Elder Retreat
What do elders do on a retreat? Besides laughing a lot and praying together, here are 2 important areas we covered in our time together.
1. Life Check-in.
-I mentioned in the last post that the elders prayed for me and my family. That was after I gave them a candid personal update about how I am doing with life – spiritual, physical, family stuff, etc.
-But it’s not just me that does this. We go around the circle and do it with one another. Very honest about struggles, challenges…and things to celebrate!
2. Look back and Look ahead for Suncrest
-The conversation is free to become pretty imaginative about where God is leading our church, but we always bring it back to just a few areas that we sense God leading us to and that we can focus on.
-Outward…we are consumed with the initiatives of the Jesus Mission (Highland, South Bend, Liberia).
-Inward…we sense Community Groups need more leadership attention. Our volunteer coaches are incredible in the way they have served without a staff leader for almost 7 months now.
-Community…One HUGE takeaway was a clear sense God is leading us to make more and more and more impact on the communities where we live. More compassion ministry…more integrated into every level and fiber of our church. We said we didn’t want last year’s “servolution” to be something that was just a seasonal emphasis. But we are afraid it has been.
-Leadership…Lots of stuff here: How are we REALLY doing at reproducing leaders/leadership development? How do elders roles look as we move to 4 campuses and bring on new elders later this year? We also had a challenging, but necessary conversation about our need to develop a clear approach to church discipline.
I love our elders….Jim Bowman, Dan Smith, Gordon Barker, Randy Parish, and Bill Davy (our team leader). These guys like to serve in the background to GUARD and GUIDE our church, but their influence is in the changed lives we get to see so often around here.
.Real.Greg.Lee. 
Greg, missed you at the lunch Wed. I can relate to the busy. I do want you and Suncrest to consider running with Team World Vision in the Half Marathon in early Sept. Blessings to you, your Elders and Suncrest. Thrilled to be partners in the Gospel.
Bob
Thanks, Bob. Let’s talk about it next week. Connecting Wednesday, I think?
Thankful for the leadership of our elders and ministry staff- always feels like we are in good hands/hearts and humility.
That means a lot to me, Robin, from someone who serves on our support staff and knows the internal workings, not just the public presentation. You know I’m grateful for your role here!