Retreat as a Leadership Strategy (Part 1)

Blog by Alan Fadling

We’re living at a moment in our lifetimes when Christian leaders have never been more in danger of fatigue, exhaustion, and even burnout. In January 2023 I reached my 40-year anniversary in vocational ministry, and the problem of burnout seems greater now than in all the years I’ve served in church and nonprofit settings.

But one particular spiritual practice has been both a preventative and a remedy for burnout in my own spiritual journey. It is the practice of personal spiritual retreat. I talk often about this practice, but here I’ll take a deeper dive into my experience of it.

Elton Trueblood is a writer whose wisdom has been especially important to me as I’ve cultivated this practice in my own leadership. Trueblood was a twentieth-century professor of philosophy and a respected Quaker spiritual writer. He was to spiritual formation in the twentieth century what Dallas Willard has been in the twenty-first. I have more than thirty of his books on my shelves, but the one that is perhaps my favorite was published in 1961, the year I was born.

The book is titled The Company of the Committed, which is a phrase Trueblood uses to describe the community of Christ followers. He saw them as the “committed” ones—and not just committed to lots of church gatherings and Christian activities, but faithfully following the way of Jesus in the whole of their lives.

The following quotation from that book illustrates the importance of taking time for personal spiritual retreat. (Note that I’ve lightly edited and re-paragraphed the text for present-day readability.)

“One rare but powerful item of discipline for the apprentice of Christ is the requirement that each one undertake a personal experience of solitude at least once a month. This is patterned consciously on the experience of Christ who periodically went alone, even at the price of temporary separation from the needs of others. This aloneness is not primarily about refined self-indulgence, but rather a consequent enrichment of one’s subsequent contribution.

“A person who is always available is not worth enough when they are available. Everyone engaged in public life will realize the extreme difficulty to getting away each month for a period of five or six hours, but the difficulty is not a good reason for rejecting the discipline. It is the men and women who find it hardest to get away who need the redemptive solitude most sorely.

“They need to be where they are free from the compulsion of chit-chat, from the slavery of the telephone, and even from the newspaper. A Christianity which understands itself will make ample provision for retreat houses in which such solitude is expected and protected.” (The Company of the Committed, pp. 43-44)

Now that is a lot to digest. Let me unpack four key phrases that I’ve found to be important. In a couple weeks I’ll unpack four more phrases in another post.

1. Monthly Rhythm

First, Trueblood talks about the discipline of undertaking a personal experience of solitude at least once a month.

This pattern of setting aside at least one day a month—whether spending half a day close to home or going away overnight somewhere for a 24-hour period—has been an important rhythm in my spiritual journey since 1990.

When I was beginning this practice as a young pastor, I would often set aside retreat space more than once a month. I was trying to establish a pattern. I was deeply thirsty for the encounter with God I experienced in retreat, and as a young leader I had been so deprived of that communion for so long.

Again, regularity is the invitation here. I don’t retreat because I’m drained and exhausted. In some ways I retreat to avoid becoming drained and exhausted. This is a practice not just for surviving or even for living more sustainably. It is a practice for thriving in our life with Christ.

2. Following the Pattern of Jesus

Trueblood then suggests that this practice is consciously patterned on the experience of Christ, who periodically went off alone, even at the price of temporary separation from the needs of others. This is where I get the idea for seeing the practice of spiritual retreat as a facet of our apprenticeship to Jesus. We are following a pattern from his own life. We are learning from the Master.

Trueblood acknowledges that by withdrawing to lonely places, Jesus made himself inaccessible for those times. By stepping away from our everyday responsibilities, we make ourselves unavailable to be of service to our work or to others. This is one reason we sometimes resist the practice. There is just too much to do. There are just too many needs. But this wasn’t how Jesus saw it.

I believe that Jesus withdrew from the crowd for the sake of the crowd. He needed to listen well to the voice of his Father. He needed to pour out the concerns and cares of his heart to his Father. He needed to remember that his Father was the one who named him: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

I practice regular spiritual retreat in imitation of the pattern set by Jesus himself.

3. Retreating for the Sake of Others

According to Trueblood, “this aloneness is not primarily about refined self-indulgence, but rather a consequent enrichment of one’s subsequent contribution.” That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Simply put, spiritual retreat is not a spa day for your soul. It isn’t self-indulgence. It isn’t a luxury. It isn’t meant to be an exercise in self-serving pleasure.

Instead, Trueblood says that this practice of retreat will enrich my service to others when I return from the solitary place with God. I’ve found that my most creative ideas, my most strategic insights, and even wisdom for moving forward in the face of challenging situations have come as an unexpected gift during times of solitude. Spiritual retreat is a place where I come with open and empty hands to receive whatever it is God would like to give me, both for my blessing and for the blessing of others.

I see this rhythm in the rule of life that Mother Teresa developed for her community:

“The Sisters shall spend one day in every week, one week in every month, one month in every year, one year in every six years in the motherhouse, where in contemplation and penance together with solitude she can gather in the spiritual strength, which she might have used up in the service of the poor. When these Sisters are at home, the others will take their place in the Mission field.” (Mother Teresa. Come Be My Light. New York: Doubleday, 2007, p. 345.)

This intensive rhythm of retreat supports the Missionaries of Charity in their intensive ministry to the poor and dying of Calcutta and other cities around the world. Through contemplation and penance in solitude, they replenish the spiritual strength they might have used up in the service of the poor.

In retreat we are cared for by God so that we might better care for others when we return.

4. Am I Too Available?

Trueblood warns us that “a person who is always available is not worth enough when they are available.” I found this line rather arresting the first time I read it. Maybe it sounds a bit harsh to you too. But this simply describes reality.

Every group with whom I’ve shared this line has responded with both “Ouch!” and “Yes!” If I’m always available, if I never withdraw to solitary places to enjoy the presence of God, I will find it harder and harder to be of good service to those God brings across my path.

God has not called any of us to be omnipresent. He is the only one who can always be everywhere. We cannot. But that does not keep some of us from trying! For example, it’s very tempting as Christian leaders to imagine that we are utterly indispensable. If we step away for a spiritual retreat, something terrible might happen in our absence.

Let me just suggest that God does not need us. But God delights to invite us into what he is already doing. Christ is the Great Shepherd of his sheep. He invites us to join him in this work for which he takes full responsibility. We need to be fully available to God just as surely as we need to be available to others. And the practice of spiritual retreat helps us cultivate this sort of holy attentiveness to God.

By the way, this insight about retreat as a strategic leadership rhythm is just one of many that we’ll be sharing with leaders who join a new training experience we’re calling PACE. It’s a 21-month certificate in leadership and soul care, and it’s the kind of training Gem and I have been offering in various forms for 30 years now.

PACE will help you grow as a leader who cares for souls—beginning with your own. We’ll help you move at the pace of grace, grow at the pace of transformation, and lead at the pace of Jesus.

Gem and I are thrilled at the opportunity to gather with a community of 20-25 leaders walking through this learning experience together. We hope you’ll visit our website to explore this possible next step in your own “working with God” journey.

For Reflection:

• What has been your experience of spiritual retreat? How has this practice been meaningful to you? In what way are you drawn to experiment further with it?

Photo by Jessica Delp on Unsplash