Apples to Apples will be making another appearance.) We'll have a couple of theme-related
jigsaw puzzles set up where people can either camp out for awhile or just stop by to plug in
a piece or two. (One of the puzzles this year will be 3D!) There will be a book table for
those who may want to curl up on a couch and feed the soul. And opportunities for conversation
will abound throughout the weekend - with one another, with our speaker Ron Blue, and with the
Furmans, our missionaries who will be joining us for the weekend. The two lodging wings are
connected to the central lounge and the chapel, so with a baby monitor, parents might even be
able to enjoy some extra adult fellowship after the kids go down in the evening.
I really hope you'll come for the weekend. I'm enclosing a registration form in case you didn't
pick one up yet. Bob will be at Church Retreat Central in the foyer on Sunday to answer your
questions.
Counting the days (43 as of today),
08 January 2008
Dear Church Family,
It was about this time last year I started writing you once a week to
cast the elders' vision for an all-church retreat - a weekend for us
to get away together as a church family for the primary purpose of grow-
ing in our walk with Christ. I explained that there's something about a
change of pace, a variation in venue, breaking away from the noise and
distractions of our normal day-to-day context, that enables us to tune
in to the voice of God through His word in a fresh way. And there's
something about doing that together that galvanizes us as a church
family and catapults us forward in the Lord's service.
The positive response last year was tremendous, so much so that we've decided to make this an annual event. This year's theme will be "Inside Out", focusing on how a healthy walk with God, beginning on the heart level, expresses itself in the world around us. I'm psyched that we've booked a speaker whom I've known and respected since seminary, Dr. Ron Blue. A professor at Dallas Seminary, Ron's ministry has taken him to over 50 countries, and we're privileged to have him as our keynote speaker. You'll be encouraged not only by his messages, but by his contagious joy, which Dave Furman and I recently agreed is Ron's most noticeable trademark!
The dates this year are February 29 - March 2, once again at Singing Hills
Conference Center in Plainfield. The facilities there, while not exactly a Hilton
resort, work quite well for our purposes. Most families will lodge in their own
rooms on the two wings of the chapel complex, where we'll have our meetings and hang
out together during free time. The dining room is right across the parking lot, and
(weather permitting) the tubing hill, playground, skating pond, and hiking/skiing
trailheads are a short walk away.
We'll fill in the details over the next few weeks, but for now I wanted to urge you
to carve out the time and set aside the money to sign up. For
those who work weekends, start now making arrangements to trade off with someone
or do what you need to do to clear those dates. If you're going away for school
vacation, seriously consider coming back that Friday to join us! The registration
this year will be $30/person, with an $80/family cap. We're still underwriting
much of the cost from the general budget in order to keep it affordable and to
enable everyone to participate. If the increased fee is going to be an obstacle
for you, please let one of the elders know.
Finally, please be praying that God will use this year's retreat as He did last year
to grow us and to strengthen our fellowship and our shared ministry at Trinity.
Your fellow-servant,
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This page was last updated on 01/14/10