It was one of the most important of retreats in the church’s life and we knew it. We had our consultant, Dr Philip Huang’s analysis, notes and recommendations with us. He has had many meetings with the staff, the board of elders, and with the G20 a name we coined for the group of 20 church leaders. Together we have compiled and categorized a profile of the kind of disciple that our church wants to make when God sends people to us. At the retreat we tweaked it so that it easily resonates with members. We also identified the core programs (where most of the believers meet regularly):namely, the worship service and the cell groups, and added a few to these. Then we looked at the different stages a pre-believer would go through in his discipleship journey in the church: from being won to Christ, being assimilated, built up, equipped, and sent back to the world of per-believers to win others, and wheter there were sufficient programs at each stage. We also diagnosed several serious gaps in the process and had to decide which to fix up. By the end of the retreat of 3 days and 2 nights, we had a clear direction over the next one to three years with the year 2010 in broad strokes.
We worked together with the help of the Lord but he gave us even more than we asked or imagined. He was clearly present in our prayer times and holy communion. He was there as we discussed and could see how deft touches from His hand led to better synthesis, ideas and confidence. There was oneness despite occasional different opinions. The inter-generational platform of the current board of elders and pastors and senior leaders yielded synergy, ownership, confidence and a hopeful picture of the future.
-Report by Kenny Chee; photos by Francis Shin