INTRODUCING MEN TO PRAYER RETREATS

          
 A few years ago I, (J Robb Kelley), met a man who was literally at his wit’s end. He had experienced some tragic losses and devastating failures over the years, and he was driving across the country looking for a reason to continue living. 

He ended up in our church parking lot on a Wednesday after spotting the cross on top of our worship center.

By Friday, he was driving out to a prayer retreat with me and eight other men he’d never met. 

After three days of prayer, worship, Bible study, and fellowship, he had a life-changing encounter with God that turned everything around for him.

              Under ordinary circumstances, I’m pretty sure this man wouldn’t have come to a prayer retreat. When life is going well, most men are not naturally drawn to silence and solitude. 

Maybe we’ll go to a morning prayer meeting with other guys. But taking time out for lengthy sessions of prayer and Bible reading until we receive breakthroughs? Most of us aren’t inclined that way.

Two Motivations

              A while back, a friend, who is a pastor, and I felt that we needed to introduce more men to prayer retreats. We wanted them to have the time to cultivate a deeper relationship with God and get that experience of hearing God speak into the big issues of their lives. But how could we get them interested?

              Over time, we learned that two things really motivate men to try an extended time of prayer. The first is the example of other men. The second is crisis.

              Our home church has a culture of prayer. Our senior pastor regularly encourages us to get away, even to reserve a cabin in the wilderness for a focused time of prayer. 

              In fact, for most of our pastors, prayer retreats are an annual, quarterly, or even monthly activity. Seeing this example has inspired many men I know to try an extended time of prayer. 

              They know that others have met God during prayer retreats; maybe they will meet Him, too.

              As far a crises go, most of us don’t plan for those—they just come. Our experience has been, more often than not, that if you find a Christian man in crisis and offer him a prayer retreat—especially if the invitation is backed up by your own testimony of what God has done for you during times of extended prayer—he’ll come.

              But just getting men to come to a prayer retreat isn’t enough. As my friend and I began leading these retreats, we learned that it was necessary to coach the man on what is involved in a personal prayer retreat.

              We led them in times of corporate praise and worship. 

We encouraged them to go off and read their Bibles alone; then we’d all come back together and share what we thought God was speaking to us. 


We suggested individual prayerwalks, where we focused on listening for impressions or directions God might bring to our hearts. We led group discussion times where we could share openly and honestly about anything and receive prayer from each other.”

From COME AWAY WITH ME by Cynthia Hyle Bezek, pages 68, 69, published by NAVPRESS.
Used with permission

Today’s 5th Truth: if you are “born again”, you are justified. (Romans 5:1)

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