A Man’s Virtue
Parkside Men’s Retreat 2009
Atwood Lake Resort
April 24-26, 2009
The annual Parkside JourneyMen men’s retreat was hosted for the third year at the Atwood Lake Resort in rural Carroll County south of Canton. Located in the beautiful rolling Ohio hills and only one and a half hours from Cleveland, the resort once again proved to be the perfect place for our men to connect with solid Biblical teaching, build relationships, rest and relax. Situated on the top of a high hill overlooking scenic Atwood Lake, the resort offers many amenities, including an 18 hole golf course, a 9 hole lighted par 3 course, a driving range, tennis courts, hiking trails, fishing, boating, spa, swimming pools, exercise equipment, and much more. It was the perfect place for men to engage.
A year in planning, the event started Friday afternoon with registration and a hearty dinner buffet sure to satisfy any hungry man. Some men showed up early to fit in a round of golf before the event actually started, as evidenced by their red faces from the bright sunshine and uncharacteristic 85 degree weather! Our first session started promptly at 8PM, with worship music provided by our talented praise team, introductions and orientation material, then onto our main session presented by teacher Paul Sartarelli, senior pastor of The Chapel in Akron, and voice of the “Word on the Street” radio program heard locally on Moody radio. With the event theme being “A Man’s Virtue”, and our text for the night being Ephesians 4:25-5:4, we then dove into investigating honesty, anger control, self respect, affirmation, forgiveness, and purity. This set the tone for the weekend.
Saturday morning started with morning prayers, then a hearty breakfast buffet, complete with omelet station! Saturday morning’s teaching was in two sessions and directed our focus on forgiveness, with Mathew 18: 21-35 as our text. Pastor Sartarelli taught with passion, vision, and insight. The men were challenged in their facilitator led table discussion time as they sought to better understand the teaching and find personal application points from it. Forgiveness was exposed as the essence of our walk with Christ; a necessary walk as we forgive since we were forgiven (Col 3:12-13), and an obedient walk as we were commanded to forgive by Jesus (Luke 17:3-5).
Prior to lunch a spirited Q&A session hosted by Pastor Mickey Aquilino challenged Paul with questions from the attendees. Saturday afternoon was free time as men joined together in one of the many activities the resort had to offer, or just find a quiet nook for reading and “marinating” in God’s word. This is a time for men to build relationships and for sharing. Besides the aforementioned activities, some men also brought their own bicycles and went cycling, a few showed up on motorcycles and tested the curvy back roads, and Mickey himself was seen in a convertible tooling around these same back roads sporting a big smile!
Saturday evening started in a formal dinner setting, concluding with a reflective time directed by Mickey where all in attendance looked “inside” to find their own growth areas, and jot them down in the conference booklet. We ended the night with some fun comedy on video and then a movie about a man’s character focusing on the life of retired Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy.
Sunday completed our stay with prayers, worship, and Mickey tying into the virtue theme with a teaching on love from 1 Tim 1:5. Our prayer was that we love God and our fellow brothers from pure hearts, with good conscience, and a sincere faith.
The time seemed to race by, but we left the event refreshed and with our “armor” on as changed men. The men’s ministry leadership team consisting of Mickey Aquilino, Mike Bowerman, Tom Polasky, Ken Ungar, and myself sincerely thank all who attended. The talented praise team of Mike Swanson, John Milner, Melvin Holt, Justin Rice, and Bryan Simpson brought song to our ears and from our voices. We look forward to being your hosts next year as we are challenged in God’s word by guest teacher Dr. Michael Easley, past president of Moody Bible Institute now teaching pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Breezewood, Tennessee. Join your fellow JourneyMen at this exciting event as we seek to become more like our Teacher, approved workmen, and useful to the Master!
Your event host,
David Friihauf
