I don’t know why, but I always find the notion of men’s church retreats to be unattractive.
Maybe it’s the expectation that I suddenly should feel emotional intimacy with people whom I’m not particularly close to. I’ve attended a few men’s retreats, and never got much out of them. They remind me a lot of revival services, and not in a good way.
What about a retreat that stresses things like: Literary discussion! Writing workshops with feedback! Social justice! Feminism!
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And you know, my best friends are almost all women. Why are these things always segregated according to one’s sex?
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In my personal experience, men’s retreats involve oversharing, some good-natured buffoonery, and the cost of admission.
To really recharge, all I need is a few hours of reading a book I like, by myself; or hanging out with a few close friends.
And I’d feel closer to other guys at my church if they, you know, returned calls and responded to invites to hang out. But that’s just me.
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