Spring Retreat

In our time together we will make room for hospitality with Jesus, one another, and the disconnected places within ourself. We find ourselves in a place, perhaps more lonely than ever before, fumbling through semi-connection and desperately longing for deep connection. This is a time to gather together in a small, intimate, and peaceful setting to experience deep connection, care, and compassion.

The group will be no more than 8 people (what can sit around the table together). The retreat takes place at my little bungalow home. It’s a cozy little mid-century ranch that’s been given a bit of a southwest getaway feel. There are crafted intentional times of both solitude (tucked away by yourself) and solidarity (tucked away with others) within the awareness and presence of God. The group will participate in some elements and styles of group spiritual direction. While together in this space, you will have the opportunity to use the full scope of your senses as you engage depth and beauty, explore creatively, and process thoughtfully with God and one another.

Looking at the wildflowers, we will process what it means to be unique selves and a part of community. These wildflowers are not the flowers that have grown in greenhouses, or are neatly arranged and aligned in rows, but the ones that, untamed, each spring forth their own unique and wild wonder, mingling together to create a more expansive, collective beauty in the place they find themselves. We will dive deeper into these concepts on a human level:

1. The False & Authentic Selves- Digging into how we have learned to survive, the masks that have come with the territory, and how we unmask to freely become our true, full, unique selves through Christ.

2. Invitation into Community: Standing Unique & More Beautiful Together- Fostering communities and environments in which we see and know our authentic and unique selves, and yet possess a far surpassing beauty by being grouped and formed together.

Our first movement around our false and authentic selves will be a framework to carry us into the invitation into community. We will go a little deeper into conversations around standing unique, yet more beautiful together, and the invitation of sacred companionship. It’s all part of a large pool which we won’t be able to dive fully into, but we will swim around a few areas such as: healthy relationships and communities, the hospitality of Jesus and others, how to be an attuned listener, our current loneliness epidemic and friendship crisis, co-dependency and vulnerability. As I type, I realize those things could take up days on their own. Our time together should give a good framework to start thought and conversation which you will certainly carry on from here.