Old Stone Church, Sawmill Creek Retreat

Old Stone Church
91 Public Square
Cleveland, Ohio

Phone
1.216.241.6145

Fax
1.216.241.6149

Church Retreat at Sawmill Creek

On Friday, September 10 and Saturday, September 11, 2004, a group of Old Stone members went to Sawmill Creek Lodge in Huron, Ohio for a retreat.

Participants shared in Bible study, activities and discussion groups to discern the direction Old Stone should take and prepare the way for a church mission study.

Discussion groups compared the challenges and opportunities that Old Stone Church is facing to the images of four stories in the Bible, and how those challenges were overcome.

Image I:

The Story of Paul’s Shipwreck, Acts 27-28

Image II:

The Story of Jonah

Image III:

The Story of Healing, John 5

Image IV:

The Story of the Vine and the Branches, John 15:1-27

Image V:

Jacob Wrestles with an Angel and Meets Esau, Genesis: 22-33

The challenges and opportunities at Old Stone were divided into two parts:

Inner workings/structure of the church

Outreach

Who Are We?

God challenges us and we are reluctant to respond

Old Stone Church needed to go through conflicts and troubled waters to come to grips with God’s challenge

Old Stone Church was strengthened by constructively addressing this stress –thought more deeply about issues and our ministry

Making Changes to enable us to respond and to determine God’s vision for us on Public Square –need to listen/discern God's will for us –Starting w/needs of our community

We Are Ready for Active Dialogue (in/out) on Vision and what it means to us –prepared to prune as required and to take on new thrusts wanted by our community

Basic Themes

Through their studies and much prayer, the retreat participants learned that:

We are reluctant missionaries, unsure of our mission, must prune the vine and cast aside non-essentials; have faith; take risks; trust that reconciliation and forgiveness are the course chosen by God; and take comfort that our ship, though on troubled waters, will accomplish God’s will.

We are a diverse group of people on the ship of church, seeking safe passage by discerning the will of God.

We have to take risks to make the hard choices, including getting rid of old baggage and things we think are necessities. (e.g., time of worship, openness to homelessness). In the process we have to stick together.

Participants put their thoughts onto fabric squares that were pieced together into a quilt, like many diverse members together make up the congregation of Old Stone Church.

The finished quilt was brought back and shared with the congregation in worship on September 19th. The prayer chain that was hung from the balcony in the sanctuary this summer was also taken to the retreat. Filled with the joys and concerns of the congregation written on strips of construction paper, it was a visible presence of the member's prayers and concerns at each of the retreat events.

The prayer chain was returned to the church with the quilt made at the retreat and placed on the communion table at worship.

Other scriptures discussed:

Colossians 3:12-17 –center of Christian life

I Corinthians 12:12-31 –body/unity of church

Genesis 12 –call of Abraham

Exodus –Moses parting of Red Sea

Group Photos