GOING ON A RETREAT

"And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart," (Matthew 17:1)

Back in 1980, I can still hear the new youth pastor, Denny Seler, at the old Christian Life Center Church in Walpole getting up and announcing to the teenagers, "Now young people- now we're going on a retreattt."  Yes, with his central Pennsylvania  accent, he pronounced "retreat" as if it had several "ts" at the end!  At that time taking a bunch of teenagers on a retreat meant monitoring shaving cream fights, and other such antics  (ref. the kind of behavior "Reese" does on the "Malcolm in the Middle" show)!  I was really glad I was not the youth pastor.  He could "have it"!  (Today, Denny Seler is a very successful missionary and educator to Latin America so somehow he survived those retreats!)

Well, I'll be going on a retreat this week but it's very different than those Denny Seler retreats of the early 1980s.  I'll be at the "John 17:23 Pastors' Retreat" which is being held at the Passionists' Retreat Center on South Street in Shrewsbury.  I'll be there most of Wednesday and Thursday, and I'm really looking forward to it.  If it's anything like the "John 17:23" retreats of the past few years that I've been to, then it will be spiritually refreshing and wonderful.   Fortunately, pastors over the age of 35 don't get into shaving cream fights or act like "Reese" from "Malcolm in the Middle"!

My next posting to this blog should be on Saturday, March 17; yup good old St. Patrick's Day!