Session Retreat Report

A couple of weekends ago the elders in training and myself got away for a retreat. I wanted to highlight a few important things that came from that time away, and help you have some expectations for how our session will function together once it is officially installed.

Praying

A significant amount of our time together was spent in prayer. We began each morning and evening in prayer. In those times we worked through a morning and evening liturgy that included scripture readings, confession, singing, and laying hands on each other individually praying for each other. The work of an elder means nothing apart from a life of prayer and dedication to the Lord, so this is where we started and ended each day.

Assessing

Our first task together was assessing where we are at as a church. We looked at our strengths and weaknesses and where we see areas of needed growth. We also assessed our vision and mission statement as a church, asking the question, “does our vision/mission statement accurately describe us?”. We will be sharing some of the specifics of our conversation around this topic in January at our annual meeting, but this was an extremely fruitful time for us as we start to make decisions and plans about where we are headed as a church.

Dreaming

We then spent a good amount of time in one of my favorite places, “dreamland”. In dreamland anything is possible and we got to each answer the question, “if the church could look like anything we could dream of in five years, what would that be?”. After dreaming of what five years from now could look like, we picked out the most important things for us to focus on in 2024 that would help us attain our five year goals. We will be sharing some of our plans soon, but spending time away dreaming about what God might continue to do in the work and life of the church was extremely life giving. Of course when you make plans they don’t always go as we think they might, but it keeps us focused and moving in the same direction.

Fellowshipping

The other aspect of our time away was simply spending time away together. A good session needs to be able to have fun together and see each other as friends. So there was lots of time spent just having fun and enjoying each other’s company over good food and drink.

This retreat we aim to make an annual event so that our church is shepherded well, as we continually examine where we are at and where God is leading us. As we move towards particularization, I’m excited to see how God will continue to mature us and give us deep roots in the heart of Yakima, for the glory of Christ and his kingdom.