Staff Retreat Day, or "Man, is this my idea of a dream day..."

Actually, this will be a pretty cool day. I don't know many youth pastors who have it as good as I do in terms of staff leadership. When people call to see if I'd be interested in making a vocational change, that's the point that they haven't been able to touch--I don't know other churches with leadership like ours.

We're at the home of one of the church families for our Strategic Initiatives Team retreat. Our SIT is tasked with making sure that we're tracking on the 6 major initiatives, which correspond or flow out of our Church Without Walls vision:
No Walls between us and God (initiatives: worship, prayer)
No Walls between us and each other (initiatives: life groups, family ministries)
No Walls between us and our community (leadership development, outreach)

Dan just re-read Isaiah 43 to get us started. I'm in a living room with a bunch of great people, hearing stories about where we're seeing God do new things. I'm absolutely blessed to be part of this staff, even on days that are challenging!

It's good to be part of a team with folks who are passionate about the Lord, the church, and life together. It's encouraging, and challenging (in a good, gut-check kind of way).

I am thankful...