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Early in 2015, Pastor Timothy (T.J.) Welsh from our Manteca congregation contacted me about helping with a retreat for our California pastors. This was the first attempt to make an intentional investment in their leaders and I gladly agreed to help facilitate the weekend. Early Thursday morning I made the trek to Detroit Metro Airport to begin the journey west. Once I landed in Sacramento I began the two and half hour drive to Jenness Park Christian Camp (http://www.jennesspark.com) near Cold Springs, CA.
We had five of our pastors representing four of our congregations (we have eight congregations in CA that cover the length of the state – from San Diego in the south to north of Sacramento in the northern part of the state - it’s about an 11 hour drive from one end of the eldership to the other). Pastor Bradley Taylor of the Farmersville Church, Pastor Rob Lopez of the Fallbrook Church, Pastor T.J. Welsh of and Pastor Pat Welsh of the Manteca Church and Pastor John Burns of the Wheatland Church were waiting on me when I arrived Thursday evening (pictured below, l to r).
We designed the time to include some free-time on Friday afternoon and Pat Welsh took us farther up the mountain and showed us some of the more interesting views and locations nestled off the main road. God’s creation is truly awe-inspiring and I enjoyed the time we had to hike, talk and take in the beauty of creation with my brothers. |
I was so grateful for this time with some of our California brothers and I look forward to the next time we get together for a time of discipleship and development. You can pray for our brothers and sisters in California as they are one of our smaller “regions” and the great distance from the rest of us can be discouraging at times, but there is tremendous opportunity for them across their beautiful state. Let’s be praying that our brothers and sisters there would continue to grow and take risks to do the work that our Lord Jesus has called them to do!
Lance
If you're looking for something that will help you as a leader to navigate our changing world, I highly recommend Q Commons. There are many locations across the U.S. nearby collections of CGGC churches and it's very affordable ($20-$30 for most locations).
This one-evening event is coming up on September 24th and I'd encourage you to go to their website to learn more about how you might benefit from the Q Commons.