Elements of a Spiritual Formation Retreat

The overall theme of the Spiritual Formation Retreat will be “Knowing God in Righteousness and Justice.” We will lead groups to engage with this content through a variety of spiritual disciplines:

Worship

We will have time together as a group with a few GW staff to worship through song, scripture and prayer. These times are less about mentally examining the topic and rather offering a heart to the Lord of humbly submitting to His way in righteousness and justice. We will gather for this form of worship at the beginning and the end of the retreat.

Scripture Study

Here we will specifically focus on what scripture has to say about righteousness and justice. We will examine what both the Old and New Testaments have to say about this.

Prayer

Prayer will very much be an intentional element of all our retreats. One form of this will be the Prayer Walk. This will be a guided experience on the Good Works trails. It will be a personal time of speaking with and hearing from the Lord in the context of a supportive group environment. We will also use guided meditation as another form of prayer.

Activity

We will be shaping several activities around helping us to delve into the significance of righteousness and justice.

Dialogue

This will be an opportunity to discuss how we are socially confronted with the issues of righteousness and justice. At times these can feel uncomfortable, but the goal here is not to convince others of our own perspective but to seek to understand the perspective of others, in a context in which people feel safe and heard.

Solitude

Times will be set aside for group members to spend in solitude to reflect on and journal about how God is speaking to them through the retreat experience.

Group Reflection

It is important for us to reflect on how we believe God spoke to us, both to confirm what God said to us personally and to share with others what God has revealed as a kind of prophetic word to the community. The primary time for this reflection or debrief will be during the final worship session.