God Moving At Maranatha

Coming Apart to Come Together

Jesus often gathered alone with his disciples.  On one occasion, during a particularly strenuous period of ministry, He said to His disciples, “Come…apart into a desert place, and rest a while..." (Mark 6:31 KJV).  Jesus saw value in taking his small group of followers away to learn and be refreshed. 

That is what we will be doing as a staff team on Monday and Tuesday of this coming week.  In a cabin loaned by generous members of our congregation, we will spend time together defining our roles and responsibilities and getting to know one another.  You might say that we are “coming apart” in order to “come together.”  Pastor Mike, our new Pastor of Discipleship, will even be joining us.

I think this retreat could be pivotal for us.  This is because any team must have a basic level of mutual understanding and trust in order to work effectively together.  Yet, most of our staff have only been together a matter of months, and Pastor Mike has had even less opportunity to get to know any of us.  This retreat is a vital opportunity to address that lack.

I am looking forward to two things in particular on this retreat.  The first is sharing our stories with one another—when we open ourselves vulnerably to one another, we come to see each other as whole people, rather than just performers of a certain job.  The second is making a staff covenant.  In our covenant we will define how we will treat one another and how we will support one another in our work.  My hope is that our staff will become, in miniature, the kind of community we want the whole congregation to be.

Please pray that God’s Spirit will move in our time together.  His power is both the glue and the guiding force that will help us to be the staff team God wants us to be. –Pastor Tom