We had a great time in Tennessee! Not only was it warm and sunny in the south, but more importantly, we all had some very intimate quiet time with God. I find it interesting as a former youth pastor that we plan and organize retreats for youth in order to help them find times to listen to God; yet for whatever reason we assume that after graduation, we no longer need these times. Granted, as adults we should all be self-sufficient enough to plan times with God on our own…but let’s be honest, we usually too busy and distracted to sit down for even a few minutes each week. The event in Tennessee was really just that…a retreat for adults (and kids & youth) to spend time with God, listening to God, and worshipping God. There was no agenda. It was simply time with God. As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed this time with God and am looking forward to going back for another retreat! I would highly encourage anyone (all of you) who is looking to simply spend some time in the quiet presence of our Creator to talk to John Owens, myself, or anyone else who has attended to learn more and possible join in on the next trip!
Yesterday we jumped into week #2 of our theological study. The message was a bit more depressing as we ended on the topic of sin. While we will move into a more joyful topic of salvation next week, I would challenge each of us to spend some time answering the question “how did I get here?” While we may no longer be living “dead in our transgressions and sin” (Eph. 2:1) we were there at some point (or may still be there). Spend time with God this week reviewing how you got to where you are today. What choices have you made to steer the course? What has God done to redeem the course and redirect it? In order to know where we are going, we have to start with where we’ve been!
Finally, I had asked yesterday for you to share with me how you got to HBIC. Feel free to follow this link to a Google Survey to share your story or you can always go “old school” with pen and paper 🙂
In Christ Alone,
Pastor Jan