Digital Silent Retreat

New Series! Free Spiritual Practices for Pastors

At the core of TPW's mission is the flourishing—the shalom—of pastors. The idea of curating resources for sermons and services is meant to put extra time into your schedule and take some of the hurry and stress out of it.

One of the things that can suffer amid that hurry and stress is finding time to stop and experience God afresh amidst the busyness of pastoral ministry. We feel like we can help with this.

We have decided to offer a spiritual formation practice every quarter on the blog. It's free to everyone—no subscription needed. We hope these exercises will encourage and refresh you, assisting you in pursuing your ministry with a greater connection to the Vine himself. The work will still be hard—we can't change that—but if you are walking closely with God, we believe you will have the strength you need to pursue your ministry with faithfulness and integrity.

A Digital Silent Retreat

Our first spiritual exercise is from Laura Murray, ordained pastor, spiritual director, and TPW contributor. Laura is sharing a "Digital Silent Retreat" with us.

We encourage you to download the exercise and create some space in which you have set aside distractions and practice stillness to walk through passages from Scripture which focus on Jesus' last hours before his death. Contemplative silence and a focus on Christ's great work on our behalf is an excellent way to step out of the busyness of ministry and into the spirit of Lent.

Does that sound like something you might need right now? 

I know I need it.

Laura guides you in approaching the readings through the lens of Lectio Divina, with guidelines to keep you focused on God (not the noise). We hope you can set aside some hours—maybe a day—to contemplate the passion narrative in Scripture and to experience the depth of God's love.

An Introduction

Here's Laura's introduction, which sets the tone for the guided retreat.

Noise is not new. No matter where and when there has been noise in our world. Noise outside ourselves and within. In this noise are voices. Voices from our past and even our present. The voice of fear of the future. True voices and false ones. Repeated voices and wounding voices. How do we quiet all the noise and hear God’s voice? One way is through the spiritual practices of solitude and silence. These practices give us an opportunity to make way for God’s voice in the sea of voices. To be quiet, settle, and focus on hearing God’s voice.

This guide is a way of giving you a framework for your time of solitude and silence. And let it be just that - a guide and framework. This means there is space to move within and outside the guide. If you get to wandering too far, use the guide to bring you back. My hope and prayer is that this time draws you nearer to our God and strengthens you in heart, mind, body, and soul.

Grace and peace,

Laura

Download Digital Silent Retreat

We share this retreat with permission from Laura Murray © 2021.