Today, I'm going to share the teaching notes from the sessions.
As stated, the theme for the retreat was "Full Things Fill Things." The bottom line - we must stay filled ourselves if we are going to fill others.
We talked about 4 key areas that we must stay filled up in. Here are the notes from these sessions.
Fill Up with Discipleship (speaker - Dave Simele, Campus Pastor at our Boynton Beach Campus)
- Personal discipleship is personal.
- It's a discipline.
- It's intentional.
- It's habitual.
- The quality of your personal life and public ministry is determined by the quality of time you spend in your sacred place.
- "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out into a desoloate place, and there he prayed. " Mark 1:35
- "Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. And after He had taken leave of them, He went up on the mountain to pray." Mark 6:45-46
- If Jesus needed sacred space...if Jesus created space...how much more do you and I need sacred space?
- The sacred place can never be second place.
- Your ability to visit the sacred place will determine the pace of your life.
- Sacred place:
- Daily Sabbath
- Weekly Sabbath
- Sabbath Retreat
- Vacation Sabbath
- Daily sacred place:
- specific place
- secluded place
- scheduled place
- seasonal place
- shared place
- Discussion questions:
- What does your sacred place space look like?
- Who or what keeps you from visiting the sacred place and how can you change it?
- What is your sacred place rhythm and how healthy is it today?
- What are you going to do this summer to get filled?
- When you build others, God will build you.
- Live as a healer.
- Don't look for good ideas...look for God ideas.
- The little things make the big things.
- Be an owner of the vision...not a renter of the vision.
- Find something that inspires you so you can inspire others.
- Be a dream maker not a dream breaker.
- Your emotional life is dictated by your devotional life.
- Remind people of their value.
- Volunteers are not looking for a job...they are looking to make an impact.
- Your goal is never more important than your people.
- Commitment levels are gauged by fulfillment levels.
- If we really want to influence kids, we must influence their parents.
- When you reach a child you change a life...when you reach parents you change the whole family.
- Call 5 parents a week and ask how you can pray for their child.
- Four keys to influencing parents to lead their children spiritually:
- Connect with them at church (look for ways to talk with and connect with parents on weekends just as much as you do with their kids)
- Conversation starters (influence parents to have spiritual conversations with their kids during the week through take home pages, social media, videos, text mesages, etc.)
- Create shared experiences (family events, family worship experiences, etc.)
- Celebrate spiritual milestones with them (baby dedication, baptism, Bible presentation, etc.)
- Care org chart - 1 person caring for 5 people
- Know people's names
- Stop - don't be so busy that you don't make time for what is most important - people
- Look - look for ways to invest in people
- Listen - listen to those you are mentoring
- listen not just with your ears, but with your heart as well
- Mentor kids - Create a way for elementary kids who are there for more than one service to volunteer during a service. Examples...
- helping in preschool
- cleaning toys
- putting supplies together
- We get filled up to fill others. (Genesis 1:22)
- As we fill others...God re-fills us. (Luke 6:38, Malachi 3:10)
- Jesus is our example - He poured out His life for us. (Matthew 26:28)
- Paul is an example- he poured out his life for God and others. (Philippians 2:17, 2 Timothy 4:6)
- Pour out yourself to God. (John 12:3)
- Pour out yourself to others.
- Co-Laborers
- help them succeed
- help them shine
- help them stay faithful
- Volunteers
- help them deepen their faith
- help them discover what God has placed in them
- help them devote themselves to a cause that is bigger than themselves
- Kids
- help them know God
- help them be known
- help them know they matter
- Parents
- help them love God above all else
- help them lead their children spiritually
- help them leave a spiritual legacy
We gave each person a jar like you see pictured. As we taught the sessions, we had them fill it up with Starbursts. At the end of the day, we challenged them to pour out what they had received.- They were given 4 small gift boxes and 4 note cards.
- They were asked fill the boxes with the Starbursts from their jar, write a note to go along with each box and give it to a co-laborer, volunteer, child and parent in the next two weeks.
Devotion and Prayer - we talked about the importance of daily spending time with God.
"Anointing is not something that can be learned. It comes from spending time with Jesus."
Leadership Lid - a "lid" is a barrier that is holding you back from getting to the next level.
We listed some personal and ministry lids that we need to break through.
We talked about John Maxwell's "5 Rules for Lifting Lids."
1. Lead yourself well.
2. Add value to people.
3. Study leadership.
4. Practice leadership.
5. Intentionally grow.
We talked about ways we can lift the lids we are facing.
