Staff Retreat!

We had our Staff Retreat at the new Camp Meadowkirk near Middleburg, Va this weekend. The entire staff was able to make it!

I did the grocery shopping (at Wegmans, of course) early Friday afternoon then we all met at the Camp around dinner time. The facilities have to be the nicest campground I've ever seen. We had a cottage with a very large and well equipped great room separating two huge bedrooms, each with their own large bathrooms. Ladies to the left, men to the right for sleeping arrangements.

We had dinner together (Lasagna...mmmmm) then got down to the business at hand. We asked ourselves, as a staff and as individuals, a series of questions.

• Why are we here?
• What are our ministry gifts?
  
• What do we do?
• How do we do it?
• How do we each fit in to the big picture at WBF?
• How do we fit in with each other?
  

We spent the evening exploring Luke 22 and examining what Jesus had to say about leadership God's way compared to leadership the world's way. We talked and brain stormed. We thought and wrote. Then we shared and talked some more. To end the evening, we shared a devotion from Spurgeon's 'Morning and Evening'.

We all went to bed around midnight. I, for one, had a decent night's sleep. The rooms were comfortable, the fellowship had been sweet and we had been blessed with unity and love for each other. My meditation as I began to drift off was focused on the warmth and openness God had blessed us with throughout the evening.

We had breakfast together at 9 AM, had another devotion, courtesy of Spurgeon again, then went back to work.

As the day progressed, God continued to knit us together. By the end of the afternoon, we were all tired but we were all able to see that we did indeed have a common vision. We saw that God has assembled us into a group of people that are uniquely gifted to work and minister with and to each other. We were able to speak openly, honestly and in love to each other.

There's one particular and huge blessing we received in our time together. Each of us feels called to do one primary thing; to serve the congregation at WBF. Everything else we do, as a leadership group, flows from that calling. All this puts meat on the bone when we think about WBF as "A place to connect....A place to grow".

What an honor and a joy to be able to sit with and stand beside such a great group of godly people! What a wonderful way to spend the weekend (for me) after a uniquely exhausting and draining week, with brothers and sisters in the Lord....friends who share a common vision, a common purpose and a common calling.

This is exciting!