Great Escape Clergy Retreat 2007!
The recent Western Pennsylvania Conference Clergy Retreat titled ‘The Great Escape’ was a wonderful opportunity to gain new insight on some life principles as well as “The Life Journal” approach to teaching members of the body to self-feed.
The guest speaker was Bishop Wills and one of the ways he conveyed 5 excellent principles was through a video by Wayne Cordeiro. The principles are:
- Know what fills and drains you. Figure out what gives you energy and what takes it away. This extends to anyone with spouses so that they can write down what fills and drains themselves and exchange it with each. If someone is single focus on what fills and drains yourself and if someone is married make sure you do not drain, but rather fill yourself and your spouse. This is also helpful for the spouse.
- Understand balance in life. There is a balance between family/home life and ministry. One needs only to understand that the fulcrum moves. The fulcrum being the point two objects are balanced on needs to be moving and not static. If we allow room for following the Holy Spirit’s lead then when there is a push in one area or another then we can adjust the fulcrum so that if there is more needs at family move the fulcrum toward family and so move the fulcrum toward the push or direction from the Holy Spirit. This works the opposite so that if there is a need toward ministry the fulcrum can be adjusted as long as we remember this is not fixed and thus should not stay stronger to one or the other when the balance is shifted because of the push of the Holy Spirit.
- Lead out of rest. Schedule rest points even though we might not always keep them, but make them the norm. An example of this is that Monday nights is family night for my family as well as Friday’s are my day off. On top of this I work a half day on Saturdays. Granted I am only a student local pastor supposedly only working part-time at the church and the rest of the time is to be devoted to studies while I am in Seminary. However, the point is if you do not even schedule times of rest then you are already behind the eight ball.
- Find a lighting rod. This is to say when problems arise there needs to be a less biased person that is not related to you or the church you are serving that is reliably confidential like a professional councilor, but if that makes you uneasy then find a friend or mentor and share with your family from what Wayne Cordeiro calls “sharing from the victory side”. The victory side means that you share once the problem, dilemma, frustration, or tension has passed.
- Disciplined daily devotions. This is important because “you can not give what you do not have”. This is the place where the Life Journal was discussed. The Life Journal is an approach to help everyone, all followers of Christ, be better devoted to God, coming closer to God, following Jesus way better, and seeing the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This Life Journal is a daily devotional where there is a plan to read the bible in a year, but if you follow it you will read the entire Old Testament in a year and read the New Testament twice. Wayne Cordeiro explains that the Life Journal follows the S.O.A.P. technique so that you read scripture, write out one or two verses that stand out. Then briefly write out observations about it and then write out the application usage. This is followed up by writing out a prayer.
***** Disclaimer: This is an oversimplified and out of context example only meant to show the basic idea of the S.O.A.P. technique and this is not meant to limit people, but guide the general populace. If this does not work for you it can be altered to fit the person..
This S.O.A.P. may looks something like this: if the passage chosen was “Jesus wept” an observation might be that Jesus cares and an application might be that if Jesus cares this much so should I. This leads to the prayer that the Holy Spirit might show me how to be more caring and follow Jesus example.
God bless,
Corben
2 comments:
I found this post very helpful this morning as I have been trying to catch up on the blogs of the other members of the WPMUMC Blog Roll. Thank you for writing specifically about using the Life Journal. I have signed up to use it on line and have been having some difficulty. The information that you have put up here has fleshed out some important points that I had missed. I prefer to journal on paper, it's a tangible textural thing, but I see the point about using the on line forum. The Soapy structure is a brilliant discipline. Part of my daily devotions involves silently walking. I have a "prayer dog', an energetic shelty who makes sure the walk happens and that I don't get lazy. I can't tell you how many times I have thanked God for that furry prayer partner who has goaded me to be outside in all kinds of weather. It is easier for me to hear the Voice in the wind, in the trees and in the song of the birds than at home where there are so many distractions and the family can find me. Outside, I can be truly alone to listen. Rest times? I do not have those times in my schedule right now. I never thought of scheduling them. Thanks, your post has been so helpful!
Blessings and Happy New Year.
I am glad the post was helpful,
God bless,
Corben
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