This weekend we are heading down to Madora Bay with our mission team to reflect on where we are at and to listen to what God is saying to us.
Danelle will be facilitating the weekend and I will simply be there and doing as I am told…
I reckon it’ll be great for us to spend extended time together praying, listening to God and discerning priorities for the next leg of the journey. As much as I have had some difficult moments over the last few months and struggled with my own sense of accomplishment there is nothing in me that says ‘bugger it – move on’.
I imagine we are all on the same page there as a team, but I have occasionally been stunned by what comes out of these times, so I refuse to predict the future!
I remember only too well my second retreat as the senior pastor at Lesmurdie. We went away to come up with a vision and plan for the year and as a group we definitely felt God speaking to us, only he was telling us to ‘repent’ – telling us we were way too self absorbed and self sufficient, both as a leadership and as a church. It blew the retreat right apart as we wondered what the hell do you do with that?!
We came back having met with God but also having felt him say ‘lay down your plans and agenda and come back to loving me as a first priority’. It was my job to communicate that back to the whole church…
I think it would be fair to say that it wasn’t a message anyone wanted to hear, but I still remember that retreat with goosebumps because for all of us we aware of the unmistakable presence of God, telling us to do what was absurd, and yet what was obviously true to anyone who calls themself a disciple…
So while part of me leaves feeling settled and ready to arc up for the next leg of the journey another part of me knows that God is so bloody unpredictable that anything could happen… But isn’t that the beauty?…
I reckon those time away times are the best ….
We had ours (Time Away) at Camp Kennedy with Kim Palmer speaking – he told me he is not a “Camp Speaker” (you know what I mean not camp as in camp nor one of those who at the end of the weekend gets you all to write your sins on a piece of paper and throw them in the fire) – no he’s not – but what he is, is a a terrific communicator and we at the Bridge needed to do a little twisting and turning as we felt led by the Spirit.
Those time away times are great – gets you to pause and reflect instead of maintain and fuel the beast, pray yours is just as good maybe better – but I sense changes are a foot?