Guided Prayer Retreat
Posted by Brad BriscoMay 4
Do you ever desire to set aside more time for prayer? Maybe even a whole day dedicated to listening and discovering what God is saying? But perhaps you haven’t been certain on how to best organize such a day. Or maybe you thought it would be helpful to participate with like minded people in such an endeavor.
If this is the case in your spiritual journey, then we hope you can join us for a one day guided prayer retreat on Thursday, June 4th here in Kansas City. We will be meeting from 9:00am to 4:00pm at the Tall Oaks Conference Center. Tall Oaks is located in Linwood, KS half way between Kansas City and Lawrence. For a map and directions to Tall Oaks you can go here.
Our prayer “guide” for the day will be Dr. Liam Atchison. Liam has been a seminary professor and church planting pastor, and is an historian and teacher. He and his wife Precious co-authored a book called Grief, published by NavPress. Liam is a graduate of Kansas State University, where he received his PhD in the history of hermeneutics, and Dallas Theological Seminary, where he received a Master of Theology. He was founding editor of the Christian cultural journal Mars Hill Review and has written a number of articles on history and on spiritual growth. He is the founder of Emmanuel House, a graduate theological study center in Manhattan, KS and Lincoln, NE that emphasizes knowing God and knowing ourselves as a theological basis for becoming effective readers of the biblical text, people, and culture.
Liam directed the biblical counseling program at Colorado Christian University in the halcyon days of the 1990s, where Dr. Larry Crabb was both a colleague and mentor. Liam went on to be a founder and the academic dean at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary’s Seattle (Now Mars Hill Graduate School) campus, before founding Emmanuel House in 2002. He was the ancient history teacher at K-State from 2005 to 2008, when he was nominated for Professor of the Year by his undergraduate students (he didn’t win, but what was cool was that the national professor of the year won!). A coffee snob from his years in the Pacific Northwest, Liam sees baseball as a spiritual exercise, loves telling stories, and seriously, seriously bleeds purple.
The cost of the one day retreat will be a very reasonable $15 (which even includes lunch!). If you are interested in joining us or have questions please leave a comment or email me at brad.brisco@gmail.com
Hope you can join us on June 4th.
4 comments
Comment by Scott Biddle on June 8, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I was wondering if you could give some sort of a schedule for a prayer retreat like this. What did it look like? What were the aspects of it? Timing wise, how did it work. I have been looking at taking our church through a similar retreat, and am looking for ideas.
Comment by Brad Brisco on June 8, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Scott, we met from 9 to 4. Started with a time of journaling about the things that might “clutter” our ability to be fully present in the day. Prayed for each other concerning these issues. Then look at some Scripture that spoke about prayer. Talk about the importance of silence, ate lunch in silence. Debriefed the lunch experience. After lunch we had the opportunity to have each person experience a time of spiritual direction. Also allowed more time for personal prayer time where people could walk the retreat center. Lastly we read and discuss a portion of Brother Lawrence’s “Practicing the Presence of God.”
Comment by Kelly on June 17, 2009 at 4:37 am
Do you have any retreats in August?
Thank you
Comment by Brad Brisco on June 17, 2009 at 6:26 am
Kelly, we are just now trying to plan another retreat for September, as soon as we have the details I will put up a post. Thanks for asking.