Youth and Recreation Activity Resource Center
Activity and Resource Center
What is a Retreat?
A retreat is a planned group experience designed to provide the participants a temporary withdrawal from the routine of daily living in order that they may study, meditate, and take spiritual inventory of their lives and renew relationships with themselves, with God, and with others.
The idea of a retreat is nothing new in the history of man. The impulse to retire from the confusion of cities, to break away from well-worn habit, to escape from the reality of ordinary life and in a place of seclusion seek a renewal of life has always been at the heart of man's journey after God and Truth.
The Church Retreat provide just such an experience.
Who needs a Retreat?
Society rushes along today at supersonicic speed. To confirm this observation, one need only to review the rapidity of our current knowledge explosion, the advance of our technology, and the advances we are experiencing in the fields of medicine, communication, and travel.
Seldom today do we pause to meditate, to listen to the sounds of silence, to think about:
Need for Retreats.
Living at a Frantic Pace. Adults, youth, and even children, all of us, live a good portion of our time at a frantic pace, driven, on occasion, to the limits of our ability to cope with the frustrations of the computer age. In many instances it is the constancy, the repetitiveness of routine that moves us deeper into our personalized rut of living.
Need for Refreshing. Jesus was the recipient of the pressures of his day. The people crowded around him everywhere he traveled - some to look, others to listen, and a few desperate ones to touch. Then there were others who came to debate, to ridicule, to betray, and to crucify. Jesus often drew apart - retreated - to commune with his Father and to refresh his body, mind, and spirit. Adapted from a book Entitled, a Guide to Church Recreation, by Frank Hart Smith, published by the Church Recreation Department of the Southern Baptist Convention, Broadman Press. This book is no longer in print. Used with permission
Need to Retreat. Today, like Jesus, we need occasionally to "draw apart," to find that quiet secluded place where we can experience the "sounds of silence" and perhaps hear a still, small voice. In a setting such as this we are more sensitive and more receptive to God's leadership in our lives.
Listed Below are articles that will help you plan a successful, fun and meaningful retreat. A number of retreat schedules are included in many of these articles.