Today was major planning day for the RUSH (Sr. High Leadership) Retreat coming up this Friday. Ironically, we are in a hurry. Chelsea will be at a leadership conference with some of the Jr. High staff, so I have to play Chelsea (aka "Do everything in the world" person) for at least half of this retreat and much of the week building up to it. As unprepared as I feel, God has been with me every step of the way and I have a feeling he's not going anywhere.
So Chels, Charlie, Drew and myself all piled into his office today to talk details about how it's "all going to go down," as Drew would say. But I know well enough that even after a 2 hour meeting (which it was!) throwing out ideas, brainstorming, and having things written down on a white board, we're still all flying by the seat of our pants. It seems to be a way of life at Eastview, especially in the youth departments, and it kind of drives me crazy because I like to be prepared.
I mentioned earlier that I did Strengths Finder 2.0 to prepare for this, since the students will be taking it as well, and it's been an interesting process for me to look through what my characteristics are and how those can apply to ministry- how those things speak to our spiritual gifts as well. Drew has one of the Eastview adults (who is kind of an expert on Strengths Finder 2.0) coming to the retreat to talk to the RUSH kids about their results, and what it looks like to be those people practically within ONE's ministry and their lives of ministry in general both now and in the future.
Drew wanted to do a spiritual gifts assessment too, but he wasn't pleased with the one they did last year. I joked that there should be a "Fruits Finder 2.0," and we all laughed, knowing it would be an instant Christian Bestseller- gotta love our religious spin-offs of things. "But seriously," Drew said, "we need one of those." :)
I had a neat experience today in that when Drew was asking us to add to the outline of the retreat plans that he had come up with, I wasn't afraid to speak up. It's kind of a sad thing- just when I'm feeling truly confident and capable to speak up in these meetings and know I'll be heard, I'm heading out to go back to school. Regardless, Drew really loved an idea I had involving boards reading "heart" "mind" and "passion" (the three layers of ONE- ONE heart (to reach the lost), ONE mind (to know the Word), ONE passion (Jesus). I thought the students could just have some space on those boards to dream big- to get comfortable around each other and not be afraid to speak their mind in front of a new leadership group (which ironically I myself was learning in that very meeting! God is funny!).
It was just cool to see the process of us working around and with each other's ideas, Charlie spring boarded off of mine and suggested involving post-it notes and a quiet time for the students to think even more practically about what parts of the ministry they want to see change. Instead of feeling like my idea had been "totally shot down" (a dramatic way I can feel sometimes), I instead felt like it was a blessing to have started something that another person could tweak and work with. Ministry is always at LEAST a partnership, and usually way more than just that- a full community and staff in this case of people who want to have a vision that they can extend to their audience.
It was neat to see that played out as our full staff prayer meeting was focused around gratitude for the people we partner with in ministry. We had to write a letter to someone starting with "I thank my God every time I remember you..."
It was a special exercise. I realized through it that right now I don't know who I would call my ministry PARTNER, per say. Most people with spouses thought of their husband or wife immediately, others wrote to a close friend in Eastview's ministry. As I get further into my professional ministry of counseling, I'm hoping I'll have more names to fill in that blank in just a few short years here. I have my counselor now and my spiritual director, including members of my family that I could easily write a letter to saying how thankful I am for them, how they've shaped me, how I feel that we see things similarly, but the word partner is a strong one, and I don't know that I'm there yet.
It's neat to see the things that Drew mentioned at the beginning of this come to life. I'm helping in a major way to plan this retreat and help carry it out (even in details like figuring out catering the weekend!--okay, not so small a detail,) and just recently have contacted some girls in the ministry, specifically a few I know are looking at Wheaton to grab coffee and talk life.
Woo! Full steam ahead in these last short weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment