Understanding Silence and Solitude

Silence and solitude is fasting from people and noise for a prescribed time to connect with God and replenish the soul. The opposite of solitude is isolation, where someone is burned out and goes into survival mode by disappearing. Solitude is godly, isolation is deadly, and if we don’t enjoy the former we’ll wind up pursuing the latter.

Despite the constant pressures upon his time from family, friends, and fans, Jesus’ own life was marked by ongoing times of solitude. The following verses speak of how Jesus often practiced the spiritual discipline of solitude:

• “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” (Matt. 14:23)
• “And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:31)
• “And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place.” (Luke 4:42)
• “But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” (Luke 5:16)

Furthermore, as we study Scripture we see that Jesus used solitude for a multitude of purposes. Following his baptism, Jesus spent forty days in solitude preparing for his public ministry (Matt. 4:1–11). After his cousin, John the Baptizer, was beheaded, Jesus spent time alone to mourn (Matt. 14:12–13). Jesus also used times of solitude as occasions for intense and focused prayer (Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16). Jesus specifically used solitude as an opportunity to pray and seek the Father’s will before choosing the twelve disciples (Luke 6:12). In addition, Jesus used solitude to rest after a hard day of work (Mark 6:31). Finally, knowing he was soon to be crucified, Jesus spent time alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, coming to grips with the painful obedience that was required of him (Mark 26:36–46).

Other biblical figures also used solitude for a litany of purposes. Moses spent time alone on the mountain with God in order to receive a word from God, namely the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19–20). Isaiah was both saved and sustained by God through his times of solitude with the Lord (Isa. 30:15). In Psalm 62:1–2, 5 David says that in solitude God calmed his fears and encouraged his soul. Paul as well spent some three years in varying degrees of solitude being prepared by the Lord for ministry, according to Galatians 1:17–19.

Clearly, time alone with God serves innumerable good purposes in our lives. Therefore, to help you consider how to enjoy purposeful times of solitude, I would encourage the following. One, you may need to simply schedule a day of solitude to ensure that this is a regular part of your spiritual life. I do this at least one day a month and find it to be the most important and refreshing part of my life; it enables me to function in the other areas of my life because it helps me remain continually connected to Jesus. Two, find a place where you like to go. This may mean that you spend a day in God’s creation hiking or simply resting. Three, if you are a parent, this may mean that you have to get up early or stay up late to get some time to yourself at home.

There are many things you can do during your periods of solitude, including:

1. Nothing
2. Meditate on a short section of Scripture
3. Rest
4. Read long sections of Scripture
5. Pray, including a prayer-walk/hike/bike
6. Read a good book
7. Journal

Acts 29 Network

Pastor Scott Thomas leads the Acts 29 Network, which exists to start churches that plant churches. More information at the Acts 29 website.

This is the second in a five-part series. The first post can be found here.

Four Ways to Change Your Life

1. Heart change – conviction from God and repentance from you
2. Study – research and fact-finding for how to change your life, which includes reading the Bible and other books, speaking with people you know who have wisdom, etc.
3. Plan – ongoing, detailed, and prayerful life organization
4. Action – working your plan and making changes as life requires:

Moleskine – always keep a journal like this nearby to jot notes, thoughts, and convictions in
Journaling – use your laptop to gather the scattered ideas in your Moleskine and prayerfully and carefully add to and consider them
Calendar – take action items from your silence and solitude day and put them on the calendar, as without being officially planned, nothing ever gets done to completion

Most people are good at one or two of these steps. Some have a heart change and do their homework but do not make a plan and take action to change their life. Others have plans and action but are religiously just doing duties because they have not experienced heart change from God. Others move from heart change to action without research and a plan; they mean well but make their life (e.g., health, finances, relationships) worse.

Take some time and be honest with yourself. List each of these steps in order from the one you are strongest at to the one you are weakest at.

Where is your life getting stuck and what can you do to grow where you are weak? Who do you need to talk to and learn from? What do you need to repent of?

Community

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I am an introvert who is contemplative. This means I crave and desperately need silence, solitude, study, prayer, and journaling because the Holy Spirit uses these moments to connect me to Jesus that I might be more like him. For those like me, organizing days for silence and solitude may come rather naturally. But for those who are extroverted and active, the people and tasks in their mind and life can keep them from having regular and productive times to fast from noise and people and to hear from God, speak to God, and be with God.

So, this blog is the first in a series that will help you organize a silence and solitude day. The series of blogs will culminate in a lengthy template I use to organize my own silence and solitude days. I shared this document with the Mars Hill staff and so many friends on Facebook and Twitter asked for it after hearing about it that I decided to write it up in brief form and give it away in hopes of being helpful.

Four Ways to Live Your Life

In his book Leading On Empty, Wayne Cordeiro says that there are only four ways to live your life:

1. Reaction – passively dominated by urgencies and pushy people
2. Conformity – succumbing to the fear of man and just being and doing what everyone else wants, which is not necessarily following God’s will for you personally
3. Independence – nonconforming rebellion in the name of freedom, marked by doing only what you want and ignoring godly authority over you
4. Intentionality – reverse-engineering your life and living it prayerfully and purposefully, journaling your thoughts throughout the day, and using silence and solitude to hear from God and organize your life

Which one of these four most typifies you? Is your life a frazzled mess because you are in perpetual reaction mode? Have you not really even deeply pondered God’s will for your life but just done what you were told by other people?

Are you the sort of person who is defiant, independent, and self-reliant? Or, do you regularly (e.g., at least one hour a week and one day a month) get silence and solitude with God to work on your life before you work in it?

The Bible is All About Jesus

The Doctrine series explains the centrality of Jesus throughout Scripture and the life of Mars Hill. Full-length sermons & 15-minute episodes.

In addition to preaching at Mars Hill on Sunday and teaching at ReTrain over the weekend, Ed agreed to do a very special free event for everyone at Mars Hill and in Seattle. On Friday night Ed will be spend an evening educating us on mission. In my opinion, there are few better people to learn on this topic from, so if you go to Mars Hill or live in Seattle, then please come join us this Friday from 7-9pm at the Ballard campus.

Dr. Stetzer has planted, pastored, and revitalized numerous churches. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two master’s degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Ed is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach magazine and Catalyst Monthly, serves on the advisory council of Sermon Central and Christianity Today’s Building Church Leaders, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USA Today and CNN.

Ed is Visiting Professor of Research and Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Visiting Research Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and has taught at fifteen other colleges and seminaries. He also serves on the Church Services Team at the International Mission Board. He is one of the leading thinkers on the earth in the areas of evangelism, church planting, and movements. Ed’s primary role is President of LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s Missiologist in Residence, where he oversees a large team of Christian researchers examining the health of churches worldwide.

The Resurgence

Resources to equip leaders to live for Jesus, teach the Bible faithfully, and reach their cities with the gospel. Visit theresurgence.com for more.

The Scripture reading of Mary’s Song as recorded in Luke 1:46–55 that accompanies the sermon this week comes with a great God story.

The audio and video crew was with me in Nazareth at the only known well in town, the place where, it is believed, Jesus and Mary often would have drawn water. Today, a large Christian church has been built over the site, but the well remains open for viewing in a cavernous area of the church.

My plan was to film the Scripture reading from this week at that location. But, as we were shooting, we were disrupted by some podcasters visiting from other nations. The brief minutes that interaction took cost us the few precious minutes we had to film, as the body of a deceased elderly woman in an open casket was carried in front of us for a funeral. Out of respect we quickly exited as the mourners entered.

Then, down the hill a bit from the church, we found a well called Mary’s Well. It was an outdoor fountain that had apparently been used to pipe water from the well Mary used to the locals in a more public and accessible location.

I got the idea to find a local young woman who would be willing to stand in front of Mary’s Well and read Luke 1:46–55 for us in Hebrew. So, we needed a bilingual young woman old enough not to need her parents’ permission to film with us and a copy of the New Testament in Hebrew, all while standing in the Muslim quarters of Nazareth. To make matters worse, the streets were empty, as everyone had gone to the mosque for Ramadan prayers.

We could not find a young woman or a copy of a Hebrew Bible.

So, Jesse (our director) and I walked into a nearby coffee shop and sat down. We bowed our heads and asked Jesus to send us what we needed, quickly listing the specific needs.

Just then, in God’s providence, a young woman approached us to take our order. Christine just so happened to be eighteen, was born in Nazareth and had lived there all her life like Mary, was from a Christian family, was a sister in Christ, and was fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Furthermore, she had just acted in her first play and looked fully Mars Hill, dressed in black and wearing Vans.

We asked her if she would be willing to read for us and she was nervous but agreed. Her boss agreed to let her take a bit of time off work for the project and we gave her a really, really good tip to say thanks. While we finished our coffee, John (our I-can-do-anything handyman, including rewiring the power on our bus in Israel to recharge the RED cameras) somehow accessed a local wireless network with his iPhone and found a copy of the New Testament in Hebrew. The next thing you know, we got the Scripture reading for this week. So, thank you, Christine!

Mars Hill iPhone App

Instant access to the entire Mars Hill media library—and the Mars Hill Blog. Get the Mars Hill iPhone app for free at the iTunes store.

Sunday, October 11 is my thirty-ninth birthday, the twentieth anniversary of my salvation (the exact date is known only by God), and the thirteenth anniversary of Mars Hill Church. So, on that day we will air at all campuses a special one-hour sermon from Acts 17 that I preached live this summer while standing on Mars Hill in Athens. The footage from this sermon is epic, as it was all captured on RED video cameras (the same as those used to film District 9). To say the least, it looks amazing. The real Mars Hill is basically an enormous rock below the Acropolis and the Parthenon (where democracy was birthed); it towers over the city as well as an ancient temple dedicated to Zeus and Athena, after whom the city was named. Socrates visited Mars Hill, and the steps that Paul walked up are still intact, as you can see in the photo taken there of my family and me.

Luke Sermon Series

The new Mars Hill sermon series begins September 20. Tune in as we trace the life of Jesus through the Gospel of Luke. Watch the preview.

At 11:30pm tonight I’ll be featured for the third time on ABC’s Nightline. A month ago, Terry Moran and a great crew from ABC came to Mars Hill to talk with me about the second commandment. Terry had seen something I had posted on Twitter around the time of Michael Jackson’s funeral and wanted to follow up with me on the topic of idolatry in America.

I sat down for about 30 minutes with Terry, and we talked about how idolatry underlies all sin, how it is rooted on a false promise of happiness, how it ultimately destroys, how it is often the result of turning a good thing into an ultimate thing, and how it shows itself in our culture in how we idolize celebrities, athletes, food, family, sex, money, relationships, and achievement—or rather, what we call American culture.

We also took a drive in my Jeep and discussed some of the cultural idols littering my city. It was a bit precarious for the exceptional cameraman, who stood up in my Jeep while I drove as carefully as possible so as not to kill him. But things went well and we got some great footage of many modern-day temples: strip clubs, Seahawks stadium, Safeco Field, Starbucks headquarters, etc.

Most importantly the Nightline team gave me the chance to explain how Jesus is the only answer to all of our idolatry:

• Idols take. Jesus gives.
• Idols destroy life. Jesus gives new life.
• Idols break apart people and relationships. Jesus redeems and heals.

The episode has been pushed five times and was finally confirmed this week. In God’s providence and goodness the timing has worked out perfectly, because this week is Mars Hill’s 13th anniversary and on Sunday I’m preaching on Acts 17 from the actual Mars Hill in Athens.

I’d like to thank ABC and Nightline for doing a creative series on the Ten Commandments and for giving me a shot to talk about one of them. I’ve really enjoyed working with Terry, Ely, Dan, and the rest of the crews they’ve brought with them.

Please join me in praying that God would work through this to overcome our rebellion and turn all of us—believers and non-believers alike—from our worthless idols to the only true King, Jesus.

This summer I had the great joy of leading a trip to Israel. For me, the highlight of the entire trip was baptizing my son Calvin Martin, a.k.a. “Buddy Calvin,” in the Jordan River. He is the third of our five children and the most pastoral among us. God has given him a tender heart for people and he is a very loving and considerate young man. He is also a good ballplayer and made the eight-year-old baseball all-star team even though he was only seven. Buddy Calvin and I have a lot of fun together and one of my great joys is seeing him read the Scriptures for himself.

Along with Buddy Calvin, I also got to baptize my mom and dad along with my aunt, uncle, and about seventy other people who joined us on the trip and needed to be baptized. For fun, Buddy Calvin and I shot this little video blog while still in the river and I wanted to introduce him to you so that you could share in our joy. For parents who have gotten to see their child baptized in faith, you know what this day feels like in your heart.

Luke Sermon Series

The new Mars Hill sermon series begins September 20. Tune in as we trace the life of Jesus through the Gospel of Luke. Watch the preview.

October 11th – this is my 39th birthday, the 20th anniversary of my salvation, and the 13th anniversary of Mars Hill Church. So, as a special sermon we will be airing at all campuses a one hour sermon I preached live this summer from Acts 17 while standing on Mars Hill in Athens. The footage from this sermon is epic with the Acropolis behind me.

In November (22nd at Ballard and 29th at all other campuses) the sermon Jesus and the Temple from Luke 2:22-40 will air. This sermon was shot live on location from the Southern Steps of the Temple on the very same steps where Jesus walked. This sermon will be very controversial as I preached below the temple mount during Ramadan with a mosque behind me complete with hecklers dropping fireworks to explode in an attempt to interrupt the sermon.

In December (6th at Ballard and 13th at all other campuses) the sermon Baptism & Repentance from Luke 3:1-14 will air. This sermon was preached on location at the Jordan River followed by 70ish baptisms including my son Calvin, my mom, and my dad. I preached this entire sermon in one hundred degree heat while standing in the Jordan River that Jesus was baptized in.

In April (11th at Ballard and 18th at all other campuses) of 2010 when we get to Luke 6:20-36 we will show The Beatitudes sermon preached while standing on the same place Jesus preached the words recoded in Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. Behind me is the Sea of Galilee and it will really help you get a taste of where Jesus drew large crowds.

In June (13th at Ballard and 20th at all other campuses) of 2010 the sermon Jesus Calms the Storm from Luke 8:22-25 will air. This sermon was preached as I stood on the shores of the very Sea of Galilee where Jesus revealed his divinity commanding nature to obey him. The footage here is amazingly beautiful and the RED cameras were able to catch rays of sunlight not even perceptible to the human eye.

Mars Hill Global

New campuses, new churches, leadership training, and free resources for churches everywhere. In partnership with Acts 29 and Resurgence.

My family and I recently spent three weeks touring Greece, Turkey, and Israel. Much to our surprise, perhaps the place we enjoyed most was the archaeological dig in Ephesus, where roughly 15 percent of the great marble city has been excavated. We learned a lot about the early church there, and we learned what was for me the most jaw-dropping, gut-wrenching, tear-watering fact of our entire trip, which I shared with Mars Hill Church on Sunday in the accompanying clip.

Death By Love

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears tackle some of the most serious redemptive aspects of Jesus’ work on the cross. Find out more.