2025 Retreat

• Outline
• 2025-05-20: Meeting Minutes

Outline

Key Verse

Registration

https://sro.breezechms.com/form/285ecb80 

Goals

• Are the Gospels Reliable
• Is Jesus who He says He is (and who we say He is)

Resources

• The Case for Christ - Lee Strobel
  • The Eyewitness Evidence
    • Can the gospels be trusted (Ch 1)
    • Do the gospels stand up to scrutiny (Ch 2)
  • The Documentary Evidence
    • Were the gospels reliably preserved? (Ch 3)
    • Is there evidence for Jesus outside of the Gospels? (Ch )4
  • The Scientific Evidence
    • Archaeology (Ch 5)
  • The Rebuttal Evidence
    • Is Jesus of History same as Jesus of Faith? (Ch 6)
  • The Identity and Psychological Evidence
    • Was Jesus really convinced that He is the Son of God? (Ch 7)
    • Was Jesus crazy when he claimed to be Son of God? (Ch 8)
  • The Profile and Fingerprint Evidence
    • Does Jesus fulfill the attributes of God? (Ch 9)
    • Did Jesus - and Jesus alone - match the identity of the Messiah? (Ch 10)
• Evidence that Demands a Verdict - Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell
• Timeless Truth in Truthless Times - George Bassilious
  

Stations

Introduction

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C0-aYx7nh3ruQClDvdOZPGW1SJKy0dh-8Syg7A1DhU4/edit?tab=t.0 
• A Short movie about a youth who attends church but doesn't really pay attention... then, at school, he's challenged with questions about what the Gospels are, and who Jesus is. He doesn't know how to answer. He decides to commit himself to answering those questions in preparation for "the final debate"
• He will document his findings in a notebook called "The Case for Christ"

The Notebook

• Servants:
  • Emily Guirguis

Station 1: The Eyewitness Evidence

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/16WsKes1g0Nk7OdMCDefYRNsy2PAsokjD29HUfZ8eWW8/edit?tab=t.g86rjx3nh647 
  • Document has several tabs
•  Servants:
  • Philopateer Ayad (prep)
  • Youssef Isshak (prep)
  • Carine Hanna
  • Mathio Marzouk
  • Andrew Gouni
  • Maryam Mekhail
  • Sarah Gouni
• Based on Chapters 1-2-3 of Case for Christ
  • Can the Biographies of Jesus be trusted?
    • Were they really written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
    • How early were they written and is that close enough to the actual events
    • "We did not follow cunningly devised fables"
  • Do the Biographies of Jesus stand up to scrutiny?
  • Were the biographies of Jesus reliably preserved for us?
• Format: Escape Room
  • Finding manuscripts (ch 3)
  • Finding extra-biblical sources like Papias of Hierapolis (ch 1)
  • Putting them all together... maybe in an evidence board
  • Board summarizes everything at the end
  • Take an "escape room" picture with the board at the end
• Notebook Relation:
  • The pictures get printed for their notebook
  • They can "take home a manuscript" (e.g. P52 because it's tiny)
  • Printed out version of the evidence board that can be pasted in notebook and folds out (because it's big)
  • Summary Sheet

Station 2: The Corroborating Evidence 

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-4Q3XW0UL0ZzNa5qw6Z7UedrNstRO1wEbgq05XKRDe0/edit?tab=t.0 
•  Servants:
  • Carole Hanna
  • Mena Ibrahim
  • Youssab Mena
  • Sara Ayad
• Based on Chapters 4-5 of Case for Christ
  • Is there Credible Evidence for Jesus outside His Biographies?
  • Does Archaeology Confirm or Contradict Jesus' Biographies?
    
• Court Case
  • Different youth could be "expert witnesses" on various topics
  • The boys and girls can take turns being the "panel of judges" (three at a time?) for each "charge" to judge the evidence at the end and give a verdict
  • Or the boys and girls can be jury
• Notebook Relation:
  • As a jury you can note the evidence - worksheet style (like SM HEMY Topics but better)

Station 3: The Identity and Psychological Evidence

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mX84dH84UISFpQn7Qve-_bbJlzWahyRjkVGPEVpfbFQ/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.6q7canpp7fik 
•  Servants:
  • Mirolla Hanna
  • Daniel Mena
  • Daniel Mansour (Mon)
  • Youssif Ibrahim (Wed)
  • Maria Awad
  • Julianna Dimetry
• Based on Chapters 7-8 of Case for Christ
  • Who did Jesus say that He is?
  • Was He convinced that He is the Son of God?
• See Also: Fr Reweis' sermons during Pascha this year covered this topic in depth
• Format:
  • Podcast
    • Need someone who is good "off the cuff" / "on their feet" to be one of the "hosts"
    • Use the kids if possible
      • Doctors
      • Bible Experts
    • Intro and then talk to the audience
  • Skit
    • Like a medical case - finding a diagnosis
    • Two folders - each has papers of symptoms, details, etc. relevant to diagnosis
    • Individual A: Signs that show some disorder (bipolar, identity, etc.)
    • Individual B (Christ): Evidences that Lee Strobel outlined that show Christ was completely sane
      • e.g. "This person made bold claims like..."
    • Kids' job is to diagnose the case

Station 4: The Fingerprint Evidence

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/14znGpm18Bjsx1ieLUq-mq7vdkfM54GtfHRKlYbqnrKI/edit?tab=t.9tylvudwltw 
•  Servants:
  • Emily Guirguis
  • Ehab Khalil
  • Monika Awad
  • Mark N Ibrahim
• Based on Chapters 9-10 of Case for Christ
  • Did Jesus and Jesus alone match the identity of the Messiah?
    
  • Did Jesus fulfill the Attributes of God?
• Format: Iconography Station
  • Give an outline of an icon of Christ (in the notebook)
  • They need to write some attributes of God that we recognize in the Lord Jesus Christ in different colors to color the icon

  • 

Conclusion

• Format: "Surrounded" by Jubilee
• Servant: Susie Zambrano

2025-05-20: Meeting Minutes

New Ideas

• Surrounded (by Jubilee)
  • Potentially a "Debate Station" at the end
• Give students a notebook so they can write their own "Case for Christ"
  • Structured
  • Print out "Case for Christ by: ________ (Name)"
• Podcast
  • Needs more structure
  • Less hosts
• Stations:
  • Combine Documentary and Archaeology (Scientific) into a station
  • Important nowadays is: "Jesus never said He was God" (Psychological)

Action Items

• Intro and Conclusion Station:
  • Write Script for movie/skit
  • Potential Introduction
    • Orthodox Youth whose ["best friend", "family member", etc.] is [unbeliever, doubting, falling away, lost sheep, just 'following what they learned' etc.] - he wants to convince him that Christianity is right (and to make his faith personal), but he's been "sleeping" in sermons, skipping Sunday School, etc. his spiritual life is empty
    • What's the convo between the two youth?
      • Casual - Could be that the youth is just struggling with "why do we have to keep doing this" - "why are we 'wasting' all this time"
  • Conclusion
    • Being able to ask questions in a moment of doubt; learning these things: allows me to enhance and grow my personal relationship with God
• Finalize Which station topics we want to discuss
• Attach format to each station