Come Away to Pray: Tools for Leading Group Prayer Retreats

“How can I help our congregation learn to pray together?”

“I am longing for a time to pray with others, but I don’t know how to make it happen.”

This four-week webinar will focus on questions and concerns like this, providing both practices in group prayer and practical tools needed to create and lead a prayer retreat for groups of any size.

Dr. Deborah Miller is a lifelong Christian educator and leader who has led prayer retreats for groups of all ages – from high school students to executive leaders. She is the author of Planning a Prayer Retreat, developed from her experience leading prayer retreats and informed by her doctoral research on the desire for and obstacles to corporate prayer in Nazarene congregations. Each one-hour session will include teaching, a guided application, and opportunities to workshop possibilities in participants’ own contexts. Participants will also receive a copy of the book. 

Session Overview

Session One: Why a Retreat?

Session One will revisit the “why” for the value of prayer as well as the value of group prayer retreats. Participants will engage in group prayer together, develop an imagination for the group prayer retreats, and have an opportunity to begin sketching out the possibilities for their own involvement in planning and leading a group prayer retreat.

Session Two: The Makings of a Prayer Retreat

Session Two will identify the key components of a successful group prayer retreat, as well as walk through a model for a prayer retreat agenda. Participants will consider how to address these components and implement this model in their own setting.

Session Three: Overcoming the Devil in the Details

Session Three will address participants’ specific concerns regarding the organizing of a group prayer retreat. In addition to the weekly practice of group prayer together, participants will brainstorm together for their own retreats as well as participate in in-depth Q and A on different details of retreat organization.

Session Four: Preparing for the Challenges

Session Four will address some of the potential challenges that can arise during a prayer retreat. As we acknowledge the different possibilities of what could go wrong, we will do some troubleshooting in advance and strategizing for minimizing the various pitfalls.