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Incorporating spiritual practices into your meetings to take full advantage of the special camp/retreat environment. - By Miranda Lovegren

One of the important pieces of church-related planning and meeting retreats is providing and creating an environment where the Spirit of Christ can break in, enter hearts fully, and move us toward goals guided by God's agenda working through us. It is this environment that is the special gift of such times set aside for planning meetings/retreats/conferences.

Contrary to popular belief, great meetings aren't directed by a well-planned agenda, or a leader that simply keeps everyone "on task," but by the positive synergy of the Holy Spirit breaking in and being allowed to guide the group. Usually at church meetings, we open and close with prayer, asking that the Spirit will guide us, and hoping that It will. Sometimes it works, and we know the difference immediately of one of those "empowered" meetings where God broke in and synergy happened.

But as is often the case, sometimes we ask God to do things for us that God has already done or given us the tools to do, and we miss out on the full opportunity to realize God's blessing. The Spirit of God is freely given, always. We don't need to ask God to "be with us," or to "bless this meeting," because God always is and always does. It's just that sometimes we are too focused on other things to open our hearts to God's presence and guidance.

This paper outlines some conceptual "tools of the trade" that camp/retreat leaders use to lead good retreats, and we have found them to be extremely effective for church meetings held at our sites. There is an observable night and day difference between meetings that incorporate these spiritual practices and those that don't, in the success of what gets accomplished. But what is even more important is the practicing of spiritual disciplines that allow for deeper connections with God, and the building of relationships in Christ with one another.

In order to fully take advantage of being in a wonderful camp/retreat setting and the time you have carved out of your lives to focus on whatever task is before you at your meeting, we encourage you to incorporate these practices into your time together. This is "being the church" at its best. Please feel free to take them to your churches and use them there too!

A. Developing a sense of being part of the body of Christ (building Christian community) among participants is essential to productive retreats, laying the groundwork for the Spirit of Christ to be fully realized among you. These activities help to "break the ice" that has formed on hearts from being in "un-kingdom-like" environments. "Ice-breakers" and "community builders" help people feel comfortable enough with each other to risk being open to sharing what "holy nudges" they may be feeling without fearing being ridiculed. Fear of ridicule, or of rejection by dismissal before even being listened to, are major barriers to Spirit-led synergy in any group.

B. Good bible study has all kinds of potential to build groups, open hearts, lead to discernment, provide assurance that your work is scripturally grounded, and, as an added benefit, to help people deepen their appreciation of this living Word.

Take time to prayerfully contemplate, and/or thoughtfully discuss, scripture stories, passages or concepts that may give direction to your group. The strategy I prefer with such bible study is not to pick something that gives "obvious" answers, but pick something that makes people wrestle with the text and discover answers for themselves, sometimes surprising ones!

C. Engage the group in discussion that models how you want to work together during the meeting. (Prayerful discernment, no dumb questions or ideas, good listening to one another, encouraging everyone to participate.) Effective strategy to maximize participation and impact: divide the group into groups of 3-5 to discuss the scripture together and then have each group share with the whole body any special insights that came up. You may also give each group a different assignment (a different angle to look for in the same text, or different texts related to a theme) to report back to the whole group.

If you don't have time for the bible study, incorporate a shorter version of it into a worship service.

D. Taking the time to enter into worship together is essential in creating an environment of sacred possibility where hearts are opened to God's Spirit.

Incorporate different kinds of prayer into your worship, music, and the lessons from the scripture studies, or add additional related scriptures to share. A short lesson, homily, or guiding words to set the tone for the meeting by the leader can be added. These spiritual disciplines help to open our ears to hear God's sometimes gentle Word.

Worship services need only be 5-20 minutes for the purposes outlined here, but can be longer if you wish. For an opening worship experience, include moments of quiet prayer and meditation on 1) becoming aware of God's presence, and 2) discerning God's will for your group. For a community-building worship service (usually in the middle of your time together) uphold one another with an affirmation activity. Communion can be incorporated powerfully here to bring people together in Christ. Emphasize the concept of the body of Christ, everyone doing their part to make the whole group the best it can be.

For a closing worship service, celebrate the work you have accomplished, the community you have built, and the ministry ahead of you. The mood should be celebratory and high-energy. A commissioning of persons assigned to specific tasks, or the whole group as it goes forth to do the work of the church, helps to validate and empower people to go forth with holy boldness into the world.

E. "Break-in Break" & Creative Expression - taking a special break to do something that allows God's Spirit to "break-in" to your mind, your heart, your body, and then taking some time to express creatively the Spirit that touched you during this exercise.

• "Break-in Break" - Perhaps a walk in the forest, sitting by the stream, quiet time in your room looking out at the forest, contemplate scripture, meditate, exercise, go fishing, have a conversation with Jesus, whatever works to help you let go of time and work, and allows God to enter in.
• Creative Expression - Then do something to express and share the Spirit of God that broke into your life today. Create something with your hands, write a poem, write whatever insights or inspirations may have come to you, share a special moment with another person, write a letter to a friend or spouse or child, allow God's love to flow through you to another, be it a person or another part of God's creation.
• Some people will spend most of their time doing the "Break-in" activity; others will spend more time with the expression part. It doesn't matter. This is your Kairos time with God. I would suggest allowing 90 minutes or more for this special time, and gathering back for a worship of sharing and celebrating God's immanence in our lives before starting into the next segment of your meeting.

F. Energy Modifiers: these are quick activities that help to bring up, mellow-out, or refocus the energy of your group. They are good ways to gather after breaks, or good ways to do a quick break without letting people leave the meeting. Here are a few of the ones I've seen used the most:

• Music, even if it is singing familiar hymns/songs a cappella, is a great energy modifier. Just pick a song that matches the mood you want to create.
• During the meeting, remind the group to keep in mind "how is God speaking to us right now?"
• Stretching exercises, body movement. Slow if you want to calm or refresh a group, active if you want to energize a group.

G. Quick group-builder games.
During the meeting, use the strategy of dividing up into small groups of people interested in particular action items, to explore in more depth and then share back with the whole group. Stand up, turn to your right (or left) and scratch (rub) the person's back in front of you (only use with groups who are comfortable with personal touch).

Turn to your neighbor and share about... (leader chooses a topic). Can be a personal question to help your group know each other better, or it can be related to your agenda item at the moment as a way to shift energy if you get stuck on something. (This is a good way to get people started talking about something they may be shy about sharing with the whole group at first.)

Prayer concerns, joys (very effective to do these 1 on 1 by turning to neighbor rather than with whole group sometimes).

Have someone tell a joke.
There are all kinds of other ideas available in resource books located at the camp/retreat sites.

H. Implementation: Invite different members of your group ahead of time to lead the different components of this program. Just one person should not lead them all if at all possible. Let people practice being spiritual leaders!

If you need help with specific programs, games, music, worship materials, etc., your camp Directors and staff will be happy to assist you!

May God bless your meeting with great joy and spirit-filled guidance!

(Note: This material may be shared with others, if you include the following notice: This article is written by Miranda Lovegren - Alton L. Collins Retreat Center and Wallowa Lake Camp - Oregon/Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church. miranda@gocamping.org)

2008 Camping Booklet

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