Retreat is a time and place for man to disengage from the daily schedule, the mundane, and the routines of life. It has been suggested that a retreat is a time to lay aside thoughts of business and personal care, not because they have no rightful demand upon us, but because we ordinarily permit them to consume too much of life. They must be deliberately laid aside at times if we are to discover our spiritually true selves, if we are to lay hold of the Source of life.

Retreat is a time of solitude and introspection; a time to think, to pray, to talk, and to listen. It is a time to seek thoughtful answers to questions such as:

• Who am I and what am I?
• Is there any point in my life?
• Would anything be lost if it now came to an end?
• How much of my life is being consumed by the illusions of the "practical world"?
• What is the meaning of life, anyway?
• How can I order my life so that prayer will become as spontaneous as eating at noonday and as sleep at night? 

Gilbert Kilpack writes: "Retreat is a time for spiritual honesty with oneself. This is the hardest thing of all. It is such an easy step from feeling religious to the assumption that one really is. It is so tempting to come to a quick settlement with the eternal and decide that 'I have gone as far as my limited nature will allow.

Augustine speaks of those who "love truth when she enlightens, they hate her when she reproves" - and that is the catch in spiritual honesty. We love to be the discoverers of truth but we hate to be discovered by her; yet those momentary flashes of absolute honesty which cleave the darkness of our lives and reveal our petty pretensions are necessary to clear the ground for growth."

Reasoning Mind to Seeking Mind.  "Retreat is a time to lay aside our argumentative and reasoning mind and become a lowly seeker, believing that if we seek we shall find, that if we ask we shall receive, and if we knock it shall be opened. Rationality and even argumentation may have a place in the religious life, but Jesus did not say, "Blessed are the philosophers" or "Blessed are the reasoners."  He said:

• "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
• "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.
• "Blessed are the poor - for they symbolize an interior simplicity and poverty of pride which is necessary to inherit the Kingdom of God.”¹ 

Retreat is a time for 'Worship: "Worship is a personal encounter with God in which the Christian experiences a deepening of his faith and a strengthening of his service. Worship is central to the Christian life. It is relationship to God, a conscious entrance into his presence. It is the most direct touch that people have with God. Worship is a response to the presence of God."

Communion with God. "God is in the midst of his people, and through worship there is a response to his presence in adoration and praise, in confession of sin and repentance, and in thanksgiving and service. The objective of worship is to exalt the presence of God.  "Worship is never consummated until the worshiper serves. The response of God's presence indicates the reality of the experience."²

Retreat is a time of measurement - a time to compare our progress in the "Christ-Iife" with Christ's expectations for us; a time to evaluate the results of our prayer life and Bible study as measured by our consequent application of his teachings to the visible needs of the world around us. There is not one set formula for living the Christian life; there is only the guidance of the Holy Spirit living within us, so that as we measure, compare, and evaluate, retreat then becomes a time of confession and renewal of our commitment, a time to study the cause and effect of the laws of spiritual discipline.

Planned Withdrawal from Routines.  Then we might define retreat as 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.

Retreat is an Age Old Time of Renewal.  "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 banality of ordinary life and in a place of seclusion seek a renewal of life has always lain at the heart of man's journey after God and Truth. When Jesus had retired to a solitary place he saw clearly the temptations which fall in the way of all who aspire to inward growth. Augustine, after years of vacillation, finally withdrew to a country dwelling and became grounded in the Love of God. Young Francis of Assisi, publicly disinherited by his father, went out into the mountains to sing, to pray, and to become oriented in God.

George Fox in the first pages of his Journal tells us “ ... I walked abroad in solitary places many days and often took my Bible, and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places till night came on,” and it was then, having left the disputations assemblies of people, that he made his great experimental discovery: 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition.  This is only to mention ... individuals who have found that we must retreat in order to advance; untold numbers of obscure yet none the less saintly persons have turned aside from the well-worn, broad path into the narrow one of seclusion that they might drive life into a comer and discover experimentally the meaning of human existence."³

Pause for Renewal.  "Jesus said to his disciples, 'Come ye apart.' The Christian needs to insert a 'comma' in the sentence of his life - he needs to pause for renewal. The one whose search and service for God has been characterized by hypertensive activity needs to withdraw, to step aside, and listen to God's voice. This requires freedom from the usual surroundings and run-of-the-mill pressures.

Need for a “Desert Place”.  "Jesus would have us go occasionally to the 'desert place' as well as make withdrawals. He prescribes the way for communion with the Father; 'Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and ... shut thy door' (Matt. 6:6). Shutting the door describes the retreat experience. Seldom do Christians shut the door. It stays ajar lest God be faced without the usual incrustations, convenient distractions, and noisy demands of 'practical' existence. The door is not really shut when we take in the devotional book, the letter to write, the calendar to check, or any other escape tools that excuse one from seriously focusing on a relationship to God.

Wait on the Lord.  "Retreat is shutting the door in order that God alone may be sought and found by a follower who does not follow, a believer who does not believe, or by a witness who does not witness. The retreater waits on the Lord and renews his strength. In retreat, the way is open for a unique disposition ­an attitude of listening, a willingness to wrestle with ultimate questions, and a sense of being alone with God. This new awareness permits God to encounter a person at the point of his entrenched habits, unworthy motives, cherished prejudices, and shabby ambitions.

Fruitful Discipleship.  "In the absence of office tensions, rounds of duty, noise of machinery, study and tests, sales pitches, telephones, television, and even regular God-given duties - in their absence it's easier to make God the object of attention. When he has our attention, he reveals himself, instruction comes, discovery comes, and then possibly a renewing and filling that results in fruitful discipleship."⁴

"The principle of retreat is withdrawal. The aim of retreat is to deepen one's knowledge of God, his love, and his design and plan for life. The climate of retreat is commitment. The posture of retreat is that of being still and letting God act. The surprise of retreat is in how God does break through and give gifts. The events of retreat are events of relationship. The look in retreat is upward, inward, and outward (in that order). The setting of retreat is 'community.' The marvel of retreat is discovering that God has been waiting for us to 'be still and know.' The encounter of retreat is confrontation with God. The end of retreat is a servant life that is integrated and ordered by a covenant relationship with Christ!"> (italics added)

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
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