2008 Congregational Retreat

April 25-27, 2008

Lake Chautauqua (near Jamestown, NY)

According to the Bible, there was a time when God and Adam walked together in the garden and conversed as friends.

Then, prayer was as natural as conversing with a colleague or lover.

Yet today many of us echo the comments of this young college woman. “I’m not always sincere when I pray. Sometimes it seems forced, more like a ritual. I’m just repeating words. Does God hear those prayers? Should I keep going even though I have no confidence that I’m doing it right? Pastors and ordinary Christians alike consistently rank prayer high in importance—and also high in frustration.

If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer?

Writing as a fellow pilgrim about the mysterious intersection where God and humanity meet and relate, Philip Yancey pushes beyond conventional treatments with a fresh, unique perspective that has become his trademark. Yancey explores such questions as:

Is God listening?

Why should God care about me?

Why do so many prayers go unanswered?

Why does God let the world go on as it does and not intervene?

Does prayer really help with the physical healing?

Why does God seem sometimes close and sometimes far away?

Does prayer change God or change me?

How can I make prayer more satisfying?

Yancey backs his answers with crystal clear insights into the importance God places on prayer and why we should value it. “Prayer: Does it make any Difference” is an invitation to pray to a God who wants to interact with us, even to the extent of giving us influence over what happens.

You are invited to learn more about Prayer and conversing with God, to have fellowship, and to have fun--All on 160 acres of some of the most beautiful land on Lake Chautauqua.

Interested? Want more details? Please contact Scott Bourque (225-0431), Mary Kuziak (865-1866) or look for the sign-up table after services.

* Excerpts from the cover of Prayer Does it make any Difference?

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