{"id":5131,"date":"2014-04-10T09:03:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T09:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5131"},"modified":"2014-04-10T09:20:16","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T09:20:16","slug":"men-in-retreat-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/men-in-retreat-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Men in Retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How do you get men in retreat?\u00a0 Ask them to join the quilt group; teach children\u2019s Sunday School; or bake a quiche maybe?\u00a0 Seriously, I was thinking more of a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">spiritual<\/span> retreat.<\/p>\n<p>Every year in Spring, our Dutch church is a guest of a church in Surry at their men\u2019s retreat.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful time of worship, discipleship and fellowship.\u00a0 This year was no different.\u00a0 A relevant topic (Faith at Work) led by mature Christians from our host church and including a guest speaker; a De Vere conference hotel at GBP75 per night full board, with use of gym, pool and sauna; the latter necessary to compensate for all the chocolate, pretzels and cake available throughout the day, with not a quiche or a salad in sight!<\/p>\n<p>An inspiring time where men in small groups came together to share their varied life experiences in a natural and open way for the benefit of the group members.<\/p>\n<p>Two things struck me: the richness of those experiences, particularly in the older men; but also the respect and interest with which the younger ones listened (and hopefully absorbed!) the lessons learned and mistakes made over 50+ years.\u00a0 Not only at the table but in the side conversations throughout the time together. Diverse backgrounds but one in Christ; sharing nourishing spiritual food.<\/p>\n<p>So, how do you get men in retreat?\u00a0 One way is to consider combining with another church or churches to boost the numbers, increase the diversity and reduce the cost per head.\u00a0 If it\u2019s yet to happen in your church, give it a go, it\u2019s so rewarding.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><i><sup>24\u00a0<\/sup>And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,<sup>25\u00a0<\/sup>not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another\u2014and all the more as you see the Day approaching.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Hebrews 10:24-25<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/men-in-retreat-2\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you get men in retreat?\u00a0 Ask them to join the quilt group; teach children\u2019s Sunday School; or bake a quiche maybe?\u00a0 Seriously, I was thinking more of a spiritual retreat. Every year in Spring, our Dutch church is a guest of a church in Surry at their men\u2019s retreat.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":5121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[925,125,924,923,368,351],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Mens_retreat_full-1024x274.jpg?fit=1024%2C274&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-1kL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6014,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/a-mens-advance\/","url_meta":{"origin":5131,"position":0},"title":"A MEN\u2019S ADVANCE","date":"9 April 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cMen\u2019s Retreats\u201d may be a thing of the past if a trend to call them \u201cMen\u2019s Advances\u201d takes off! This spring men from my Dutch expat church (APCH) were again kindly invited to share fellowship, discipleship and worship with a similar church in Surrey (ICC). Initially there was a lack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/1-timothy-2v8.jpg?fit=640%2C428&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":48,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/carls-thoughts\/real-men-dont-do-church-part-three\/","url_meta":{"origin":5131,"position":1},"title":"Real Men Don&#039;t Do Church &#8211; Part Three","date":"12 August 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Let\u2019s think now about the more personal issues that a man faces.\u00a0 Sure, there will be a fa\u00e7ade that most men construct that says, \u201cHey, I\u2019m doing just great\u201d but behind that there is often a much more raw reality. \u00a0Many men are really wrestling with issues such as sexual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Carl Beech&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7301,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/life-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":5131,"position":2},"title":"Life &#038; Work","date":"17 January 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is it so difficult to get men involved with the church? We don\u2019t have to spend long in many of our churches up and down the country to realise that, in many congregations, there are a lot more women than there are men. Why is this, and is there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/quickfire-scotland.jpg?fit=526%2C276&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7445,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/international-womens-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":5131,"position":3},"title":"International Women\u2019s Day","date":"8 March 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day today \u2013 so why is Christian Vision for Men highlighting this? In lots of spheres across the world, people are working for equal opportunities for men and women. CVM is involved in this too\u2026 The problems The current average gender ratio in the UK Church is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IWD.png?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3263,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/man-sunday\/","url_meta":{"origin":5131,"position":4},"title":"Man Sunday","date":"8 November 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Level Four evangelism \u2013 \u201cman-friendly church\u201d was once a far-off, lofty place we only aspired to one day reach. In the meantime, there was a whole stack of work to be shifted in getting Levels One and Two off the ground. (To the uninitiated, in CVM\u2019s Four-Level Evangelism Strategy, these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/CVM-50plus-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":401,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/news\/where-have-all-the-men-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":5131,"position":5},"title":"Where Have All The Men Gone?","date":"9 February 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In an article from the 9th of February Steve Doughty of the Daily Mail picks up on the problem of male attendance in the church, as highlighted by the Church of England. Dwindling numbers of men at Church of England services have resulted in a 'testosterone deficit' among the faithful,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5132,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5131\/revisions\/5132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}