All events are in Phoenix, Arizona timezone.
Arizona does not participate in Daylight Saving Time, if you live outside AZ, please google or use the link below to find the time zone conversion for your location.
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creative pause. soul care for your creative self
Contemplative Hike
Monthly at 8am – December thru April (December 6, January 3, February 7, March 7, April 4)
Location: Dreamy Draw Recreational Park, 2421 E Northern Ave, Phoenix
Step away from the noise and come join us for a Contemplative Hike, a guided time of stillness, prayer and connection with God in creation. Each month we will examine a different contemplative practice: Silence, Centering Prayer, Breath Prayer and Lectio Divina.
Each hike will be approximately 3-4 miles.
What to Bring: Comfortable shoes and plenty of water!
Led by: the SFSAZ Team
No cost.
3 Part Soul Care Day Series
Come for one, two or all three soul care days throughout 2026
January 22, 2026 // 9a-3p Soul-Care Day 1: Awareness – Seeing God in All Things
This day invites participants to awaken to the presence of God in scripture, conscience, and daily life. We explore the difference between knowing about God conceptually and encountering God relationally, tracing biblical and historical themes of awareness from Moses’ burning bush to Wesley’s “heart strangely warmed.” Through practices of prayer, reflection, and attentive living, we learn to “take off our shoes” before the holy ground of ordinary moments. Awareness is the first flame—kindled by the Spirit—calling us to recognize that every bush may burn with divine fire if we have eyes to see.
Location: Franciscan Renewal Center – 5802 E Lincoln Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85253
Cost:
Regular Registration – $55
General Member Registration – $50
Full & Professional Member Registration – $48
Register for ALL 3 at one time and receive a 10% discount off the regular registration price – $150 (no member discounts can be added)
REGISTRATION FOR SOUL CARE DAY 2 & 3 will begin in 2026
April 30, 2026 // 9a -3 pm Soul-Care Day 2: Response – From Knowledge to Friendship
Awareness leads to invitation. This day focuses on how we respond to God’s presence with trust, surrender, and love. We consider the tension between traditions that emphasize right thinking and those that emphasize heartfelt experience, discovering that true maturity requires both. Drawing from scripture and stories of revival, we explore how response transforms belief into friendship with God. Through prayer, confession, and acts of obedience, we learn that concepts alone cannot comfort—only presence can. Response is the movement from hearing God’s call to saying, “Here I am,” allowing the Spirit to set our hearts ablaze.
September 24, 2026 // 9a-3p Soul-Care Day 3: Distraction & Resistance – The Fire That Refines
After awareness and response, we encounter forces that pull us away—distractions of comfort, ambition, and fear—and inner resistance to surrender. This day examines how these challenges are not signs of failure but invitations to deeper transformation. Like gold tested by fire, resistance refines us, burning away what is unholy and awakening virtues like love, wisdom, and joy. Through scripture, silence, and honest dialogue, we learn to hold our questions in faith, trusting the Spirit’s work even in trial. Distraction and resistance remind us that becoming “all flame” is a journey—one that passes through struggle into greater freedom and intimacy with God.
Location: Franciscan Renewal Center – 5802 E Lincoln Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85253
Cost:
Regular Registration – $55 per soul care day
General Member Registration – $50 per soul care day
Full & Professional Member Registration – $48 per soul care day
Register for ALL 3 at one time and receive a 10% discount off the regular registration price – $150 (no member discounts can be added)
2026 SFSAZ Conference – February 20 & 21, 2026
Living Fully in an Age of Anxiety
We are living in an age anxiety. Even if we personally don’t feel anxious, we are touched by it all around us. How do we navigate these waters in which we live and move and have our being? What does it look like to follow Jesus into living fully? How can anxiety become an entry point to fullness of life rather than seen as an obstacle? Between teaching, workshops, spiritual practices and worship, this two day conference will give you space to listen and explore living with God in our everyday lives.
Location: Valley View Bible Church – 4222 E Lincoln Dr, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253
Click the button below to check out the plenary speakers and workshops and to REGISTER!
Refund Policy
In-person events: 30 days or more prior to event: 100%, 14-29 days before event: 90%, 7-13 days before event: 60%, 1-6 days before event: 30%
No refunds available after an event.
Ongoing Contemplative Prayer Offerings
Be/Still
Camino de Phoenix Walk
Available anytime
Location: Walk begins at Cross Roads United Methodist Church (7901 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85020) and ends at Canaan in the Desert (9849 N 40th St, Phoenix, AZ 85028).
“Pilgrimages are not about one place being more holy than another, for God is everywhere. Making pilgrimages involves a response to something inside us that longs to move toward, that seeks the holy beyond.” – Father Murray Bobo
The walk is approximately 9 miles.
Visit the Camino de Phoenix website for more information and a map of the walk.
Created by: the SFSAZ Team
Contemplative Prayer Group
Taizé Prayer
Other Offerings
Renew
Renew: individual private retreats designed by our SFSAZ team to fit who you are and where you are in your life with God. Retreats include accommodations and meals at a retreat center as well as time with a Spiritual Director and Pastoral Counselor to help process all that you are experiencing as you spend time with God. Retreats can be anywhere from 2-5 days. Let us know and we can consult with you in designing a retreat. Great for times of discernment, transition, and/or simply needing the space to reflect and be renewed in your life with God and the ministry to which He has called you.
Please fill out this form to initiate the process https://sfsaz.breezechms.com/form/0f32fd
FORMATIO: the art of caring for souls
A two-year cohort journey in learning the art of soul care. Based around six retreats, participants will learn to more fully care for their own soul as well as coaching others in the ways and rhythms of Jesus. The art of caring for souls is companioning someone in their journey of experiencing God in awakening to the love of God, growing awareness of self and God, increasing attentiveness to His presence and voice, and abiding in/with God. This invites a lifestyle of intentional practices and rhythms that form us in the image of Christ. Some of those practices include: silence and solitude, prayer and listening, and discernment and detachment in the context of Scripture and community. Click here for more program information.