Plans for a New Lodge – a Montreat weekly update from Richard DuBose, president of Montreat Conference Center.
Getaway in Montreat
Often times you come to Montreat for a conference or an organized retreat. While these are great reasons to make the trip, there is something to be said for coming to the mountains with no agenda. Read more…
This Month in Montreat – March 2021
March monthly update from conference center president Richard DuBose.
Montreat’s 2020 Christmas Collection
During this distant and perhaps unfamiliar holiday season, we wanted to find a way to bring the joy of a Christmas in the mountains directly into your home. We invited every department at Montreat with contributing a piece to what we’re calling Montreat’s 2020 Christmas Collection. We will be releasing parts of the collection on our social media over the next two weeks but feel free to bookmark this page and refer back to the collection below as you celebrate the holiday season! 1. Recipes from Assembly Inn – click the image to see it full size in a new …
Montreat Receives Thriving Congregation Grant by Lilly Foundation
Montreat Conference Center has received a grant of $995,500 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help develop new initiatives to support local congregations. The program, “Reforming Identity and Agency: Vital Practices for 21st Century Congregations,” is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the national initiative is to strengthen Christian congregations so they can help people deepen their relationships with God, build strong relationships with each other, and contribute to the flourishing of local communities and the world. Lilly Endowment is making nearly $93 million in grants through the initiative. The grants will support organizations as they work …
Montreat@Home – Outer Banks Presbyterian Youth
How the Outer Banks Presbyterian youth group created their own Montreat Youth Conference experience with the Montreat@Home program.
Finding Love in Montreat
Thank you to everyone who submitted stories through Community Announcements to our question, “Did you find love in Montreat?” We received stories from as long ago as 1932 to as recently as 2009. Four of our stories came from one family alone! Here are some excerpts from the stories we received. From Mary Jo Wright: One family; four Montreat love stories. Tom Wright and Ella Gaines Wardlaw met in Montreat during the Depression. They married in 1934 in the Chapel of the Old Auditorium. Heath Whittle, Sr. met Daisy Southerland in Montreat in 1932. Daisy was the Junior Girls counselor …
A Temporary New Normal
A Devotional from Rev. Bridgett Green Temporary new normal. Getting back to normal. In this time of surviving the spread and mitigation of COVID-19, these are common refrains in daily conversations. They help us as adjust to a life of social distancing and staying at home. Maybe in a few weeks or a few months, we will return to normal. Or maybe, we won’t. Lately, I have wondered whether I want to return to normal. Do I want life to return as it used to be? Regardless of my preference, living through this pandemic is changing me. I imagine that it …
A Lenten Devotional
A devotional from staff member Martha Sloan Written from a study her church has been reading, “Lent in Plain Sight” by Jill Duffield. In the book, Duffield takes common objects like coins, sandals, oil, etc. and uses them as the basis for her Lenten meditations. In Martha’s devotional, the object is “coats.” Exodus 28:4-5 “These are the vestments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, and a sash. When they make these sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests, 5 they shall use gold, blue, purple, …
#ConfessionsOfAPastor – Psalm 51
A devotional from Rev. Dr. Aram Bae I’m tired of this. We’re three weeks deep, and I am over this (truth be told, I was over it after day 3). I’m having a hard time with this stay at home, work from home, take an afternoon stroll, Zoom everything, FaceTime some things, record this and that, email non-stop because everything is an emergency and changes quickly, must stay in front of the situation and not behind, do this and that creatively and online, look at the screen, multiple screens at the same time, grab your earbuds, where the heck are …
“Be still, and know that I am God!” Psalm 46:10
A devotional from Lewis Galloway March 24, 2020 One of the hardest things to do in a crisis is to be still! As a confirmed extrovert, I have never found, even in easy times, stillness and quiet to come easily. Being told to be still is a bit like being told to calm down when the mind, heart and body are on fire with anxiety. The words of W. B. Yeats, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world… (The Second Coming)” fit our time. The lives of loved ones are threatened by a …
SO, WE DO NOT LOSE HEART
A devotional from the Rev. Eileen Lindner The following is a reflection on 2 Corinthians 4:7-18. Offered at the MRA Board Meeting, March 17, 2020 In this fraught moment of the coronavirus pandemic Paul reminds us that we “have these treasures in clay jars…” Today all over the globe these clay jars are sickened, shattered and broken by the coronavirus. We know that as the clay jars break so to do human hearts. For such a time as this did Paul write these words of courage, faith and hope. “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but …
A Thin Place
What does a thin place mean to you? Reflect by Lake Susan, worship in Anderson Auditorium, relax over breakfast in the Galax Dining Room… It’s easy to see the natural beauty of a thin place when the conference center is nestled in between the rolling hills and tall oaks… Read more.
A Montreat Summer Tradition
With summer over, you might be missing one of the most integral parts of a Montreat summer: barn dances. In 1969, Glenn Bannerman spent his first summer as director of recreation here at Montreat Conference Center. With him, he brought his love for recreation… Read more.
Love Led Me to Montreat
For two amazing weeks, I had the joy of serving as a small group leader for Montreat Youth Conference 2019: Let Love Lead… My biggest regret? Why did I wait so long?!?… Read more.
This is Like, a Bob Ross Painting
“This is like, a Bob Ross painting,” says SK through deep breaths. A group of us are on Lookout Rock in Montreat for sunrise, and it’s becoming more worth the 5:30 a.m. departure as… Read more.
Beyond Lookout
Looking for an alternative hike to Lookout? Here are three trails worth trying if you’re looking for a new hiking experience.
Thank you, the MYAEs
The rhododendrons have bloomed, preparations for summer are in full swing and the MYAEs have completed their time with Montreat. From their orientation to their final potluck party, the MYAEs want to share…
A Day In The Work Life Of An MYAE
One of the most incredible parts about the MYAE experience working in each department is… Read more to find out!
What to do in Montreat as an MYAE
Now in their seventh month in the valley, the MYAEs share their favorite memories, places, and much more that they’ve experienced in Montreat.
“Montreat Mural” Rededication
On December 12, 2018, Montreat Conference Center hosted a service of rededication for the “Montreat Mural,” a gift to the conference center from the family of Margaret Willcox and Wilbur Hoke Currie. This unique work of art was designed and created by James David (Jim) Southerland, Assistant Professor of Art at Montreat College and former Director of the Wilbur Hoke Currie Craft Center in Montreat. The mural is made of stoneware clay, multi-fired, multi-glazed, and lustered and features the following Montreat Motifs: Water–lake and streams; Trees–woods and forests; and Flora–dogwood, azalea, rhododendron. The “Montreat Mural” was commissioned in loving memory …
Montreat Conference Center Logos through the Years
A logo is an important piece of any institution. It’s a visual marker to let people know who you are. As we launch our latest version of the Montreat Conference Center logo, let’s take a look at the changes to our visual identity through the ages. See if you can spot all the changes in fonts, mountains, shapes, and colors! The 1960s & 1970s The 1980s The 1990s The 2000s The 2010s 2018 (Present) You might have noticed lately that the teardrop with the mountains and trees has disappeared. That’s because we’ve been keeping the new design …
Experiencing Montreat Sans Schedule
Often times you come to Montreat for a conference or an organized retreat. While these are great reasons to make the trip, there is something to be said for coming to the mountains with no agenda. Read more…
On Remembering and Repentance
As we prepare for the coming summer, I offer the following statement to remind all who love Montreat of the MRA’s continuing commitment to become more hospitable to all of its guests and conferees. Richard DuBose, President, Mountain Retreat Association “And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’” (Matthew 13:52) This passage suggests that Christian community has a treasure, a gift of God that contains both what is old and what is new. We …
What Makes Montreat
We asked lifelong Montreater Levi Bannerman, what is so special about Montreat? We know it’s hard to explain, it’s more than just a place, and can be many different things to as many different people. Here’s what Levi had to say about this place that has shaped him. Montreat’s nature and programs challenge young people and adults alike to think outside convention. Time in Montreat allows for difficult conversations in a place set apart, to retreat from the world but not run away from it. There’s a special connection that is formed between people when you spend quality time together …