Come Away: Worship leaders and youth workers meet for contemplative prayer retreat

They looked like all the other adult campers walking to the dining hall, bundled in their rain jackets and hats. They also looked very strange. They were walking extraordinarily slowly and in total silence: one foot forwards, a pause, another step, pause, step, pause. It took them half an hour to walk only a few hundred feet.

Retreat participants on the contemplative prayer walk

This unusual incident occurred during the second “Come Away” retreat, held at Stillwood Camp and Conference Centre, B.C., Nov. 28–29. Mennonite Brethren worship leaders and youth workers met for personal renewal with facilitators Steve Imbach and Jeff Imbach. Steve is a member of Highland Community Church (MB), Abbotsford. For the past two years he has given himself full-time to leading retreats, offering spiritual direction, and training spiritual directors. His brother Jeff, for many years a pastor in Calgary, now lives in Tsawwassen, B.C.; he is president of the Henri Nouwen Society in Canada. Together they led the group in a pre-Advent contemplative prayer retreat based on the stories of Mary in Luke 1 and 2.

“Come Away” retreat leaders Steve Imbach (left) and Jeff Imbach

On Friday evening, the Imbachs divided the participants into small groups. They asked each group to portray Gabriel coming to one of them today with the message, “Greetings, Mary, you who are highly favoured; the Lord is with you.” Saturday morning each person spent an hour alone, imagining being Mary in this scene, experiencing her surprise, struggle and surrender. Before lunch, the participants imitated the pregnant Mary travelling to Elizabeth. On this contemplative prayer walk, taking only one step with every breath, the retreatants focused on waiting for God to act. During the walk, each person paused to thank God for someone who, like Elizabeth, believed in them.

After an unstructured afternoon, the Imbachs led the group to meditate on coming to the stable where Jesus was born. They also explored the possibility of encountering God through a stylized Byzantine painting. It portrayed the infant Jesus caring for Mary as she held him; similarly, God cares for us when we nurture His life in us.

Both “Come Away” retreats were initiated and subsidized by the worship and youth commissions of the Board of Church Ministries of the B.C. MB Conference. Instead of offering skills training and resources, the commissions wanted to help church workers draw close to God. Ten people attended the first retreat, and 24 the second. The commissions are considering offering “Come Away” to a larger audience, and in other B.C. locations.

The Imbachs, who have learned much about prayer and contemplation from Catholic Christians, introduced various forms of prayer, both new and ancient. These listening prayers were not meant to achieve anything, but were intended to make space for God. In all these prayer forms, Scripture was primary. The Scriptures were used not so much for information, however, as for personal formation.

To that end, the retreatants were invited to use their imaginations when meditating on the biblical stories. The Imbachs explained that the imagination helps integrate thought, body and emotion. The imagination helps a person descend with the head to the heart.

The Imbachs also reminded the participants that Christians are called both to contemplation and to action. However, this retreat’s emphasis on contemplative listening was offered as an antidote for our disposition as Anabaptist–evangelicals to frequently overemphasize doing and speaking.

The participants at “Come Away” were grateful for this unique opportunity to become quiet and “un-busy.” The retreatants were enabled to do an end run around their conventional understandings and analyses of the Bible stories, and come to a fresh and real encounter with Christ the living Word of God, who is being formed within every believer.

Sometimes the prayer exercises provoked feelings of resistance. Such resistances warrant prayerful reflection. They are often the junctures at which God wants to address us. Some men had trouble imagining themselves in Mary’s sandals. Some retreatants couldn’t imagine hearing, “You are highly favoured by God.” Some, who came hungry for experience and ritual, were surprised that they didn’t have an obviously intimate experience with God. Others first thought the contemplative approach to Scripture too subjective, but later saw the benefit of opening themselves to God in this way.

On a personal note: I was raised in the Mennonite Brethren Church and grew accustomed to phrases like “God spoke to me” and “Jesus is in my heart.” As an adult, however, I struggled to experience the reality behind these expressions. In the past decade, contemplative prayer like that at “Come Away” has enabled me to know for myself the possibility and reality of God communing with us. Contemplative prayer and imaginative meditation on Scripture are helping me believe with both my intellect and my heart. Now, in my roles as friend and pastor, I desire to model this kind of listening to God.

For many participants, the contemplative prayer walk was the highlight of “Come Away.” During that half hour, in this marvellously lived parable, each person’s heart and mind and body could be integrated into a whole person praying to God and listening for God. People slowed down enough to become truly stilled, yet alert. They could realize how Christ’s Spirit within us leads along paths that are exactly what each person needs, whether those paths are faster or slower, straight or winding. Impatient and jealous efforts to hasten the journey by breathing and walking faster, inevitably lead to a complete stop. Then the walkers must catch their breath, in order to fall back in step with the Spirit. And at last, our steps converge at the great banquet, where we will celebrate and fellowship fully forever.

Andrew Dyck is pastor of King Road MB Church, Abbotsford. He is a member of the Worship Commission of the B.C. Conference Board of Church Ministries.