Refresh: A Retreat for Creatives

Refresh is soul care for creatives. This retreat will provide an opportunity to prayerfully approach pains and blockers in your relationship with God, self, and others, as well as in your creative process. Activities will include biblical reflections, examining artworks, listening prayer, worship, visio divina, and community connection alongside discussions and workshops on culture, art, and the church. Refresh will be facilitated by Melanie Spinks, a Gordon-Conwell alumnus and visual artist, with special contributions from Leighton Ford, Gwenfair Adams, and Adam Kurihara (see bios below). Creatives and artists of all kinds are invited to attend this retreat, with the understanding that some content will have an emphasis on visual art.

Refresh will kick off Thursday at 5pm with arrival and a dinner followed by a workshop and opportunity for reflection. Friday will include worship, discussions, talks, and meals together. Saturday will continue with more discussion and worship and will conclude at lunch time. All lodging and meals will be covered with your registration fees.

There will be an additional opportunity on Saturday to explore and enjoy art together in the area, and for those who would like to stay and do so, this will be on your own expense.

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Alumna Melanie Spinks is an artist whose ministry focuses on soul care for culture-shaping creatives. A longtime member of the Leighton Ford Mentoring Community, she has been discipled by Leighton for over a decade. She holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Georgia State University in Atlanta and an MA in Biblical Studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Melanie has taught at Georgia State, Charleston Southern, and Wingate Universities and is a speaker on arts, visual culture, and theological aesthetics. She has collaborated on arts initiatives with Gordon-Conwell, InterVarsity, the Lausanne Young Leaders Movement, and New Wine Skins. In her work at Experience Design consulting, she is a trusted advisor bringing design thinking principles to Fortune 500 companies to approach challenges with a creative problem-solving mindset.

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Since 1985, Leighton Ford has focused on identifying, encouraging, and mentoring the next generation of Christian leaders. After 30 years as Vice President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and 16 years as Chairman of the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, he describes these ongoing days of his ministry as “a friend on the journey and an artist of the soul.” Through Leighton Ford Ministries, his current endeavor, he has helped organize and sustain more than 30 ongoing mentoring communities supporting ministry leaders worldwide, facilitated many personal spiritual retreats for ministry leaders, and personally mentored or counseled a wide variety of pastors, ministry leaders, and lay leaders.

One of the great gifts God has given Leighton are his talents as an artist. Visit LeightonFord.art to learn more.

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Alumna Gwenfair Walters Adams (PhD, University of Cambridge) is professor of church history and spiritual formation at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dr. Adams’ specialties in church history are focused on the Medieval and Reformation eras, and her specialty in spiritual formation is focused on the history and practice of Christian spirituality. Her special interests focus on C. S. Lewis, the visual arts, and the relationship between literary theory, theology, and the Christian life. She is also the designer of LifeStory Exegesis™ (Story Spirituality™)—a model of spirituality that can be used in spiritual formation, direction, discipleship, and counseling. She is the author of Visions in Late Medieval England: Lay Spirituality and Sacred Glimpses of the Hidden Worlds of Faith and the Romans 1-8 volume in the Reformation Commentary on Scripture series. A lifelong Presbyterian, she is married to D. Kevin Adams, the senior pastor of East Baptist Church in Lynn, MA.

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Adam Kurihara is currently serving as the Minister of Worship Arts at North Shore Community Baptist Church. Adam loves making music so people can worship Jesus. He grew up in sunny California where he developed an early passion for music from private piano lessons, singing in choirs, playing in a blues band, studying music composition, and serving in worship teams. In college he discovered the richness of choral music and liturgical traditions, prompting him to move to the Boston area to study Sacred Music at BU’s School of Theology. He graduated from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in 2022 and has most recently served as Pastor of Worship and Community Life at Trinitarian Congregational Church in Wayland, MA from 2011-2022. When not making music Adam likes cooking and enjoys biking around the North Shore. He lives with his wife Shauna, an artist and Spiritual Director, and his newborn daughter Magnolia in North Beverly.

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