Should Christians retreat? Is it appropriate for Christians to get away, to cloister?
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Before entering the world of Christian camping, I
was a student of Biology. Before bonfires, I spent time with
Bunsen burners. Before morning devotionals on the lawn were messy
dissections in the lab. Due to the copious amounts of time I spent in the lab, when I think about Christian retreat, I can’t help but think of the Petri Dish.
Right Retreat
Petri Dishes were invented in the 1870s by a guy named, you guessed it – Petri. Julius Petri.
They are small, closed containers filled with Agar – a nutrient rich gelatin that serves as a medium that facilitates the growth of cells.
In our first Microbiology lab, we were given a stack of Petri dishes, a handful of Q-tips, and a list of swabs to collect: our own mouths, the bathroom floor, door handles, etc. After a few days in the incubator, our plates were covered in streaks of fuzzy bacteria. It was simultaneously disgusting, disturbing, and fascinating.
Modern medicine utilizes this kind of cell growth in cancer biology, drug discovery, and vaccine production. Tissue cultures allow us to examine life without destroying life. Cells can thrive in an artificial environment and then be used to benefit the entire organism.
Here’s the point – camp and conference centers serve the Body of Christ like a Petri dish serves a microbiologist, providing a temporary, artificial environment that facilitates rapid growth, better understanding, and tested character. Consequently, disease is diagnosed and gifts are discovered. The process is beneficial if not essential for the health of the Body.
Yes, the environment of summer camp or a weekend church retreat is artificial. Some may even say it further encourages an escapist Christian culture. But I disagree. Rest and retreat from schedules and the typical environment, combined with intentional feasting on God’s general and special Revelation (God’s word and His Creation), is a catalyst for rapid spiritual growth.
This growth is a supplement too, and not a replacement for, the ordinary means of grace in the life of the Church. To jump into a different, more familiar metaphor, the point of retreating in the first place is to go back into the fight, rested and recuperated.
Jesus frequently went away from the group or into the wilderness to pray (Mark 1: 35–37, Luke 4:42, Luke
6:12). He even took the apostles away for their own sake – for rest after John the Baptist’s death. Mark tells us “for many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (Mark 6: 30-32). It was right after this retreat that Jesus fed the 5000.
Please note: examples of Christian retreat in scripture are decidedly descriptive,
and not prescriptive. This means that the Bible will not allow
us to use texts involving prayer in the wilderness (and other similar
occurrences) to justify Christian camping. But concepts illustrated in the Bible can be helpful, and serve to edify the Church.
Unfortunately, the word retreat carries a negative connotation in some minds. I immediately think of the Monty Python scene: knights of the round table fleeing a deluge of airborne barnyard animals while screaming “RUN AWAY! RUN AWAYYYYY!” This is exactly the type of retreat we want to avoid.
Wrong Retreat
Twin Lakes was founded in 1970 to serve 1st Presbyterian Church and the surrounding community by providing a place set apart for the Glory of God in the beauty of His creation. The intention of a few visionary men was the physical relaxation and spiritual nourishment of the Body of Christ. And that is exactly what has occurred here for 40+ years. The same is true of countless other camp and conference centers.
But imagine for a moment an alternative vision. Imagine a place set apart for the purpose of creating a faux-Utopia. This fictional place is purposed for the inclusion of Christians and the exclusion of bad things and bad people. The goal of this retreat is to escape and find rest in ourselves. Unfortunately, Christians have attempted to create such places for thousands of years.
Here’s the truth – it is an impossible vision. If we are to take Scripture seriously, we must accept the fact the the problem is not out there. The problem is in here – our hearts. When Christians “go to camp”, they pack a trunk full of depravity, with some bug spray and a bathing suit thrown in for good measure.
But there is good news. Rest and retreat is possible because Christ is restoring His creation by way of His covenant – the promise of Christ – which will replace our hearts of stone. “I will give them a heart to know that I am
the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their
whole heart.“ Jeremiah 24:7
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Growth in the Petri
dish benefits the Body long after the lab work is done. How has time at camp or a conference/retreat impacted your family and your church?
The goal of retreat is not to escape, but to engage God’s word in a different setting so that we can go back into the world as salt and light. We all, myself included, need to jump back into the dish when we get a chance.