wfn.org | Lutheran Men in Mission Offers Variety of Workshops, Retreats

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Lutheran Men in Mission Offers Variety of Workshops, Retreats
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>August 5, 2008  

Lutheran Men in Mission Offers Variety of Workshops, Retreats
08-135-FI

OMAHA, Neb. (ELCA) -- About 600 men attended workshops Aug.
2 during the 2008 Lutheran Men's Gathering here at the Hilton
Hotel and Qwest Center.  Sessions featured programs of Lutheran
Men in Mission (LMM), the men's ministry of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and other ELCA ministries.

LMM hosted the gathering Aug. 1-3.  The event theme, "Coming
of Age," focused on LMM's 20th anniversary, its new relationship
with the ELCA and its emphasis on the spirituality of men ages 18-
34.

Todd Little, Highlands Ranch, Colo., and Ed Cleaver, Denver,
gave participants a sample of the "One Year to Live" retreat that
Lyman Coleman, founder, Serendipity House Publishers, Nashville,
Tenn., developed for LMM.

The weekend retreat serves a number of purposes, Little
said.  It assembles a "band of brothers -- a bunch of guys who
will go to bat for each other and will be available at two
o'clock in the morning when you're struggling and need someone to
talk to."  It stirs up energy and purpose within a congregation,
he said.  It gives men a vehicle to "pass along blessings to
other guys."

"And it's about personal growth and being able and willing
to do some of the hard work that men need to do to get some of
the stuff outside of them that's been holding them back or
weighing them down," Little said.  The retreat gives men "a safe
environment for them to do that."

Cleaver and Little described a seven-step program to help
men explore who they are and where they've been before delving
into things they'd like to change about themselves.  The retreat
is designed to help men assess their goals and develop plans to
work deliberately toward them over the following year.

Little said about 60 Lutheran men have completed the
program, and he expects 20 times that number to experience "One
Year to Live" in the next few years.  "It doesn't require any
experts," he said.  "A bunch of regular guys can take the
material and run with it."

Richard White, LMM vice president, South Riding, Va., and
Brett Clemmer, co-author of "No Man Left Behind," Casselberry,
Fla., helped participants discover their congregations' "man
code" -- sometimes subliminal messages that men get when they
walk through the front door of a church.  The workshop included
information about a weekend retreat recommended for men's
ministry specialists.

Other workshops dealt with "evangelism for scaredy cats,"
prayer, "discipling young men," small-group ministries and "the
family as church."
- - -

Information about Lutheran Men in Mission is at
http://www.ELCA.org/lmm on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog