Post Leader Retreat 2005

I had a great time on the Leader Retreat last night and today. But it's really nice to be home. I figured out that this calendar year, I will have been away from the fam for about a month doing SPACE and associated trips. That's a little over the top. So last night was the last time I will be away for the rest of the year, as far as I know.

Anyway, I basically got all of my goals done.

My scattered brain notes for the Friday night vision of mission talk:
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picture share
my job tonight is to change what you care about
you are on the front lines of caring about kids week in and week out
its an awesome responsibility
challenge you to care about the world by caring about your kids
God wants use your kids to impact the world
the church is an unstoppable force
the gates of Hell will not prevail against it
I do what I do because i'm convinced students are a major piece of it
something mystical and magical when we take students to intentionally
serve and impact others
- prepare these kids to do this in their future
- see them live missional lives
- see small groups able to do this on their own
- be strategic about what we are doing - 60% of short terms do harm
- progress them as they get older
complement of community service and summer mission experiences
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- Started ES on her mentorship. We had a great time talking about ethos, spiritual leadership and dreaming about SPACE.
- Planned SPACE activities for the fall, set all the dates. really good planning session this morning. trying a new nuance for the Nov launch (more later)
- Had a GREAT time talking to CC about her potential thing for India (which is on hold for a while). really great. I signed her up for something in the future, if it happens... (of course, more later)
- Started some very definite plans for the upcoming 10th graders for this summer. the potential for it to happen is pretty good and I'm getting more and more excited as I think about the kids in that class.
- Had a personal retreat with a book, music and a pillow.
- I also gave EmGberg a ride home so that was a lot of fun talking with her. It's nice to spend time with my team from Brasil whenever I can.

UPDATE:
The other significant thing about the retreat, to me, was having everyone hear directly from SM, the senior high pastor and director of youth ministry, right from the start on Friday night.

Here are my rough notes about that session:
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Fri night
5 reasons with youth ministries break up
1 - division
2 - transition in leadership
3 - not relevant, hokey, not in the students world
we old people are trying to tell them what is cool
4 - harsh environment
unsafe
5 - program got out of the program
they need truth through a consistent loving voice

3 goals for 2005-2006
1 - unified, mutual respect
2 - aggresive about creating a safe place
when we do this, kids blossom
Jesus didn't like wolves
3 - small groups connect
25/27 kids that accepted Christ last year are gone
those other 2 got plugged into dteams
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Photo: the senior Dteam leaders having a planning meeting in a tree.