Chapter Retreat Highlights

I'm still a bit sleep-deprived two days after getting back from my chapter retreat, but here are a few highlights:

-The unique thing about UNC's chapter retreat is that it is almost entirely student-led, run by seniors who plan the schedule and lead worship. But it is the seniors who give testimonies about God's work in their lives during their time in college that year in and year out have tremendous impact. This year I was especially moved and proud of the seniors who shared. Their willingess to be both raw about the hard stuff (like faith doubts, struggles in relationships, depression, hard family stuff, and the like) as well as their commitment to be deeply glad about the ways that God had redeemed that hard stuff--or the hope that they had that he would do so eventually. Collectively they struck that hard balance between being brutally honest about how hard things had been at points and how good God was in the midst of it. Their honesty and vulnerability really set us up well for...

-Saturday night is always the high-point of the weekend. We split up by men and women, sit in a circle and put an empty chair in the middle. We invite anyone who wants prayer to share what they need prayer for and then they move to the empty chair in the middle while we pray for them. Imagine 40 men and 70 women sitting in (different) rooms, confessing sin, sharing stuff they've never told anyone, asking for help with situations that they're in. It's powerful stuff. Bringing darkness out into the light is always transformational. For many of these students, they'll remember men's and women's prayer at chapter retreat for the rest of their lives as a high point of their college careers.

-Long after the praying was done on Saturday night, I was having a follow-up conversation with a student about what he had shared during men's prayer. Two more guys pulled up chairs. We began revelling in the glory days of the Saturday Night Live era of my day (Chris Farley was especially venerated). The conversation then shifted into questions of theology and personal conviction, of questions that don't have easy answers. It was 2:45 a.m. when we finally turned out all the lights and headed off to bed. It was one of those moments that reminds me why I love my job so much.

-Sunday morning, in my groggy state, I gave a talk about bringing the community that had been fostered over the course of the weekend back home to campus. I was able to share some of the thoughts from last week's post about Continuous Partial Relationships and the deep loneliness that so many of my students feel. They certainly resonated with that and I was encouraged to hear some of them process those things in the short celebration share time we had in the end.

All in all, a good weekend in the midst of a full semester. But what the heck am I doing still up? It's 8:45 and I'm off to bed.