Time with my closest friends. All 90 of them.

I spent this weekend with about 90 of the most incredible men around at my church’s men’s retreat. It was a time for guys to do guy stuff like play sports, compete in all sorts of events, watch the Phillies beat the Cardinals and laugh way more than we should. Yep, we had a wonderful time!

I spent this weekend with about 90 of the most incredible men around at my church’s men’s retreat. It was a time for guys to do guy stuff like play sports, compete in all sorts of events, watch the Phillies beat the Cardinals and laugh way more than we should. Yep, we had a wonderful time!

But what made this time even more valuable was the stuff we covered in our group sessions. Our theme was “The God who Redeems my Story” and each session included one of our men sharing his story. Nick shared about God transforming him in the past 4 years since he gave his life to Christ. Rick talked about his marriage & family & business being changed radically by God since his conversion earlier this year. And Evan shared God’s faithful work in his family over the past four generations.

Our final session on Sunday morning was an open mic session so all the men could share…and they did. For almost 90 minutes, men shared openly about God’s redeeming work in their lives. They revealed secrets, asked for prayer & promised to live differently. And at the end of this sharing time, we celebrated communion with thanksgiving for God’s amazing gift of forgiveness that makes redemption possible.

It was a wonderful weekend and a wonderful reminder of how powerful our God is…and the power that men hold to encourage each other to live holy lives.