Over the past weekend we were privileged to have Major Malcolm Herring (R) spend time with our leadership team @ Camp Columba. This leadership retreat was an opportune time for God to speak into the lives of our leadership while providing some specific teaching around the topic of discipleship.
To commence the weekend I had prepared a presentation on the life-cycle of the church, which highlighted where we are at currently. This also helped to raise the awareness of some of the issues associated with the direction going forward and what we need to do as a leadership team as we attempt to integrate all aspects of the ministry. This incited some healthy discussion around our responsibilities and what it will entail leading the church in the years to come.
The following morning Malcolm shared about his experiences within his 31years of Corps Officership and how he had been intentional throughout to ensure that people got to know Christ in every aspect of ministry that he over-sighted. This was followed by an explanation around a discipleship process that he had developed so that people didn’t get to a point in their Christian journey where they felt as if they had arrived. “None of us can say that we have matured in Christ as we are always ‘maturing.’”
Russell Healey our Corps Sergeant Major (CSM) spent some time in the afternoon sharing what he had learnt in the area of prayer from his involvement with the Centre for Spiritual Life Development.
Saturday evening we spent some time looking at the Corps calendar reminding ourselves that “we can become so busy doing church that we side-line God.” We need to ensure that every ministry, programme, and activity needs to focussed on the main thing which is our Corps mission statement; “We exist to bring people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.” If we lose sight of this then we may as well shut the door.
Sunday morning we were blessed by a short service focussing on God working in and through us. Followed by some further teaching around prayer, that we were then encouraged to practice.
“Lord, we have heard of your fame; We stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk 3:2 (NIV)
The life and times of Perry... 