We had our staff and Executive Council leadership retreat this past weekend. We did something different than we had done in previous years. Instead of an overnighter at a retreat center, we shortened our time and went just down the street from our church to Hamilton Gables. Also, instead of team building games, creative activities and long periods of “down time” we lasered in on scripture, telling stories of life change in our church, leadership and our evolving communication strategy.

One of the ideas we focused on was unity. We looked at John 17 and Jesus’ passionate prayer for unity. We were reminded of how important unity and alignment are among people of “the body”. But, that idea starts with the leadership. If the leadership arrows aren’t all pointing in the same direction (within the larger arrow of the mission of the church) then we create confusion for those trying to follow. We must ruthlessly hold fast to our missional direction. All it takes is one or two arrows veering off course to slow down momentum and cause frustration for the others who are passionately moving forward. Jesus clearly understood that one of the weak spots in the human condition is the gravitational pull toward dis-unity and selfishness. If leaders give in to this, the church is in trouble. So, “Jesus help us!”.

Anyway, it was a great retreat. I’m proud of our leadership.