Click to hide HTML preview
Spring Retreat, March, 2003
Learning From Jesus to be a Spirit-led leader
Friday, March 28, 2003
Afternoon: 4:00-6:00
4:00-4:30 Introduce Theme: Learning From Jesus to be a Spirit-led
leader (cf. 1 Cor. 1-3)
Jesus as model or pattern of a leader in his inner life with
himself and with God
4:30-6:00pm: Arriving and Becoming Present (“Coming Apart to be with
Jesus”)
6:00pm Supper:
Evening:
7:00-7:30pm
Prayers for our Community
Guided Reflection: “The Shaping of a Life and Ministry: “From
the River to the Desert to Ministry-in the Spirit”
7:30-9:00pm Time Alone
9:00pm Compline together
Silence
Saturday, March 29, 2003
Morning:
7:30-8:15am Breakfast in silence
8:30-9:00am
Morning Prayer together
Guided Reflection: “Following Jesus into Solitude and Communion
with His Father”
9:00-2:30
Time Alone
Midday prayer alone
Lunch on your own
Afternoon
2:15-2:45pm Meet to share and pray
2:45pm Meet together for group sharing
3:00pm Ending
Coming Apart to be with Jesus
Arriving: Become still and attentive before God: “But I have calmed and
quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.” (Ps. 131:2)
Take time to “quiet and calm your soul,” and your mind and body—
relaxing, settling down, resting, walking, journaling, observing, singing.
Remembering: Look back to remember and ponder: “My soul is cast down
within me; therefore I remember you.” (Ps. 42:6) “Our memories need to be
teeming with God’s great actions, those events which model and invite faith
. . . faith is fed from imagination working on memory . . . our memories
should be full of God’s rich love and power. These memories may well
supply data for future navigation into the unknown.” (Robert Young).
Your life experiences: “Where have you been . . . what have you done
. . . whom have you been with . . . what has happened to you . . What do
you bring to this day . . . ?
God’s meeting you: “How have you seen God work for you or in you?
What words have you received from him? What Scriptures have engaged your
heart and mind?
Leadership tests or lessons for you: Where have you needed to
exercise leadership? How have you been tested as a leader? What lessons
of leadership remain with you?
Asking: Bring your anxieties, needs and desires to God, simply and
directly. “In everything . . . let your requests be made known to God.”
(Phil. 4:4)
Put into your own words your requests to God.
Evening prayer
The Shaping of a Life and Ministry:
“From the River to the Desert to Ministry-in the Spirit”
(Christian spiritual formation is the redemptive process of forming
the inner human world so that it takes on the character of the inner being
of Christ himself. In the degree to which it is successful, the outer life
of the individual becomes a natural expression or outflow of the character
and teachings of Jesus.( (Dallas Willard)
The River:
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been
baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit
descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from
heaven, `You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke
3:21,22)
What do you think this experience meant for Jesus and his life and
ministry? How would it have shaped and prepared him?
What is the soil that the roots of your life and ministry are drawing
strength and nourishment from? What are the foundations that sustain the
weight of your life and ministry and keep you standing firm?
The Desert:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led
by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the
devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over,
he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is
written, `One does not live by bread alone.’”
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the
kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give
their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I
give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be
yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, `Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle
of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself
down from here, for it is written, `He will command the angels concerning
you, to protect you’ and `On their hands they will bear you up, so that you
will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is
said, `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had
finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. (Luke
4:1-13)
Why was it necessary for Jesus to go through this experience, at this
time in his life and ministry?
What was at stake for him as he went through this testing and shaping
time? What questions and issues of his own heart did he face?
How would being alone, in a desert place, for forty days work on him
and his choices?
What shaped the ultimate life setting choices that he made? What
connection do you see between his choices and the experience at the river?
How was Jesus “led by the Spirit in the wilderness?” What might he
have learned about being led by the Spirit for what was ahead?
In what ways would this experience have set the course and for his
future choices of life and ministry? How would you say that this
experience shaped him for all that was ahead—
How was he tried and tested?
Discipled and formed?
Sustained and guided?
What experiences have you gone through similar to this one, in God’s
school of shaping you for leadership and ministry in His Kingdom?
What are some deep issues and choices of your own heart that you must
face as you live and serve God?
How have you learned to be “led by the Spirit” in the wilderness times
and testing times of your life and ministry?
The Ministry:
Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee,
and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He
began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. (Luke
4:14,15)
Jesus now begins his public ministry, marked by the Spirit’s power in
his words and deeds, which will bring him recognition and praise, and
stimulate and focus even more the hopes and expectations of God’s hurting
and subjugated people. How has he been shaped and prepared for all this
will demand of him?
Where do you find you need God’s power in your own life and ministry?
What opportunities and problems do the blessing of God and the expectations
and praise of others create for you?
(Optional: What parallels and similarities do you see between the
issues the Jesus faced, and the questions of “power and wisdom” in his
preaching and ministry that Paul faced in his own, according to 1
Corinthians 1:18-3:23)
Following Jesus into solitude and communion with his Father.
One of the most striking practices of Jesus, which his disciples have
followed through the centuries, was his choice to go apart, into solitary
places, to be alone with his heavenly Father. He did his Father’s will and
work, speaking his words and doing his deeds, and persevered through all
temptations to go his own way or follow other options, until he finished
his mission on the cross. He was able to do this because he took time to be
renewed, directed and empowered in communion with his heavenly Father.
Simply put, his public ministry was rooted in, directed and sustained by
his private life with his Father in the Spirit. This pattern and practice
is one we need to learn and do if we, too, want to do our Father’s will,
resist the temptations along the way and finish our course well.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led
by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the
devil.” (Luke 4:1-13) Where had Jesus learned this secret of a sustained
God-pleasing and God-glorifying life and ministry? Surely, in the
prolonged time in the desert, alone with himself and God, facing the
temptations that reached deeply into his own soul, and learning to draw on
the resources of God’s presence, his Word and his Spirit. He was led more
deeply into what he had heard and experienced at his baptism in water and
the Spirit: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
(Luke 3:21,22) He learned to listen to His Father’s voice in the depths of
his soul and in Scripture. The forty days in the desert not only set the
course of his life and ministry, but also taught him to open himself deeply
to his Father by making space and time to do so. He frequently practiced
what he had learned in the desert experience.
In this time set aside to be alone with Jesus, it can be helpful to
look at some of the occasions where he saw the need to withdraw into
solitude for a lengthy period of time.
What were the needs that he took into those times?
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the
house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Jesus needed the
refreshment of time with his Father after an intense evening of healing
many, before leaving for a new itinerant preaching tour. (Mk. 1:32-39)
What weariness and need of refreshment do you bring to this time?
“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a
solitary place . . . After he had dismissed them, he went up on a
mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone .”
After the news of the humiliating death of his cousin and God’s servant,
John the Baptist, and knowing that he was walking in the same path, he took
his sorrow and deep emotions into the solitary place with his Father. He
was interrupted by the crowds that followed him, but after teaching and
feeding them, he persisted in getting alone, up on a mountain. (Mt. 14:13-
23)
What sorrows or losses or dark clouds ahead might you be bringing to this
time?
“Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came
to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew
to lonely places and prayed.” Jesus’ success drew more and more people to
him, clamoring for help and filling all of his personal space. As ministry
demands grew, so did his practice of withdrawing to lonely places and
praying. What overload, fatigue and temptations he must have taken into
those times alone with his Father. Yet he returned ready and able to
continue his ministry. (Luke 5:15,16)
What pressures of ministry, and protests and struggles of your own
humanity, do you bring to this time alone?
“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the
whole night praying to God.” At a critical juncture, when opposition to
him had increased in intensity, he saw the time had come to invest himself
in others and prepare them to carry on his mission. At this juncture, he
went alone to be with his Father. And returned ready to take the next
step. (Luke 6:11-13)
What might be the circumstances that are pressing on you to make a crucial
decision or take a new course in your life and ministry?
“After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to
say, `Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus,
knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew
again to a mountain by himself.” At the height of his popularity, when
people longed for strong leadership and decisive action from him, to the
point of proclaiming him their King, Jesus withdrew from them, to be alone,
in order to be able to resist their hopes and remain on the path the Father
set before him. (John 6:14,15)
What might be the “opportunities” you need to turn your back on or the
pressures from others’ hopes and expectations that you need to walk away
from?
“About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with
him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance
of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of
lightening.” Jesus has come to a turning point in his life and ministry.
He has shared with his closest disciples that his road will not end in
triumph and celebration, but in rejection, suffering and death. He now
must go to Jerusalem, where all this will happen. He soon will need to
“resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” As the cross looms over him and
confronts him in his deep self-awareness, he knows he needs the
strengthening, renewing energy in his whole being that comes from being
alone with His Father. He once again goes up onto a mountain, but this
time, takes three with him to share this experience and take it into their
memory. (Luke 9:28-36, 51)
What might be some pathways or tasks that stand before you and make you
aware of your own need of strength, affirmation and grace for the journey?
“Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed
him. On reaching the place, he said to them, `Pray that you will not fall
into temptation.’ He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt
down and prayed, `Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet
not my will, but yours be done.” Now the final hour has come; the cross
awaits him, preceded by betrayal, mock trials, public humiliation, cruelty
and suffering, abandonment by his closest followers, and the cup the Father
will give him, of the world’s sin and darkness. Yet even now, Jesus must
embrace this final step of obedience. His humanity shrinks back, he feels
his own weakness, and once again seeks the Father’s presence, in company of
three close followers, to receive guidance and strength to obey in the face
of his own fears and resistance. (Luke 22:39-46)
What might be some decision or step of obedience before you, for which you
feel resistance within and for which you need strength to embrace? Where
might you turn for help from others?
Pour out your heart to him, and wait on him and receive from him. Perhaps
you might want to put in writing your prayer to him as you come before him
with your own needs and desires.
Click to see HTML preview
