Life Together Retreat:

Rhythms of Grace – Fall 2024

NSCBC will be hosting a retreat for all ages on Friday, October 25th through Sunday, October 27th.  Join us as we build community, strengthen intergenerational relationships, and grow our relationship with God and one another.  It will be held at Camp Brookwoods in Alton, New Hampshire, and the theme for the weekend will be “Life Together: Rhythms of Grace”. We will look together at spiritual practices and rhythms for renewal – learning, playing, eating, and enjoying creation together for a weekend!  You can read more about our vision for the retreat and the purpose behind it in the tab below titled “Our Vision for the Retreat”.

Schedule

The retreat will begin on Friday evening and go until Sunday after lunch.  Please note: dinner is not included on Friday night, so please plan to either eat before leaving or stop for dinner on your way.

Friday

  • Arrival: Sign in, drop off luggage at cabins
  • Bonfire: Worship and Orientation

Saturday

  • Breakfast
  • Morning Large Group Session + Reflection Time
  • Morning Free Time
    • Optional Breakout Session
    • Camp Brookwoods Activities
  • Lunch
  • Afternoon Free Time
    • Camp Brookwoods Activities
    • Organized games, crafts, hikes, etc
  • Dinner
  • Evening Large Group Session + Reflection Time
  • Bonfire

Sunday

  • Breakfast
  • Morning Large Group Session: Sunday Worship
  • Free Time
    • Organized games + crafts!
  • Lunch
  • Pack and load vehicles
  • Head home by 2:00PM

Packing List

A comprehensive list will be available later this fall, but for now –  here are some essentials to make sure you bring:

  • Bedding: the cabins have mattresses, but you will need to bring either a sleeping bag or linens (for a twin bed), and a pillow. (except for the hotel style rooms, which have bed linens provided)
  • Toiletries and towel: Each cabin or room has an attached bathroom.
  • Bible (or app), and pen and notebook if that is useful for you
  • Close-toed shoes:  Some activities require close-toed shoes, and they are also a good idea if you plan to hike any of the trails.
  • Water Bottle (especially if you plan on hiking)
  • Flashlight/headlamp (it will be dark when you arrive with your luggage)
  • Swim Attire – the waterfront will be open for canoeing and kayaking during our stay!

Ride Arrangements

If you indicated that you would need a ride on your registration, you will receive specific information about who you will be riding with.  For everyone else, we would appreciate if you carpool if at all possible, since there is limited parking. So if that is a possibility for you, please consider carpooling with others who are attending (and getting some extra time with others in our body as a bonus)!

Directions and Parking

Camp Brookwoods is located in Alton, New Hampshire, about a 1.5-2 hour drive away (depending on traffic).  Here is a link to map directions to camp!

Parking instructions will be available as we get closer to the retreat!

Activities at Camp Brookwoods

We will have the following optional activities available during our free time sessions over the course of the weekend:

  • Kickball
  • Tetherball
  • Gaga Ball
  • Waterfront activities
  • Full group games
  • Hiking trails
  • Crafts
  • Organized board game time

There are also a variety of open spaces around the camp, so please feel free to bring frisbees, footballs, etc.

About Camp Brookwoods

Camp Brookwoods Map

Here is a link to a map of Camp Brookwoods. Further directions and parking instructions will become available the closer we get to the retreat! 

We are excited to say that Camp Brookwoods is a fully drive-able campus, making it a quite accessible option for our church family. The camp kitchen is also able to accommodate dietary restrictions with a clear standard of food/allergen exposure safety that we are grateful for!

Registration: Full Weekend

 Click here to register for the full weekend

The price per adult for the weekend is $165, Children 5 and under attend for free, and children 6-12 attend for $82.50. This includes two nights of lodging (Friday and Saturday), as well as five meals (breakfast on Saturday through lunch on Sunday- please plan to eat dinner on Friday before your arrival).  

Registration: Single Day

Check back here this fall for single day registrations!

Scholarships

We would like anyone who would like to attend to be able to come, regardless of the cost.  If the price is something that would prevent you from coming, there are both partial and full scholarships available.  If you’d like to inquire about a scholarship for you or your family, please don’t hesitate to reach out!  You can email the deacons directly at deacons@nscbc.org , or fill out the registration form and select the scholarship option.

Accommodations

Camp Brookwoods has dorm-style bunk rooms that sleep 10 people to a room.  The lodging included in the base price is a bed per person, with separate men’s and women’s bunk rooms.  You may opt to stay in a private room for an additional fee of $45. 10 of these rooms are ‘hotel style’ in the main lodge and are available for married couples. 4 of these are separate rooms and bathrooms located in the same building as the bunk rooms, which hold a double bed and a bunk bed, and are available for families with children. Please note that not all requests for private rooms may be possible to accommodate if there are a large number of requests (due to the total number of rooms available).

Retreat Promo Video

Life Together: Why should I attend?

Something new and exciting is happening at NSCBC. Over the past few years, many people have joined our church and are beginning to build meaningful relationships with each other in small groups, discipleship groups, and organic friendships, further building a vibrant and warm community within our church. But with a church of our size, it can be hard to get to know each other beyond the friendly greeting on Sunday morning.

We all want deep meaningful relationships. We crave them. Without them we feel unsettled, unseen, and unknown.

But one thing continues to stand in the way of these relationships and deeper community – our hurried and busy lives.

How many of us have tried to plan a time to get to know someone in the church, only to realize that it would be months before you could find a night to get dinner together? How many of us have started intentionally investing in friendships only to lose heart that nothing seems to last? What if we were a community that took time to be together? What if NSCBC was known as a refreshing alternative to the hurried pace of the world around us?

Life Together: Rhythms of Grace

Why have a retreat? We need to spend time together. This work doesn’t happen overnight, but an overnight retreat can certainly help! 

At the heart of our vision for this coming year is the aspiration to be a surprisingly joyful community, where people are known not by what they do for a living, but how God has transformed their lives. We want to build a community that is marked by relational vulnerability; a community where it is normal to share our whole selves, not just the easy and pleasant things. In so doing, we get to the real stuff of life: how we deal with disappointment, how we wrestle with faith and doubt, and how we see God’s grace and mercy running through it all.

Our emphasis this year will be about rhythms or practices of spiritual life, many of which are best lived out in community! This won’t be an over-programmed weekend with every second crammed with a sermon, discussion, or workshop.  Rather, we want to give space for us to connect, enjoy, rest, and lean into some of these practices together. This includes some weekend rhythms of worship and teaching, as well as lots of room for fun! We hope this extended ‘life together’ will spark connections and be the catalyst for connection for years to come.