Retreat! I Like You
As the month of August dawns and our collective energies are pulled into the imminent beginning of the next school year, I hope that you’ve been able to have some moments over the summer to rest, reflect, recreate, and even retreat from your normal patterns of busyness during the “normal” months of the year. To a large degree, the ministries and activities around ECRC mirror those of the school calendar (of course, our worship for God on Sunday morning never relents and we do run a large Farmers Market each Wednesday!)
If you’ve been unable to take vacation or pause from your work so far this summer, it’s still not too late. Even a day or two, or a strategically restful long weekend can breathe some much needed life back into your spirit. I highly recommend!
Our staff was able to be on an annual retreat together for the past couple of days before we take the plunge back into the fall ministry season. Thanks to the hospitality of some kind members at ECRC, we have a comfy house to stay in as we share some times of planning, prayer and worship, and remotely attend some sessions from the Global Leadership Summit at Willow Creek, as well as just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. One of the mini-themes of this time together is that we actually like each other! It’s so great for me personally to work shoulder to shoulder alongside good people that I can sing with, pray with, laugh with, and truly like! I’ve been reading (and re-reading) the Gospel of Mark lately and was struck by the line in Mark 3 that Jesus chose as disciples “those he wanted… that they might be with him.” That’s ancient-Greek-speak for Jesus choosing people he liked and looked forward to spending time with. Amazing that WE now fall into that group, too! If you haven’t thought about this way before, consider that Jesus actually likes you!
Among the topics we’ve been challenged to consider over the last few days on retreat are these:
We’re called both to be faithful to our Christian foundations while also being spiritually intrepid pioneers and frontier people
The season ahead for us at ECRC is full of so much good potential and opportunity as we keep in step with God’s Spirit
We’re asking God’s Spirit to make good on the promise to send young people new dreams to dream, and for the old people to see new visions
We’re committed to identifying and undermining old patterns that don’t yield spiritual fruit, while creating and reinforcing new patterns that we trust will yield good spiritual fruit
We learned how powerful it is to say the simple words, “I like you”
Maybe that’s enough learning for now! Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be writing about “What I learned this summer” through my own reading, studying, and some continuing education experiences.
I’m eager for this coming Sunday’s worship service as we dive deeper into the person and work of the Holy Spirit - and - have opportunity to pray for our students, teachers, and administrators on the cusp of the new school year - and - have the pleasure of introducing our new Student Ministries leader, Bobby Markey. It’s gonna be great.
And did I mention that I like you, too?
- Pastor Gregg