Having a job is a grind. Whether you work full time or only part time, you reach a point of needing some time away to maintain healthy functioning. Even in ministry, there is a threshold of too much work that can easily be reached. While vacation helps in the individual and family context, something else is needed as part of the organization’s structure that will provide this necessary ingredient.
Enter the staff retreat.
I would argue that 48hrs as a ministry staff in this context can be more helpful than a month of planning and strategy meetings within the walls of the organization. They can be more restful than a full week off, and more enjoyable than any other 48hr period on the church calendar. The reasons for this are simple: it is a time where each participant is reminded of their place in the ministry as one in submission to Christ, the head of the Church. It is a time meant to reorient each participant around a shared vision, for us to be worshippers in community, engaged in ministry. And it is a time to reflect on the past year, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the organizational pieces that make up the whole. Have the decisions made over the past year supported the heart of Christ and the goal of the ministry? Remind, reorient, reflect. Unlike vacation, which is intended to be an escape from the daily grind, staff retreat is intentionally structured to provide life within the grind.
Having just come off a retreat like this, we as a staff value these times together and are grateful for the priority placed on them. For those who help make these times possible, thank you!! Whether you provided a meal or loaned us a boat, whether you are an elder who joined us one evening or a spouse who took care of all the duties at home alone, it was noticed and appreciated.
Truly, this is a time each year for us to do as the psalmist wrote in Psalm 27: to be strong and to take courage as we wait on the Lord. Though the grind is tough, and though evil assails all around, we come away renewed in purpose and reminded that the Lord is our light and our salvation, the stronghold of our life, the One whose face we long to see and whose house we long to dwell in.
~~ Tim Wilson