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UPDATE: A NEW MEN'S RETREAT TEAM HAS BEEN FORMED IN NASHVILLE! 
As we wrote about in the previous What's New page, last August,
Klesis formed a ministry to men with an emphasis on listening prayer
and its influence on growing godly, Christian masculinity. For the
past seven months, Jim Baumberger, Jerald Saenz and I have been
listening/praying about, conceptualizing, talking over, and planning
how the Lord would have us do this. We met with the Klesis Board in January for our annual meeting
and laid out the vision for the next 15 years. Included in that
vision was the creation of Regional Coordinators who would help
establish the retreat ministry in their areas. It seemed clear to
us that New England would be one regional center since we live here.
Because Klesis has ministered to people in Nashville over the last
5 years, the Lord also seemed to be inviting us to establish that
locale as a regional center. At the end of February, I flew down to Nashville and met with Lee
and Julie Dilworth to talk about Lee becoming the Nashville Coordinator.
Lee is a lawyer in Nashville and had been to CT for an individual
Immersion retreat. He was also on the support team a few years ago
when we did a Klesis men's retreat in Alabama. He knows what we
do. The long and the short of it is that I think the Holy Spirit has
pulled together a core team to establish the ministry in Nashville,
and offer two men's retreats in the fall. He may direct another
man or two to be on the team, but the core group looks in place.
In late May or early June, I plan to head back down there to meet
with the team and shape basic structure for the retreats. Marti
Scudder, the Nashville Coordinator for Women's retreats mentioned
that we have a waiting list of men who are ready to go. Please pray for us as we will be building relationships with churches,
finding a retreat place, getting the word out to men, and managing
all the details necessary to hold a retreat. Pray that God would
open the way and make us sufficient for the task. Pray that the
leadership team of Kit, Jim and Jerald would be ready to lead the
men He will send. For now, Jim and Jerald are helping lead Listening in Christ retreats
here at the Center for Renewal as part of the training preparation
for the men's retreats. They are involved from "soup to nuts"
in order to learn all the aspects of leading group retreats. Many of you who have been on retreat with us know that Tricia
has a gift and considerable training as a chef for creating wonderful,
gourmet meals. In the context of a Listening in Christ retreat,
we have always seen food and its visual presentation as an expression
of the lavish grace that God pours out to remind us of His unbounded
goodness and our unmerited favor. Over the years, many people have
commented on how beautiful the table looks at meals. They have often
asked for recipes. Tricia will now make them available. She has begun compiling her favorite creations and those that retreatants
have asked for. After she finishes that first step, she will format
them in between brief reflections she will write on subjects such
as God's beauty, grace, and creativity. She will also write about
her history with learning to prepare food that tasted delicious
and looked beautiful. She will talk about the ways God showed her
how food and creativity reveal His beauty and delight. Some of you also know Tricia was an artist in her 20's. She has
begun to draw again and might include pen and ink drawings, or some
of her photographs in the book. She is just in the beginning stages,
but the work has finally begun on a project she has wanted to do
for many years! Tricia plans to devote May and part of June to writing. For the past 3 years or so, she has been traveling to Nashville
to lead quietly powerful Listening in Christ retreats for women.
In the course of leading them, she has taught many short meditations
on various key aspects of listening to God and the need for women
to surrender to His call to intimate relationship with the Father
through the Son. Often they end with a question or two for the women
to take into the silence to dialogue with Him. For book number two,
she is gathering these meditations with the questions for women
who could not be on retreat. She may also include some of her artwork
as well. We do not have a publisher for these books, but will seek God for
what He desires. So far He has given the green light to proceed
with everything we are writing. Pray for her as she labors. Pray
that He would open the door to use what He has taught her to bless
and grow His church. Two years ago, Kit McDermott and Dave Simpson, an elder at Covenant
Presbyterian Church, began writing a training manual for its Discipleship
Track called The Way of Love and Holiness. It was designed to teach
new converts, and anyone at CPC interested in understanding the
Christian life as embraced by our church. Kit wrote the Spiritual
Disciplines part, and Dave wrote the theological, Christian "basics"
portion culminating in a 178-page Discipler's Manual and a 140-page
Disciple's Manual. The "Spiritual Disciplines" section focuses on the contemplative
disciplines of the Christian life such as solitude, silence, prayer,
listening prayer, Lectio Divina, retreats and spiritual reading,
as well as fasting, healing and service. Its goal is to get the
person soon into the quiet with God as a normal part of the Christian
walk. Beginning in the middle of January they have begun to teach it
weekly to 12 intrepid, pioneer Disciplers who will shoulder the
task of teaching the material one-on-one a new convert or new believer.
They will do so in about 4-5 months after the training. Our task
now is to make sure the material is teachable and all the editorial
bugs are squashed. |