A fishing retreat turned into something more when a men’s group from State Street Baptist Church, Cayce, took place in an “Ironman Outdoors” ministry catfish retreat May 1-3.

A group of men from State Street Baptist Church, Cayce, experienced good fishing and frank spiritual discussions on a recent outdoors ministry retreat.

“I had heard a lot about this ministry and wanted to get the men in my church involved with it,” said Jon Sherer, men’s ministry director. “I worked with them to plan a recreational time where we could relax, have a good time and see what God could do with a weekend like this.

“Lo and behold, it blew my doors off,” he said, referencing both the impressive haul of catfish and how lives were touched. “As much fun as it was, the fishing paled in comparison to the discussions and study of God’s word that took place,” he said.

Sherer said men heard stories of how God had delivered some of them from alcoholism, drug addiction, and pornography. They also explored “how the struggle to be Christian men was worth the effort but that it takes specific effort to be the men that God wants us to be, and that God will reach out to us no matter how far we fall or how evil we have been.”

“I could feel a collective sigh of relief as the masks came off that first night,” he said. “The men there could actually feel like they were normal for maybe the first time, that they could talk about their deep, dark thoughts, and they wouldn’t be judged for them. I have been in Baptist churches all my life, but this is the first retreat of this kind that I have been on.”

Ironman Outdoors is a ministry to men that grew out of a Sunday school class at North Trenholm Baptist Church in Columbia, according to the group’s Web site. The ministry’s purpose is to help men connect with God and each other through group outdoor activities like fishing and hunting. For more information, go to ironmanoutdoors.org.