The day you receive this newsletter, Tuesday, October 3, will be the first of two days your ECC ministry directors and pastors will spend away for our bi-annual prayer and planning retreats. We will engage in team-building activities, celebrate what God has been doing at ECC over the past two years, spend time in corporate and individual prayer and reflection, listen to the Holy Spirit and one another, and dream about what God wants to do in and through us in the coming 1-3 years.
The first day of the retreat will be just the seven of us: Kate Cogswell (Director of Women’s Ministries and Spiritual Formation), Meghan McClellan (Director of Worship and Music), Ronda Ooms (Director of Community Outreach), Kurt Kincanon (Administrative Pastor), Kristin Mueller (Pastor of Families and Children), Chuck Potts (Pastor of Young Adults), and me.
On day two, October 4, Christin Nevins, our consultant and coach since early 2021 (formerly of Spiritual Leadership, Inc., now with Centered Leadership), will join us to help us work through what we began the day before. We are excited about asking questions and dreaming about what it means to truly be a church committed to the ECC Touchstones of WELCOME, TRANSFORMATION, and PRESENCE in our next season of ministry and mission.
We have always held these prayer and planning retreats over the years, but over the past 2 years, our times together have been more fruitful and more impactful on our life and mission as a congregation. In September of 2021, for example, we came away from our retreat with three strategic initiatives for the coming year. Those initiatives came to fruition (and are still going and growing) in the birth of LifeGroups, the launching of the Care Team, and in the calling of Chuck Potts as our pastor of young adults.
Will you join us in praying for this time away and for the work to be done afterward? We would greatly appreciate it.
Then, at our congregational meeting on October 29, we hope to share some of what God is doing and where we believe he is leading us in the next three years. Your prayers for us and for ECC are greatly appreciated!