Annual Conference Recap
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Before we get too many weeks past our annual conference, I thought it would be helpful to reflect on what I think was an “ethos-changing” impartation. Doug and Charlene Fike helped us into a number of biblical considerations that we dare not pass over. But before I address some of those truths, let me remind you of as few pre-Fike pieces of our time together.
I. Marek Kiewra shared a presentation on the work in Poland. It continues to expand and bear fruit.
The center for leadership training is complete, but more funds are needed to pay it off. Consider sending them a few hundred dollars from your church budget. These are our guys in Europe.
We will have our 2007 Fall Conference in Poland, October 17-20, 2007. Marek will also arrange trips to Krakow (gorgeous) and Auschwitz (gripping) as part of the trip.
They need teams to come over to help build 100 meters of fence per team. This is a great men’s project to consider.
II. Art and Sandy Hackett have taken off for Tecate, Mexico. Consider them in your missions budget and prayer focus. Also, send a team down and help in their ministry.
III. Mike and Becky Kuelker presented their work in Tepic, Mexico. This is an effective work to the Huichol Indians and they would love to receive many teams and be considered for some help in their ongoing need for finances.
IV. My particular work in Whitewater Ministries has broken open and I solicit prayers for wisdom and grace to help teams engage and churches to fulfill the mission they’ve received from Christ. I’ve finished the rough draft of the book I was commissioned to do by my Whitewater Board – Being Where He Is: Pastoral Care in a Culture of Disintegration.
V. Jim Olson and I introduced a very helpful book for teams, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. I’ve worked with this both formally and informally with a few churches to date and will continue this in the days to come. Consider when you’d like to receive this “bromide” into your teams; I’d be happy to help you through it.
VI. Scott Pursley shared about the remarkable prayer awakening presently occurring in northern New Jersey. Let’s pray with them for more fire in the midst of what appears to be the early stages of an Awakening.
Now, on to the deposit from the Fikes:
Friday afternoon session
Doug spoke to the elders primarily to the necessity of cultivating and investing in the caliber of our relationships.
We need to upgrade our relationships every 2-5 years
Question: What does an upgrade look like?
At face value this sounds a bit cold and technological.
Does he mean simply and realistically re-assessing the kind of time and energy I ought to give to a particular relationship relative to my current season of life and ministry?
Life and people forcibly redefine us
For better and worse, no doubt
For instance, when I got seriously ill some years ago, I lost momentum with my sons and it was challenging to retrieve; but it also faced me with my mortality in a helpful way.
Prevention is so much easier than cure
Paying attention to our core relationships and investing in them because they are resources, not drains
Seasons are invitations from God to go where He wants you to go
If we will leave a legacy, we will go through seasons of suffering that will move us toward faithfulness.
There is a famine in the land of high quality relationships.
Personal summary:
Be intentional about your “upgrade” with your spouse and each of your children.
Do the same with your key leaders.
What season are you in?
Winter seems dead but roots are going deeper with faith and perseverance.
Spring – signs of new life emerging
Summer – the full flowering of that new life
Fall – the season of reaping and storing and celebrating
Conference – Session I – Finishing well
Robert Clinton definition
Having a vibrant relationship with Jesus to the end
Leaving your legacy, i.e. something that your life is about that outlasts you
Staking your life on the reality of who Jesus said He is
Personal Summary-Finishing well will demand an intentionality that factors in
My core relationships
My calling in Christ
The particular trajectory and fruitfulness of my gifts
The impact on others
Conference – Session 2-3 Sabbatical rhythms
Definition – built-in times to restore the health of the soil/ soul
Based on the very image and way of God
Must become non-negotiable because there’ll always be a reason why we can’t do these things
The Rest of God – the rest of perfect adjustment of all things to God such as ensued upon the creation of His created work when He pronounced all things good
Question – Who am I if I am not “producing”?
Question – Have I bought the myth of my own indispensability?
Personal Summary- Assess my own “built-in, non-negotiable” times
Personal prayer and study – daily
Weekly prayer with Sue – Wed. a.m
Weekly date with Sue – Mon. off
Family meal and times alone w. children
One to one pastoral care of leaders – monthly
Personal retreat – 4 days -annually
Personal Summary – Church Sabbatical Rhythms
Weekly communion
Advent/Christmas – celebration
Lent/ Easter – celebration
Pentecost – focus on the Spirit
Retreats – men, women, youth, leaders
Anniversary – major celebration
Conference – Sessions 4-5 – Building Rhythms of Life
Upgrade relationships to where there is open space for God to work
Children
Renew/restore / balance / reorient / give perspective
We must overcome the place of being DIS- , for example
Dis-couraged
Dis-oriented
Dis-illusioned
Letting God be God in all the seasons
Understanding the 4 season cycle
Personal Summary
Besides Doug’s very good unpacking of the Scriptures in the O.T. feasts and Hebrews, this was the most helpful perspective for me (the 4 seasons, etc.)
His treatment of the 4th commandment and the feasts was compelling.
So here is my press toward every ARC leader:
Take this stuff seriously.
Assess your own and your leaders’ sabbatical rhythms
Take a few days totally off and think with the Spirit about “upgrading” your relationships.
Invite me to your leadership team next year (’07) to sort through the Five Dysfunctions of a Team material.
Talk to me about key areas I may have missed from conference.
In the love of Christ,
Ned