LAKELAND WOMEN'S MINISTRY CONTEMPLATIVE RETREATS
ABOUT OUR RETREATS
As part of Lakeland Community's "At the Well" Women's Ministry, we help women create a rhythm of life that deepens and grows a more consistent connection to God (abide).
We do this by providing a safe environment for women to connect with God and experience transformation through the spiritual discipline of solitude and silence as a community.
ANCHORING YOUR JOURNEY
GROWING CLOSER TO GOD THROUGH SOLITUDE & SILENCE
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." - John 15:4-5
Come Away.
Learn to Stay.
We go away on retreats to be alone with God. The desert fathers called this "fleeing," though it is not meant as an escape. It's a surrender, a commitment to set apart time and space to seek Him in a loud and chaotic world.
The purpose of going away is not to avoid life, it is to find it. In the second year of the practice of retreating, we continue so that we can learn to stay, to abide, to remain in Christ more and more. Our ultimate goal of learning to abide on retreat is to bring home what we experience while we are away. So that we can hear God's still small voice in the loud busyness of normal life.
We believe that solitude and silence are necessary to sustain a vibrant Christian life. That we do not transform ourselves, we abide and in abiding God transforms us. Discomfort is a necessary part of the process, which we trust that the Holy Spirit works through.
1 Year Commitment:
4 Retreats --
(2) 3-day weekends
(2) 1-day gatherings
Our retreat cycles are graduated. Each year you can evaluate whether you want to continue or move on to something else.
Year 1: "Away"
Year 2 and beyond: "Stay"
RETREAT SEQUENCE
AWAY
YEAR ONE
We go "away" and learn what it is to "flee" ...
The first year of solitude retreats is a gentle introduction to the practice. A small group of women go away, together, to learn what it means to flee from the world to seek God's voice, alone.
STAY
YEAR 2 and BEYOND
...so that we learn to "stay," or abide, in Christ.
The second year and beyond is designed to continue the practice so that we learn to abide in Christ more and bring home what we learn while "away."
READ & RELECT
Ongoing Spiritual Formation
We encourage spiritual reading and taking time to reflect on what God has spoken to us and to others thorugh the ages.
"Solitude is the furnace of transformation..."
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart
CONTACT US
Please contact us if you have any questions about the retreats. Just fill out this form and we'll get back to you!
If you know you want to join us and are ready commit to our retreat program for this year, please keep scrolling just a little further down to the registration link below.
HOW TO REGISTER
The button below will take you to Lakeland's new payment and registration center. So when you're ready to register, just click it and follow the directions. Registration is our mutual commitment--we'll hold your spot and you show up. You can pay one retreat at a time. The first retreat is due April 3, 2022.
(Please note: In order to honor our agreements with the wonderful retreat centers, we must ask participants register within 30 days of the retreat in order to secure a spot otherwise rooms will be released. Payments are also nonrefundable.)
