About
Our Founders
Rob Lehman
Molly Lehman
When Molly Vass and Rob Lehman married in 1995, they formalized the weaving together of beautiful, complementary vocational lives.
Molly served on the faculty of Western Michigan University for over 20 years and was the director of the Holistic Health and Contemplative Well-Being program. She was also a psychotherapist for over 30 years, specializing in psychospiritual counseling. Rob had a career in law, serving as vice president of the Kettering Foundation and as associate dean and professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He was a longstanding, integral partner with John Fetzer in his visionary philanthropic work, and joined the Fetzer Institute as president in 1989.
In 1991, Molly became a founding fellow with the Fetzer Institute, working with the Educational Outreach program. A few years later, Rob was overseeing the creation of Seasons, Fetzer’s retreat center for dialogic convening. At this same time Seasons was evolving, Rob and Molly’s partnership revealed a new calling and GilChrist Retreat Center was dedicated the same year they married.
After founding GilChrist, Molly authored two books: Seeds of Awakening: Cultivating and Sustaining the Inner Life (2001) and GilChrist: A Place to Remember (2023). Rob went on to serve as chair of the Fetzer Institute Board, helping establish a deeply engaged form of board governance, and later as President Emeritus.
Our Origin Story
When Rob and Molly Lehman moved to Three Rivers to be near St. Gregory’s Abbey, they couldn’t predict the vision that would unfold as GilChrist Retreat Center. A small retreat cabin on their property, named Heathwood in honor of Molly’s mother, turned out to be the seed of a dream, and the charge to bring this dream to life came from their dear friend, Sister GilChrist. In 1995, a small group dedicated the new interfaith retreat center with five cabins, the Stone Chapel, and the WindHill Gathering House.
At the time, Rob was the president of the Fetzer Institute, a nearby philanthropic organization in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with the mission to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. When Rob became seriously ill, he and Molly made the decision to gift GilChrist to the Fetzer Institute, as an embodied expression of the mission tied to land and contemplative practice.
After GilChrist merged with the Fetzer Institute in 1998, GilChrist’s first director, John Howie, oversaw the construction of three more cabins and the organic unfolding of a community of contemplative practice. Since then, each caretaker in GilChrist’s lineage has held the land with deep regard and brought their own unique expression of inner life and outer actions to the shared work of sacred hospitality. GilChrist and Fetzer have also grown in relationship, with GilChrist making the gift of retreat accessible to the general public and holding a space of stability through contemplative practice as the Institute’s work in the world grows and evolves.
Our Neighborhood
GilChrist is located on the ancestral lands of the Potawatomi and Peoria nations, near the intersection of the Rocky, Portage, and St. Joseph Rivers. We share this landscape of rolling hills formed by glaciers with many human, plant, and animal neighbors. Our web of relations includes other nearby contemplative communities: the Hermitage Community, St. Gregory’s Abbey, Apple Farm Community, Our Daily Bread, and the Huss Project.
Our Staff and Animals
Please meet the living creatures who are eager to welcome you when you arrive at GilChrist!
Our Ecological Practices
We seek to be good stewards of the land within our care, creating a holistic cycle of mutual regeneration between humans and the rest of the natural world.
Learn MoreOur Updates
New book celebrates GilChrist Retreat Center
A Reflection on Rest
