Retreat?

I have noticed that in some circles of Christianity the term retreat is becoming more and more frowned upon. Scheduled time away from the hustle and bustle of every day life for the purpose of prayer or Bible study has long been referred to as a retreat, but now a new term is arising. The term is "advance" and its use as a replacement for "retreat" is centered around the need for the Body of Christ to be moving forward at all times.

The concept of always advance, never retreat was birthed from the ideology that we as Christians should never back away from the centuries old, on-going fight with hell. However, I believe this new way of thinking is somewhat unscriptural. Jesus made it clear that at times we simply must go away to a serene place. The Son of God, Himself, by example, set a standard of retreat. No, He did not ever give up enemy held territory, but He did on many occasions step away from the front lines of ministry for the sole purpose of being alone with the Father. Today, most of us seem to run to the crowds and ironically in the Gospels, Jesus always seemed to be running from them! This reality alone, leads me to the conclusion that it is not a bad thing to retreat to a place of solitude.

I actually believe my experiences during the last eight years of full-time ministry have taught me that without frequent retreats there will never be any significant advance! Perhaps, that is why HPC has experienced its greatest season of growth during the last three years. Literally, we have gained more attendees in the last three years than we did in the previous five. Noticeably the growth began when we launched the strategy of taking the Leadership Team away for 3 to 4 days in January of each new year to spend time alone, prayerfully seeking Heaven's will for the earth. Please take note: When we began taking serious the concept of retreat we amazingly became more effective at advancing the Kingdom!

A large portion of the Leadership Team has thus retreated once again in 2009 to the mountains of Tennessee for a time of prayer and fellowship. It has been great up to this point and I have no doubt that it will continue to get better as we further disconnect from every day life and embrace the richness of God's presence in the solitude of a mountainview cabin.

Thank you for lifting us up. We are seeking the face of God, asking Him for imparted revelatory vision for the coming year and He is speaking!

Remember we are most assuredly going FORWARD in 2009, but perhaps it would be very beneficial to you to first step back and gather yourself in order to ultimately go where you need to go! Don't give up territory you have won in the Spirit, simply take a break. Maybe even take a day off of work so that you can finally get alone with God. Pour your heart out to Him and still the noise in your life so that you can listen intently to His response to your pleas for wisdom. You'll be glad you did! :)