Life with God entails movement, often to destinations we never imagined on our own. Jesus embodied this kind of pilgrimage life as he went to distant places while remaining connected with the people he loved. As we think about this kind of life, we invite you to come on the City Church Community Retreat, from Saturday, August 6th through Sunday, August 7th at the Marconi Center near Point Reyes.

This retreat is open to everyone who wants to come. You are welcome to attend with your community group, but we also invite you to show up even if you don’t know a lot of people who are going. This will be a great chance for everyone to get to know new people and build new relationships as we learn about how we grow spiritually in community. Rev. Peter Choi will lead the retreat, and he was eager to share about what we will be learning and doing while we are together...

My main hope is to share a way of looking at life that is shaped by the long view of Scripture. In the same way that a roadmap helps travelers, having a sense of the path before us is vital for our spiritual journeys. The problem is that many of us think we know what the spiritual life is supposed to look like when, in reality, so much of our imagination regarding faith matters––our spiritual roadmap, if you will––has been formed by false platitudes and short-sighted pieties.

One of the striking details we find in Scripture is how much God’s people were on the move. For a time when transportation options were limited, they sure did travel a lot. It’s an observation ripe with spiritual implications because their physical journeys taught Israel a great deal about a life of pilgrimage with God. We may think we live in a very different world, one that is increasingly mobile and ever shrinking, and yet there is much to glean from the wisdom of those who have gone before us.

In that spirit, we’ll look at the long arc of Moses’ life, this well-educated, privileged person who grew up in an Egyptian palace but ended up living a hardscrabble second half of life. We’ll be (re)introduced to Elijah, a powerful prophet who struggled with suicidal depression. Finally, discerning the spiritual topography of Jesus’ life helps us to see that he traveled to a far country for the sake of loving his enemies. It’s the simple yet subversive act of seeing Jesus as a person who walked a lot and went places he had no business going that leads to a deeper understanding of what it means to follow him. Too often we think of the Christian life as abiding in a place of unchanging realities when the invitation of Jesus is to a life on the move into uncharted terrains.