Learning to rest and be in ministry!

The 2011 Sidewalks Team

I love to run, and if I had to talk about this summer of ministry in terms of a run, it was surely a sprint… A great sprint, filled with powerful ministry opportunities in Lancaster city and at InterVarsity camp in May, deep conversations among our Sidewalks community (to learn more about Sidewalks, click here), and lots of opportunity to grow as a staff.  Gretchen & I left Sidewalks filled with awe about how God showed up…. And, we were straight up exhausted.  

A student @ Sidewalks; also exhausted

In thinking about the upcoming semester, we most definitely needed some rest to be able to be effective ministers back on campus.  Not just sleep, but a chance to completely unplug from ministry.  We needed space to process all of the stuff that happened this summer, and to break our everyday rhythm of life and ministry to connect with each other and God.  To put it back in running terms, our muscles needed time to heal and rebuild before the next late August race that is New Student Outreach. 

G. takes time to be w/ God & "Divert Daily" @ Sidewalks

A wise friend once passed on to me this phrase from Rick Warren: “Divert Daily, Withdraw Weekly, Abandon Annually.”  It has served as an easy way to remember the type of rest that God has called us to in order to sustain our walk with Him.  Throughout the summer, learning to 'divert daily' in prayer and 'withdraw weekly' on our Sabbath day helped us learn how to be more effective in ministry.  Our daily schedule included time for personal and communal prayer, and our weekly break from ministry found us deep in personal reflection, scripture study, musical worship, and lots of fun games as a community.

Our "weekly withdraw" (Sabbath) this summer included an intense manuscript style study of Isaiah 55-65.

God is actively recharging our ministry batteries through His creation

After Sidewalks, it was time for me & Gretchen to 'abandon' it all.  Turn off the cell phones, unplug the computers, and head off the grid completely. Our vacation served as a place for us to connect with God and allow Him to restore our souls before we head back to campus. Praise God for the wilderness of Colorado, for friends and family to rest with, and for teaching us to intentionally rest!

What a gift it is to get to rest together and 'abandon annually' from ministry life for a week

We are now back in Reading and much more ready to head back to campus!  God is helping us regain our stride in order to persevere and run a much longer race.  To Albright & Alvernia we go!  Stay tuned!

Very soon it's time to head back to campus!  Cheers to God for helping us start off the semester rested!