Revived Heart
Good Soil Grows Kings
What's This About?
Revived Heart is a men's retreat ministry rooted in the parable of the sower and shaped by Morgan Snyder's Becoming a King. It exists for men who are doing the hard work — in therapy, in recovery, in the long middle of becoming.
Where Is It At?
Nestled in the heart of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains, shielded from the harsh clamor of the city by a majestic mantle of pine, is a small retreat area that has been set aside and called Camp UTABA.
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How Do I Sign Up?
Event registration and payment is handled via a link you'll find when you click the More button. If cost is a barrier, reach out before you walk away — we want the right men in the room, not just the ones who can afford it without thinking.
Rob Chidester
Rob Chidester is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a certified Become Good Soil Intensive Facilitator, and a counselor trained in Internal Family Systems — one of the most effective therapeutic approaches for men doing serious inner work. He has been pioneering spiritual renewal experiences in Utah since 2009, building something in this state that didn't exist before he started. He comes to Revived Heart with deep clinical skill and the kind of quiet credibility that only comes from years of sitting with men in their hardest moments.
Fred is a writer, speaker, and ordained American Baptist lay pastor at First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City. He has been facilitating spiritual renewal experiences across faith traditions since 2009. His own faith is not a given — it was lost, searched for, and found again after a significant season of agnosticism, which means he knows something about what it takes to come back. He leads Revived Heart from that place.
Fred Smullin
What's This About?
Revived Heart is not a non-denominatioal ministry of easy answers or sanitized religion. It is a place where broken ground is honored, where the seed takes hold, and where men discover that the lion was always in them. We welcome every man who is ready to till the soil of his own soul.
THE ANCIENT PATH
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”
— Jeremiah 6:16
This is not a program. It is not a curriculum. It is not a performance.
This weekend is an invitation that God has been calling men into since the beginning. A journey of receiving sonship. Choosing the narrow road. Becoming the kind of man — the kind of king — to whom God can entrust his Kingdom.
That word king might feel like it belongs to someone else. Someone more put together. Someone who hasn’t been through what you’ve been through. We want to say clearly, at the outset: that feeling is exactly why you’re here. Revived Heart was built for men who are in the middle of hard ground — in therapy, in recovery, in the long and unglamorous work of becoming.
Good soil doesn’t start that way. It starts as something harder.
“Traveling the path isn’t cheap. It isn’t easy. It isn’t quick. But it is the heroic journey that leads to real life — to men becoming as solid and mighty as oak trees, teeming with strength and courage to bring to a hurting world.”
-- Morgan Snyder
First: We Prepare the Soil
Inner work precedes outer transformation. We honor the hard, compacted ground of a man's life — and believe it can be broken open.
Second: God Plants the Seed
The Word of God, the wisdom of Snyder's framework, and the fellowship of like-hearted men are planted together — and given time to germinate.
Third: You Become the Harvest
A revived heart is not a finished heart. It is a rooted one — capable of bearing fruit for those under a man's care, for his community, for the Kingdom.
This is why Revived Heart is built for men in like you. You have already begun the most important work: the honest reckoning with the condition of your own soil. That is not a weakness. That is preparation. That is what makes you exactly the right kind of man to be here.
Where Is it at?
Camp UTABA
7005 North Fork Road
Liberty, UT 84310
The Revived Heart retreat takes place at Camp UTABA, nestled in the heart of the Wasatch Mountains, shielded from the clamor of the city by a mantle of pine about an hour north of Salt Lake City in the Ogden Valley. It has been set aside by the Utah Association of American Baptist Churches for worship, renewal, and revival.
Camp UTABA is not a hotel, and it was never meant to be — it is a camp with heated cabins, a lodge that seats up to 80, a gazebo and deck beside the river camp, and enough quiet to hear yourself think for the first time in a long time.
"not in the whirlwind, not in the fire, but in the still small voice."
1 Kings 19:11-13
That quiet is not incidental. It is the point. Most men arrive at a retreat like this carrying a noise they have learned to live with — the noise of unfinished business, unspoken grief, a heart that has been working hard just to keep the surface calm.
The wilderness has always been the place where God meets men at that depth. Not in the whirlwind, not in the fire — but in the still small voice that only becomes audible when everything else finally goes silent.
At Camp UTABA, the creek outside your cabin, the pines overhead, and the absence of the usual demands on your attention are not amenities. They are an environment designed by God long before any of us thought to build a retreat around it — and they are part of how a heart that has gone dormant begins, slowly, to revive.
This is exactly the kind of ground where the work of a weekend like this should happen — far enough from ordinary life to mean it, close enough to home to get there.
How Do I Sign Up?
Spots for the Revived Heart retreat are limited — intentionally. This is not a conference built for crowds. It is a weekend designed for a small group of men who are ready to do real work in a place that can hold it, and when it fills, it fills. If something in you has been stirred by what you've read here, don't wait for a better moment. The right moment is rarely convenient.
Once we receive your payment, your spot is held, and you'll hear from us directly with everything you need to know before you arrive. Click a button below to register now and take the first step onto ground worth standing on.
Payment Options
Full Price: $549
You're in. Pay now to reserve your spot, and we'll see you at the retreat.
Pay $300 Now, $249 Later
Pay a $300 deposit now to reserve your spot. Pay $249 by the date of the retreat.
You're In!
Questions? Reach us at [email protected]
Your payment has been received and your spot at the Revived Heart retreat is confirmed.
April 30 – May 2, 2026
Camp UTABA · Liberty, Utah
You'll receive a confirmation email shortly with everything you need to know before you arrive. In the meantime, hold the dates, tell someone who matters to you, and trust that showing up was the right call.
Good soil grows kings.