Retreat as a Leadership Strategy (Part 2)

Blog by Alan Fadling

Two weeks ago, I wrote the first part of this series  about personal spiritual retreat. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, I invite you to begin there and then continue here as I unpack four more key phrases from Elton Trueblood’s 1961 book The Company of the Committed. Here’s the quotation again in a lightly edited form:

“One rare but powerful item of discipline for the apprentice of Christ is the requirement that each one undertake a personal experience of solitude at least once a month. This is patterned consciously on the experience of Christ who periodically went alone, even at the price of temporary separation from the needs of others. This aloneness is not primarily about refined self-indulgence, but rather a consequent enrichment of one’s subsequent contribution.

“A person who is always available is not worth enough when they are available. Everyone engaged in public life will realize the extreme difficulty to getting away each month for a period of five or six hours, but the difficulty is not a good reason for rejecting the discipline. It is the men and women who find it hardest to get away who need the redemptive solitude most sorely.

“They need to be where they are free from the compulsion of chit-chat, from the slavery of the telephone, and even from the newspaper. A Christianity which understands itself will make ample provision for retreat houses in which such solitude is expected and protected.” (The Company of the Committed, pp. 43-44)

Let’s pick up where my previous post left off.

5. Difficult Isn’t Impossible

Trueblood acknowledges that “everyone engaged in public life will realize the extreme difficulty to getting away each month for a period of five or six hours, but the difficulty is not a good reason for rejecting the discipline.” If it was difficult in 1961 to get away for part or all of a day each month, how much more challenging does it feel today? But Trueblood is right. The difficulty is not a good reason to disqualify ourselves for this practice.

If Jesus had time for this practice in his three and a half years of ministry, how can we say that we do not? Are we busier than Jesus?

Perhaps the difficulty we sometimes have envisioning ourselves in this practice of spiritual retreat is that we place less importance on the practice and more importance on the many other things filling our lives.

I typically schedule my retreat days many months in advance. If I wait until a new month arrives and look for a convenient time to fit in a spiritual retreat day, it often feels impossible to make such space.

And because I plan months ahead, I sometimes get to a week when I’ve planned a day to step away and it feels intensely full. That’s when I find myself thinking, “I’ve picked the wrong week to lose a day of work.”

This happens in part because I still sometimes believe that the productivity of my work is just an arithmetic problem: “More hours working always equals more productivity.” There is an element of truth to this, but there is also the moment when all my work begins to result in diminishing returns.

Whenever I hold to my plan of getting away for a day of spiritual retreat, even during the busiest of weeks, I never come to the close of that day and think, “I really wish I hadn’t done this.” I’ve discovered that this practice of monthly retreat has a way of multiplying the fruitfulness of my work.

6. Solitude Is Redemptive

Trueblood says that “it is the men and women who find it hardest to get away who need the redemptive solitude most sorely.” The harder it is for us to cultivate this sort of monthly rhythm, the more likely it is that we need this gift even more than we realize. Trueblood uses the phrase “redemptive solitude.” That is exactly what spiritual retreat has been for me. More than once this practice has saved my spiritual life, my marriage, and my ministry.

Solitude is redemptive because it is an encounter with my Redeemer. God does for me in solitude what I cannot do for myself, especially in the midst of my busy workdays.

7. Finding Freedom from Distraction

Look at how Trueblood describes the sort of distractions that people in his day needed to be freed from. He says that “they need to be where they are free from the compulsion of chit-chat, from the slavery of the telephone, and even from the newspaper.”

It sounds almost silly that the only distractions people had to worry about at the middle of the last century were chit-chat, wired telephones, and newspapers. What would Trueblood think about our world today, sixty-plus years after he wrote those words? Could he have imagined the smartphones that most of us carry in our pockets or purses? Could he have envisioned the scrolling that takes up hours of our life day after day after day?

Spiritual retreat is an opportunity to set aside everything that has a tendency to distract us. Would Jesus have been able to withdraw to lonely places and pray if he had brought an iPhone with him? Would the disciples have been able to resist sending him a quick text about something important he needed to know?

Spiritual retreat is a way of recovering the attention that our devices sometimes steal from us (if we let them).

8. Valuing Personal Retreats in Our Organizations

Finally, Trueblood suggests that “a Christianity which understands itself will make ample provision for retreat houses in which such solitude is expected and protected.” This speaks to the priority that true spiritual retreats are to have in the normal life of a church. Trueblood urges churches and denominations to provide dedicated spaces for this practice.

These days most of the work of spiritual retreats is being done through parachurch organizations, although some denominations do have retreat centers available.

Churches have sometimes used the word “retreat” to label something that is a bit too busy and noisy for the sort of listening space and presence to God that Trueblood recommends. It’s never good if we return from a so-called retreat more tired than when we left. A conference is also not quite the same as a retreat.

These times of solitude that Trueblood describes need to be expected and protected. The word “expected” speaks to organizational culture. We need Christian leadership cultures in which spiritual retreat is normal and not an exception. The word “protected” speaks to valuing this practice to such a degree that it is modeled and encouraged.

By the way, this insight about retreat as a strategic leadership rhythm is one of many that we’ll be sharing with leaders who join a new training experience we’re calling PACE. It’s a 21-month certificate in leadership and soul care, and it’s the kind of training Gem and I have been offering in various forms for 30 years now.

PACE will help you grow as a leader who cares for souls—beginning with your own. We’ll help you move at the pace of grace, grow at the pace of transformation, and lead at the pace of Jesus.

Gem and I are thrilled at the opportunity to gather with a community of 20-25 leaders walking through this learning experience together. We hope you’ll visit our website to explore this possible next step in your own “working with God” journey.

For Reflection:

• If you find yourself drawn to this practice of personal spiritual retreat, when will you set aside a few hours or even a day for the sort of redemptive solitude Trueblood describes? Schedule that in your calendar now, including a location where you’ll enjoy that time.

Photo by Cara Fuller on Unsplash