Sunday Worship a Summer Highlight in Montreat

Sundays at Montreat are a highlight of the summer season, a time when an entire great community of visitors, conferees, cottagers, vacationers, and conference leadership gather as one to offer praise and thanksgiving in a service of worship, liturgy, scripture, sacrament, and prayer.  Proclaiming God’s word from the pulpit and through music, art, and Bible study for these services are some of the best preachers and educators in the church today, from as far away as Scotland, California and Kansas; as close by as Montreat and Black Mountain.

The series begins on June 3, with the Rev. John Bell from the Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland, preaching on the topic “Divine Contrariness.”  Dr. Bell is a hymn-writer, a Church of Scotland minister, and a member of the Iona Community. Well-known throughout the world, Dr. Bell is a much sought after lecturer and preacher whose primary concern is the renewal of congregational worship at the grass roots level.

Serving as summer liturgy writer is Dr. Mel Bringle, Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies and chair of the Humanities Division at Brevard College in western North Carolina. She first remembers coming to Montreat when she was so little she had to crawl up the steps to Assembly Inn on her hands and knees. Since those days, she has been a Montreat regular, having led seminars in worship and music. As a noted hymn writer, she served on the Executive Committee of The Hymn Society in the US and Canada, and more recently as chair of the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song. She grew up in the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, NC.

Eric Wall, who recently came on staff as Montreat Conference Center’s Conference Musician, will provide and lead worship through music each Sunday. In addition to his responsibilities at Montreat, Wall is director of music at First Presbyterian Church in Asheville. Much appreciated for his vast realm of musical genres, his creative vision, and his gift for drawing congregations of all ages and backgrounds into the celebration of music, Wall’s leadership is a major part of the Sunday summer worship series.

The Rev. Dr. Ann Laird Jones, Director of Arts Ministry at Montreat Conference Center, will use her talents to include the arts each Sunday morning, translating the theme of the day in various forms of creative expression.  She will be assisted by Lisle Gwynn, a Columbia Theological Seminary student and Montreat’s summer intern in arts and theology.

All Sunday worship services are held in the conference center’s Anderson Auditorium at 10:30 am, with child care available for children six months through completed Kindergarten at the Updike Child Care Center on Texas Road. A buffet at Assembly Inn’s Galax Dining Room is served each Sunday from 11:45 am to 1:30 pm, with menu information available in This Week in Montreat, the conference center’s weekly summer newsletter.

For additional information and a complete schedule, visit the Summer Worship page on Montreat.org.

Perfect time...perfect place. Have you planned your Montreat experience?

Daily rates available for VOICE and The Women's Connection

VOICE, May 25-28, and The Women's Connection, May 29-June 1, are fast approaching. We hope you're planning on joining us for one or both of these excellent events. Acknowledging the full and busy schedules of so many, we want to be sure you know that daily rates are available for both events.

Register for either Saturday, May 26 or Sunday, May 27 for VOICE for just $50 per day (David LaMotte performance is not included in the $50 daily rate). This fee includes lunch at the Assembly Inn for whichever day you select.

The David LaMotte concert taking place Saturday, May 26 at 7:45 pm in Upper Anderson is now open to the public! If you are unable to register for VOICE, you can still enjoy David's performance. General admission is $15; children 5-11 are $7.50; children under 5 are free.

Register for either Wednesday, May 30 or Thursday, May 31 for The Women's Connection for just $100 per day. Or, if you want to attend just the daily Bible study on the 30th or 31st, register for just $25 per session. Include lunch for the day you're attending the Bible study for a total of $35.

Take advantage of these fabulous daily rates and purchase tickets for David LaMotte's performance by emailing Susan Akduman or calling her at 828.419.9829.

For families of all shapes and sizes: Parenting with Soul, July 3-7

Take the time to nurture your soul and learn ways to care for the souls of your children and health of your family. Intended for families of all configurations, with children of any age, we will explore what it means to create community and craft ritual as a family, hear experts from a variety of fields, share ways to cultivate wholeness and strength in our children and ourselves, play together, provide opportunities for solitude, discover the role and power of peacemaking in families, and ultimately learn how to find our best rhythm as parents and then get out of the way – supporting our children as they grow into the fullness of who they’re created to be!

Leadership includes David and Deanna LaMotte, Sarah Peters, Beth Gunn, Diana McCall, and Jey Hiott.

A great conference over the Fourth of July holiday, and a wonderful event to share with members of your extended family!

Learn more and register for Parenting with Soul. 

Looking ahead: A Day with Phyllis Tickle, July 6

Phyllis Tickle

We 21st century Christians are living in a strange time, one that Bishop Mark Dyer has long since labeled as “A Giant Rummage Sale.” To understand  what it means for us here and now, acclaimed author and lecturer Phyllis Tickle will lead us in looking first at where we are and, secondly, at how we got here. Explore what it all means for the institutional Church and for us as Christians to be passing through such tumultuous times, and discover that some very invigorating, energetic, and God-drenched possibilities are awaiting us in the near future.

Phyllis Tickle is the founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, the international journal of the book industry, and is frequently quoted in print sources like USA TODAY, Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times as well as in electronic media like PBS, NPR, The Hallmark Channel, and innumerable blogs and web sites. Tickle is the author of over two dozen books including the notable and popular The Divine Hours series.

You can register for this one day event for just $39, and your fee includes lunch. Friends or family interested in registering and wanting to stay over? Comprehensive rates are available, and begin at just under $100 for one night's lodging/double occupancy.

Learn more and register for Phyllis Tickle.

Quarterly Report: April 2012

Download the April 2012 Quarterly Report

Pete Peery

Important Things...

A lot of important things have been happening in Montreat during the winter and early spring, two of which have really captured my attention.

The first big thing is the Building on the Tradition Campaign. By action of the Board of Directors in its March meeting, that campaign is laser-focused for the next several months on the renovation of Assembly Inn. This renovation is key to Montreat’s continued success and future well-being. The cost will be $6 million. To date we have raised in gifts and pledges $2.7 million toward the renovation, and we want to begin the project this fall. Yet the Board, being fiscally responsible, does not want to authorize the commencement of the project until we have $5 million in gifts or pledges in hand. Our challenge for late spring and summer, therefore, is to secure $2.3 million more. I pray you will help us toward this goal.

The second big thing is a review of our Youth Conference Model. As it has been for close to thirty years now, Montreat continues in its commitment to making the six weeks of Youth Conferences we offer each summer the most excellent experiences available for young people in the church, especially the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). To that end, we have begun this comprehensive review of our way of doing Youth Conferencing. What is a Youth Conference intended to be? What are the desired outcomes for the young people who attend as well as for the congregations that entrust them to us? What strategies should be used in the conferences to achieve those outcomes?

Because the church has changed over the past three decades, as has the social context in which young people live, this model review is crucial. A stellar team engaged in this review met recently in Atlanta. Out of that meeting, clarity emerged about what the Youth Conference is and what makes it truly distinctive from the many other “summer options” church youth groups have. So what is the Montreat Youth Conference? Here is what the Model Review Team has said to us:

The Montreat Youth Conference is a Christian gathering for youth, reformed in theology and practice - It clears space for encountering God and discovering and deepening a vibrant and durable faith in Jesus Christ - This happens through biblical and theological exploration of a particular theme in worship and music, recreation, prayer, and conversations with mentors and friends across the church.

I am honored to be related to an institution that boldly offers this conference to the church. I hope you are as well.

Grace and peace,
Pete Peery

Reflections on Voice

Voices are hard to hear, these days, mainly because there are so many of them resounding all at once.  There are the voices of politicians, fitness experts, and economists.  They are the voices of cooking gurus, American idols, and Daily Shows.  They are the voices of our children, our therapists, and our bosses.

They come at us in person or by phone, through email or on Facebook, by texting or by Twitter.  They ask us if we want to donate just a dollar, or get ten percent off today by signing up for another (no strings attached) credit card.  They tell us what we are doing wrong that will kill us, and what we can do right that will help us live longer, and how what they told us last year about what will kill us or help us to live isn’t actually as important as what they are saying right now. All these voices, it seems, want something more from us - even those that claim to offer something more for us.  And they all keep talking – with blaring voices or punching thumbs; into cell phones or via keypads.  Faster, shorter, right to the point:  we value economy of words not to create room for silent, sacred, reflective spaces, but to make room for more (faster, shorter, clearer) words.

The best of us are expert at negotiating all these voices.  At responding to all (instantly, perfunctorily) or shutting them all out (obliviously, superiorly).  At being ourselves pithy, or at resisting the 140-character limit and risking loquaciousness.  Whatever our strategy, we work hard not to let all these voices get the better of us.

Can you find the space, in your life, truly to listen?

Finding voices is even harder than managing the cacophony.  Do you hear me now?  Can you hear me?  Can you find the space, in your life, truly to listen?  And what about your own voice?  Do you know what you want to say, and are you finding a space to say it?

As Christians, we are called to listen to the voices of others.  And we are also called ourselves to speak.  To bear witness.  To proclaim the Gospel in a world that groans for redemption (whether it can hear the voice of its own groaning or not).

Most importantly of all, we as Christians seek to hear the voice of God.  What is God saying to us?  What would God have us to do?  What does God want us to say, when we are asked to give an account of the hope that is in us? (I Peter 3).

...together we will reclaim ways truly to speak.

These are some of the questions that will shape the Voice conference.  Montreat will provide a clearing where we can sort out voices that have become muddled; where we can learn again to distinguish, and listen carefully to, those that matter most.  Together we will remember how really to hear; together we will reclaim ways truly to speak.  Together we will attend to that Voice that refuses to overpower the cacophony by virtue of its sheer power; that Voice that speaks in ways that differ, altogether, from the ways the voices of the world speak.  That Voice will meet us, perhaps, not as a rumbling earthquake, or a mighty wind, or a crackling fire, but as a gentle whisper (see I Kings 19).  However and wherever it speaks, it will surely shape us, strengthening our voices that we may proclaim the Good News anew.

Cynthia Rigby

Come to Voice to revive your own voice as we listen, together, for the transforming voice of God.  Come with your gripes about the multiple voices that threaten to overwhelm us.  Come with a desire to be rejuvenated in your conviction that God is speaking a new Word that can indeed be heard, voiced, and lived.  Come, let us rediscover, together, those voices that heal and make whole.


Cynthia L. Rigby
W.C. Brown Professor of Theology
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Lift Your Eyes to the These Mountains: May 25 - 28

Spring sunrise over Lake Susan

Last year as the end of a long spring semester approached, I was looking for a way to recharge myself and go into the summer with energy and a more positive outlook on life.  I found the PERFECT opportunity in a short weekend conference in Montreat, NC.  Montreat is a quiet, thin place and one where you can enjoy the beauty of the outdoors in peaceful, calm surroundings.  The conference, this year entitled “VOICE” provides an opportunity to think about your life in a different way and how God might be speaking to you. CONSIDER IT!  It’s a great price and you will meet all kinds of interesting people also searching for God’s word to them.

My words do come with a warning….after last year’s conference I took a long look at my life and perceived God calling me to do something different!  So after twelve years at my wonderful alma mater, Mary Baldwin College, I made a leap to come to the Montreat Conference Center.  When you lift your eyes to these mountains and listen to the rushing mountain waters you can be renewed, refreshed and maybe even reoriented to a new direction!

I hope you will consider joining me at VOICE…

Lynn Gilliland
Vice President for Development
Montreat Conference Center

Listening for a Spiritual Voice

VOICE: May 25-28, 2012

A peace activist, a governor, a CEO, and a football coach walk into a room… Sound like the opening line of a corny joke? Not at all. That’s exactly what you can expect May 25-28, when Montreat Conference Center hosts “VOICE,” a new conference about listening for and responding to the Voice of God. Not just for the people who show up for church every Sunday, this is a conference for everyone – teachers and students, employers and employees, parents and children, pastors and congregations – who strain to hear and long to be guided as they deal with life’s challenges, changes, and opportunities.

This timely conference features the powerful “God stories” of four diverse speakers: David LaMotte, a popular musician and peace activist; Jim Martin, who served as Governor of the State of North Carolina from 1985 to 1993; Paul Leonard, head of Habitat for Humanity International during a tumultuous time in the non-profit homebuilder’s history; and John Shoop, a football coach whose credentials include the University of North Carolina, the Oakland Raiders, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Chicago Bears. A thoughtfully comprehensive, theologically grounded response to each address will be made by noted theologian from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Cynthia Rigby. Additional leadership for “VOICE,” includes conference preacher Kristin Saldine from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary; conference liturgist Beth Daniel, co-pastor of Kairos Church in Atlanta, GA; conference musician Eric Wall; and conference artist Ann Laird Jones.

David LaMotte

When asked how they actively listened for and responded to God’s Voice in their lives, the conference speakers offered unique perspectives:

“In my experience,’ LaMotte explained, “God speaks most often in a ‘still, small voice,’ which means that it is an easy voice to drown out. Taking regular time to listen in silence is fundamental to discernment for me.”

Paul Leonard

“My intent,” contributed Leonard, “is to be listening 24/7 because I know His Voice can come to me through ordinary daily events – songs, children playing, friends, strangers – and in the tough decisions I face in the middle of the night.”

John Shoop

Shoop’s response reflected recent changes in his life. “I made a key decision this winter when I decided to take a year off from coaching…I prayed that I could and would listen to God’s voice…” Expressing his sense that God has spoken to him about next steps in his life, he continued, “I hear God’s voice calling me to be the husband I long to be and the father I have dreamt of being.”

James (Jim) Martin

Martin responded pragmatically, expressing his belief that both the Bible as God’s word and the “pull of conscience” help us hear God’s Voice. “I have not prayed for competitive victory,” the veteran politician stated, “but to be able to handle the outcome.”

Planners for the “VOICE” conference made some intentional decisions about scheduling. “We chose a holiday, the long Memorial Day weekend, because it afforded people time to travel and was an opportunity for them to enjoy not only the conference, but relaxation as well,” said Merri Alexander, Vice President for Montreat’s Center for Faith and Life. Noting that childcare was available, she continued, “We built in plenty of free time for both play and reflection. What better place to listen for God’s Voice in your own life than hiking a trail in the Montreat wilderness or basking in the sunshine beside a rushing mountain stream or simply taking it easy in a rocking chair overlooking Lake Susan?”

A theme-focused conference, “VOICE” invites participants to join with leaders – the activist, the CEO, the politician, and the football coach – who are, in many ways, much like each of us, to consider God’s call and what it means to answer it across the full spectrum of life. “The people who inspire me most,” observed LaMotte, “are people who will never be in the newspaper.”

Milal Missionary Choir to Perform at Montreat Conference Center

Montreat hosts the Milal Missionary Choir, April 7, 2012

The Korean word “milal” translates into English as “small wheat seed,” and in the spirit of a verse from the New Testament book of John, the talented members of the Milal Missionary Choir are committed to being those small seeds that, through a ministry of music, will touch lives and bear great fruits.  Montreat Conference Center is honored to host this group for a free concert Wednesday, April 11, 7:00 PM, in Anderson Auditorium.

Established in 1987 and headquartered in New York City, the Milal Missionary Choir is made up of eighteen unique choirs in locations around the world, including Korea, Japan, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Italy, and the United States.  Since its inception, these groups have presented over 500 concerts throughout the U.S., Canada, Dominican Republic, Hungary, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Thailand, France, Germany, Indonesia, and Italy.

Daniel Lee

The choir’s recent appearances in New York City include concerts at the Riverside Church, Weil Recital Hall, Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, and Horace Mann Auditorium at Columbia University.  Additionally, the Milal Missionary Choir performs at hospitals, prisons, and churches, taking advantage of every opportunity to share both their music and their faith.

Under the direction of Daniel Lee, this internationally acclaimed choir will delight Montreat music-lovers with a repertoire that includes classical selections and sacred music that spans works from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, including contemporary Christian music.  Most of the choir members are students or graduates of prominent music schools and colleges in the New York area.

What is it about Montreat... part two

What is it about Montreat that has...
Inspired me? Changed my life? Given me direction? Made me feel good?

At a recent meeting, Board members, friends, and staff were asked to quickly write down meaningful Montreat “snippets” from their lives.  I wanted to share with you some of the special moments they shared with me:

• “Time away as a family – from work, school, deadlines, and tight schedules – to come to ‘camp’ and enjoy a more present-oriented, divinely centered respite.”
• “Sitting by the creek with college friends and children playing together, thinking ‘God has been so good to me.’ “
• “A World Mission Conference conversation with a woman from Korea, a man from Ghana, and a teenager from Ireland – a moment of Christian community!”
• “…the people, the hospitality, the environment (being one with nature), the type of programming offered…”
• “…the provocative persons I have encountered in Montreat who have stretched my faith.”
• “When my wife and I hiked with our three pre-teenage children…I knew we had given them a family vacation that only God could provide.”
• “…a cardinal perched on the rail of our deck after a snow.”
• “The contrasting experiences of solitude on a front porch on a cool autumn day…with the energy and passion of 1200 youth celebrating a community of faith in the summer.”
• “Watching 1,000 young people dancing as they moved down the aisles of Anderson Auditorium to take communion.”
• “…the protection of the cove and the warmth of Christian fellowship. Montreat can be a ‘mountain-top’ experience for a young person seeking to find their identity.”
• “Four generations of our family gathering on the porch of our Montreat cottage at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July for the past ninety years!”
• “…I fell in love with the streams and climbing the mountains; sometimes missing the sky, I would climb Lookout Mountain and gaze across the valley…heaven!”

Thank you to our Board for their candid, thoughtful reflections.  And now that you’ve read them, perhaps you have special moments to share as well.  We invite you thoughts…