By Tierney Boss
CBFNC Appalachian State University Campus Minister
The weekend of CBSF’s Fall Retreat is simultaneously one of the most exhausting weekends of the year, and one that is most highly anticipated. Once a year, students and young adults from all across the state of North Carolina are provided with an opportunity at Mt. Shepherd Retreat Center in Asheboro to break from their routines that they might worship, rest, learn and play while surrounded by a community that loves and cares for them. Friendships are made, relationships are strengthened and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship becomes a community and a resource that is tangible for these young people.
We are oh so fortunate that our network is wide. We have partners from CBF Global, Schools of Divinity, Baptist Women in Ministry and our local churches working together to provide a few days for our students and young adults to just be. While our campus ministerial staff has the privilege of meeting with and living life with the young people in our particular regions every week during the school year, Fall Retreat offers a time for us to share our communities with one another. It’s a time of celebration and a time of rest unlike anything else that we get during the year. It really is something special.
When students and young adults arrived Friday night, after finding their cabins and hugging the necks of friends from other parts of the state, all joined together in a cozy A-frame cabin space for worship. The first order of things? Everyone played a silly game called Egg, Chicken, Dinosaur. Pastors from local churches, our campus ministry team and all our young people walked around the room squawking like chickens and stomping around like dinosaurs. It was mayhem. It was loud. And the game gave everyone in attendance the opportunity to play while we introduced ourselves and became comfortable in the space where we would spend the weekend. The energy was palpable. After the chaos subsided and we declared our winners (to the thunderous applause that only an audience of 20-somethings have truly mastered) we settled into the worship space and introduced our theme for the weekend.
Deciding on a theme for retreat each year is a labor of love that involves finding where the natural course and needs of our individual ministries and communities across North Carolina intersect. This year, our theme was Finding Balance: Living Intentionally in a Busy World. Together we decided that we wanted all participants to explore God’s invitation to a life that was both purposeful and sustainable—a life marked by meaningful work, rhythms of rest and trust in God’s presence amid life’s many demands.
Our weekend truly began to take shape when we introduced Mary and Martha in Luke 10. The story of Martha being faithful in her good work and of Mary sitting and listening at the feet of Jesus became the image that we wanted all to embody for the weekend. This was a goal that seemed exceptionally lofty, but also one that came to us more naturally than expected. After Friday night’s session, our young people decided they were all in.
Saturday morning before breakfast, many found their way down to a patio that jutted out into a lake. As the sun rose and fog swirled across the water, several of us spent our morning together stretching in silence. Have you ever tried to get a group of young people awake and moving before 7:00 a.m.? We couldn’t believe how many chose to wake with the sun to make the most of their Saturday. The tone was set for the weekend.
After breakfast, our campus minister that was charged with leading worship opened the space to all those who wanted to lead in music. Again, so many students stepped forward to participate. There is something especially holy about being led by students early in the morning, praising God while the room still smells like cinnamon rolls. As far as Saturday mornings go, I don’t know that there are many better than that. This session was different from Friday evenings’, in that after the sermon, students and young adults had the opportunity to break into tabled discussion groups. We played a balancing game to keep the morning’s energy going, and to bring discussion back to maintaining balance in our everyday lives. Students took time to explore and share when and how they were most productive and unproductive, when they were most rested or unsettled.
After several meaningful conversations were had, students broke out into different activities with the intent to explore different ways in which we can slow down. Because everyone is different, our range of activities were wide. One of our Campus Specialists led students in contemplative prayer, centered around awe, gratitude, and connection. Another minister led students in a Forest Bathing experience, while others discovered stillness in art expressions. Some found rest in running through the forest, while some put into practice some meditative prayer postures.
The rest of our weekend was every bit as explorative and conversational. Meals. Worship. Rest. A giant water slide named Wet Willy that threw students, young adults, staff and partners about 7 feet in the air before dropping them in the lake. Prayer. Fire pits. Communion. A sequined vest and bingo games. All were elements that helped us learn what it was to build community and retreat together.
As a campus minister, I cherish this retreat each year. I spend an absurd amount of time with college students and young adults in Boone, NC—but this retreat offers something different. I leave each year with a better understanding of who my students are and what they need. This unique experience offers us a different kind of time with one another. I fall back in love with campus ministry. My students and young adults look forward to this retreat because they know they are going to have a good time, yes, but also because they truly enjoy being a part of a much broader fellowship. They make new friends, ask important questions, leave with a host of resources and have the opportunity to learn from different ministries across the state.
Time moves especially fast when you’re young, and our young people find it increasingly difficult to find space to slow down and reflect. It is truly an honor to assist in providing a well structured, fun and intentional retreat for students and young adults to do just that.
