Weekly Meetings

This is a summary post about what I have been doing at church that ends with commentary about the Bears.

For the last year I have been involved with a retreat program at church. It started as just one weekend, but it continued with weekly meetings. While I started out as a participant, I eventually joined in the planning and leadership for future retreats.

I helped plan the last weekend that was scheduled for August. However, the weekend had to be canceled because only two people signed up. Then the leaders of the group decided to stop holding the weekly meetings.

In case you are keeping track, this is the second weekly group I have been involved with at church that has died after I got very involved with it. The last one was a young adult group that died in the summer of last year.

That day in August was the end of the retreat program, or at least it should have been. However, one of the people did not want it to end. He talked to me and another person and we decided to keep meeting to keep the group alive. For the last few weeks the three of us have been meeting and planning how to restart the program.

When we met, there is prayer, discussion on the readings for the upcoming Sunday, and then I give a short presentation on a topic we are interested in. I have talked about Divine Mercy, basic Bible organization, how to use the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the mysteries of the rosary. At one point I was identified as a scripture scholar, which is something I never expected.

Right now we are finding a second time to met every week because someone's work schedule was suddenly changed. Also, we are preparing for a dinner with the pastor. I do not know why we are meeting with him (it was other people in the group who planned it). I am worried because the presentation these other people created is very boring; I did not even read all of the first page. However, I created an exciting presentation plan to share with them.

This has taken up a few hours every Wednesday, a meeting this past Sunday, a meeting yesterday, and a couple of hours on the phone in the last week.

Weekly Bible Study
When I started taking classes at Long Beach, one of my priorities was to involve myself with the student life. My first day on campus I was approached by a student who invited me to a Bible study.

This is a one on one study of a different Gospel passage every week. The student (who is a good teacher) has brought up some good points. For example, being Christian is more than putting in the minimum of going to church and being a good person. It requires living for Jesus. However, the studies are more like reading comprehension exercises and lectures. The questions literally ask me to read a verse and answer a question. After I answer the question, which I am usually told I answered correctly, the person launches into a few minutes of explanation and commentary.

Today I was going to tell the person that I am not getting anything more out of the readings and our meetings. He gives great speeches and brings in some good examples, but I am beyond where he is teaching to. In addition, my commitments to my current church group have significantly increased, as I wrote about above.

However, I had to tell him I was not going to a retreat he invited me to attend. He was disappointed, so I did not want to tell him I would drop the weekly Bible studies as well.

As for attending his retreat, this is my choice: Cal at UCLA football game with friends I know from church I see once or twice a year, or a Bible conference with people I have never met. Which one would you chose?

On a related note, if you live in Northern California, are looking for blue and gold spirited excitement on October 29th, and want an excuse for a road trip, I heard about a promotion (which I think is still going on) to get two free tickets to the Cal at UCLA game. Let me know and I will tell you more.

For the past 5 years I have been to the football game the Bears play in Los Angles every year and I do not plan on breaking my streak. I have also been to every one of the Bear's bowl games since the 2008 season. I will go to the game this year, but the Bears need 4 more wins to be bowl eligible. UCLA, Oregon State, and Washington State are the most winnable games, but they still have to win one against Oregon, USC, Utah, Andrew Luck's team, or ASU.

As a reminder, Thursday night is the first of two consecutive Thursday night games the Bears will be playing. The Bears will be playing at Oregon this week, and host USC next week.