Annual Leaders Retreat 2017
This is the year for “in-house” resourcing. Christopher Montgomery will be giving leadership to the three retreat sessions around the theme “Living God’s Story through Prayer, Fasting and Generous Giving”. Christopher is pastor at Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church in Sioux Falls, SD. He has a passion for planning and leading worship that discerns the reign of God. He holds the Doctor of Worship Studies from The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He has organized The Anabaptist School of Worship, Apprenticing Congregations in Worship that Discerns the Reign of God which can be found at https://worshipcrafting.com/.
Christopher talks about worship as rehearsing God’s story, and the spiritual disciplines as helping us to employ and embody God’s story in the world beyond Sunday worship. We pray to form our identity as participants in God’s story; we fast to break off the yoke of cultural consumerism and self-gratification and adopt a posture of listening and waiting; we give to reject the allure of commercialism and individualism and embrace God’s way of self-sacrifice within community.
Retreat sessions are designed to be interactive, conversational and practical. On Saturday we will abstain from the full evening meal so we can practice fasting and prayer together. We will practice Generous Giving by using the money saved from not eating the Saturday evening meal for scholarships to persons who need assistance in attending ALR.
Christopher talks about worship as rehearsing God’s story, and the spiritual disciplines as helping us to employ and embody God’s story in the world beyond Sunday worship. We pray to form our identity as participants in God’s story; we fast to break off the yoke of cultural consumerism and self-gratification and adopt a posture of listening and waiting; we give to reject the allure of commercialism and individualism and embrace God’s way of self-sacrifice within community.
Retreat sessions are designed to be interactive, conversational and practical. On Saturday we will abstain from the full evening meal so we can practice fasting and prayer together. We will practice Generous Giving by using the money saved from not eating the Saturday evening meal for scholarships to persons who need assistance in attending ALR.
Living God’s Story through Prayer, Fasting and Generous Giving.
Session 1: Practicing and Living God’s Story
This opening session will explore the power of story and the place it occupies in the formation of persons and communities. We will focus our attention on how three primary cultural narratives – nationalism, consumerism, and individualism – are counter-formative to God’s story. Through mutual conversation, we will discuss together how worship helps us practice God’s story and the spiritual disciplines help us live God’s story.
Session 2: Prayer and Fasting
This session will focus on two disciplines outlined in our covenant of spiritual practices. We will gather in small groups to learn prayer practices that can be used during a period of fasting as a way of focusing our minds, bodies, and spirits on God’s story. Following this session, we will abstain from a full evening meal so that we may devote our time and attention to practicing in small groups some of the various prayer exercises discussed during the session.
Session 3: Generous Giving
During the final session, we will explore how the practice and living of generous giving can form us as citizens of God’s self-sacrificing shalom. We will work together to draw important connections between prayer, fasting, and giving, and how these can be practiced in the worship of our congregations.
Session 1: Practicing and Living God’s Story
This opening session will explore the power of story and the place it occupies in the formation of persons and communities. We will focus our attention on how three primary cultural narratives – nationalism, consumerism, and individualism – are counter-formative to God’s story. Through mutual conversation, we will discuss together how worship helps us practice God’s story and the spiritual disciplines help us live God’s story.
Session 2: Prayer and Fasting
This session will focus on two disciplines outlined in our covenant of spiritual practices. We will gather in small groups to learn prayer practices that can be used during a period of fasting as a way of focusing our minds, bodies, and spirits on God’s story. Following this session, we will abstain from a full evening meal so that we may devote our time and attention to practicing in small groups some of the various prayer exercises discussed during the session.
Session 3: Generous Giving
During the final session, we will explore how the practice and living of generous giving can form us as citizens of God’s self-sacrificing shalom. We will work together to draw important connections between prayer, fasting, and giving, and how these can be practiced in the worship of our congregations.
