There’s nothing like a leadership retreat.  Autumn is an especially good time to retreat.  The weather is nice, but not summer nice.  Flannel and/or denim is an especially acceptable wardrobe choice.  And, most of all, it saves us from having to rake leaves, since that’s usually the only other option for a Michigan Saturday in October.   On days like today, leaders often say “Oh, I can’t rake leaves.  I’m going on a Leadership Retreat”, with the unspoken wish being that your leaves blow into the neighbor’s yard while you’re gone.

Surely I kid.  Nonetheless, we had a great leadership retreat today with our Lead Staff and Leadership Team (church board).  I love these things because a ton of good conversation and a bunch of great ideas come out of our time together.  We tell embarrassing slash hilarious stories from our childhood (like the time the principal walked into the monkey bars, or like the time the Canadian/US border was thick with differential terminology).   We pray, asking God for Acts-like faith and Holy Spirit power.  We talk about the reality of the church — the great stuff, the challenges, the horizon and the long view.  And then we get to goal settin’.  We’ve got some big goals for 2015 — the kind of stuff that only God can do.  This is both exciting and humbling.

I love the people I get to lead with.  I really do.  I come away from today’s retreat with the impression that God has assembled just the right team of leaders for such a time as this.  I am very fortunate to work with people of this caliber, and I cannot wait to see what happens in the year to come.

Yep.  We had a great retreat.  And, wouldn’t you know it, there are a bunch of leaves in my front yard.  But I feel like some great things were accomplished today, and I trust God to continue to build the church through what we talked about and prayed for today.