Last weekend we hosted a girls’ “Colossians retreat” and were SO BLESSED by soaking in that book together and hearing each others’ insights! I was amazed by how much I began seeing in the book that I had never seen before: themes running through, the flow of argument presented through the entire letter, the core message of it that kept arising in different ways, etc.
If you want to do a weekend like this with your friends, I highly recommend it! Just put it on the calendar, and you’ll be pushed to dive into God’s Word!
Here are a few tips:
• It’s vitally important to study the book individually in advance. Read through the book several times, outline it, circle theme words, and write out questions you have.
• PRAY for the Lord to open your eyes.
• Keep the weekend simple so you can spend basically all your “preparation time” studying Scripture. We had friends sign up to bring a dish to share for some meals, and then did Chick-fil-a for one meal.
• Divide the book up in advance so that you have different girls lead the discussion for different sections. For example, here was our schedule:
Friday Evening:
Colossians 1:1-8 Sarah
Colossians 1:9-20 Shelby
Colossians 1:21-29 Anila
Saturday Morning /Afternoon:
Colossians 2:1-12 Abby
Colossians 2:13-23 Grace
Colossians 3:1-11 Jolynn
Afternoon Break (We took a walk, went shopping, and had dinner at Chick-fil-a. Last time we did an event like this, our 1 Peter Retreat, we went ice skating.)
Saturday Evening:
Colossians 3:12-25 Sarah
Colossians 4: Nickie
Dinner at Chick-fil-a
Since we had been studying Colossians on our own before hand and CAME with questions and insights, discussion on Colossians came quite easily, haha. 🙂
I think most of us are familiar with the pressure of preparing for deadlines. Whether it’s a test, an event, or buying Christmas gifts, as that deadline gets closer you make it a priority to finish preparing. The great thing about planning a “Bible study weekend” is that the way to prepare is merely to spend time in Scripture! How refreshing. 🙂
Wow, I would’ve loved to go to this! Colossians is one of my favorite books of the Bible! I especially like these verses:
Colossians 1:9-10, Colossians 2:14-15, Colossians 3:16-17, Colossians 3:23-24:) Praise the Lord!
Lol, Kassie, I love your enthusiasm for the Word! Wish you could have come too! 🙂
I miss being there with you guys! Sounds like a really great weekend. We should do something like that here. 🙂 🙂 God bless you guys!!!
Colossians is also one of my favorite books. Having a Bible study on it is a great idea! It sounds and looks like you guys had fun!
God bless the Mally family. Love to you
Thank you Caitlin, Kelayna, and Bobbie! Caitlin, if you do one in Australia, be sure to let us know so we can be praying for it! (I think you should!) Miss you too.
We are moving to Queensland in March. Any chance we could get contact details for your Australian friends? We would be blessed to know some fellow believers!
Thanks for sharing, Grace! Annie W led an Ephesians one and a Galatians one (inspired by your posts, I believe) and it was such a blessing to have an in-depth, focused time in God’s Word!
Kim, I just sent you an email. 🙂
Elizabeth, yes I heard about that from Annie–that was so encouraging to hear! I’m glad you got to be part of that!
Great idea Grace!! Thanks for sharing. Miss you guys sooooo much!!!
This sounds great! I could do it with my sister and close friends:) I miss you Grace! I wish I could have been there. I love the book of Colossians… I will be sending an email soon Grace:)
Blessings, Brooke