I'm camping at a state park. This weekend about 20 families from a Christ the Redeemer church (the name is on a van) are at the group camping area. Even on Sunday.

I don't remember any ward I was ever in doing a big campout. Scouts, sure. Trek, sure. But not Mom and Dad and all the kids together for a ward activity. And certainly not on a Sunday.

My new church, a Methodist church in Chicago, has an annual women's camping retreat in Michigan. Member volunteers her campsite, and members only pay for food and gas money. It goes on until a Sunday afternoon (and they end it by holding a church service-"light").

We left on Friday afternoon, and spent the first night talking, drinking wine, and making s'mores around a bonfire.

I had a long letter of all kinds of things, good and bad, I wanted to say to the TBM who broke my heart...that I will likely never say to him, but needed to get out of my heart. I threw the letter in the bonfire, and had my first glass of wine as an ex-Mormon.

It was really fun...there were three women who had moved away from Chicago, but flew here especially for the retreat.

When it comes to the concepts of friendship and fellowship, the Mormons have it all wrong. Friendships are cultivated, not assigned. And fellowship is not a fake, forced thing. It happens naturally, when you put people together and let them grow...rather than round them up to be indoctrinated.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2014 03:34PM by godtoldmetorun.

"When it comes to the concepts of friendship and fellowship, the Mormons have it all wrong. Friendships are cultivated, not assigned. And fellowship is not a fake, forced thing. It happens naturally, when you put people together and let them grow...rather than round them up to be indoctrinated." I love your explanation of this. Thank you for that! Yes! Friendships are not "assigned!" And people don't really want to bother when they are. But, they put on a smiley face and pretend.

Our church then youth group would gather after the worship service and, already dressed in their outdoor clothing, would pack the church van up and go snowboarding at the local resort (instead of Sunday school). Other mornings they would walk to the local coffee shop, hang out discussing life, then walk back to meet their parents.

I've done business with them...and they truly think the rules and the laws for that matter...don't apply to them.

Ron Burr

annual church camping, at a private campground run, ironically, by Mormons! But their grounds rules (quiet, no alcohol) suit us. We have, irregularly scheduled: bowling, men's trek, hayrides, picnics, "men's bake-off," "women's cookout/BBQ," other things.

There is a waiting list for the 8-week church cleaning rotation.

We join forces with an out-of-state Baptist church and have a men's camp-out/Bible retreat/shoot-out. Since Pres. Obama made a snide remark about "bitter clingers" who "hold to their guns and Bibles," I call that weekend "the BETTER clingers--we know what we're clinging to!"

THANK YOU for this wonderful post!! I've been attending a methodist church for a few years and it really does feel so much more authentic than in TSCC - EVEN THOUGH each week I go there are TONS of new faces / people I've never met (big church - 5 services per week so it's not like a Mormon Ward where you always know who you'll run into.

The people are so genuine and real, and - authentically from all walks of life. Humility abounds because no one is covertly bragging -through the back door - about their new calling, or their husband's new calling. No one is "showing" how righteous they are - they are all honestly on their own path - learning about Jesus, trying to be like Him. There is no "royalty."

Southern Alberta Mormons use to have a yearly camp out west of Clareholm...Mom and Dad took their motor home up there in about 1981...don't know if it still happens or not....camping without beer? not gonna happen..

Ron Burr