Development

One of the things I’ve learned as a Pastor is that I’m responsible for my own development in my relationship with Christ and ministry skills.  It’s an important lesson; one that many Pastors fail to learn.  This is why there’s such an epidemic of Pastors leaving the ministry, either from burnout or moral failure.  I don’t want to join their ranks!

One of the ways I grow, and help our staff Pastors develop, is to attend conferences together.  Each year we choose about 3 conferences to take portions of our team to. I love attending conferences for a number of reasons…

1)  I get to worship — when i’m speaking at Palm Valley, I love to worship with our church, but I’ve still got my mind focused on teaching  Conference are a great chance for me to simply worship with other believers and spend time reflecting on my love for Jesus.

2)  I get fed — Years ago I chose conferences that revolved around ministry skills, church growth, etc…  Now I choose conferences based on their capacity to nurture spiritual growth. As a pastor, when I go to church, I’m doing the feeding.  It’s nice to sit and be fed.

3) I have fun — At conferences I get to hang out with our staff and laugh.  Tonight at dinner Sean and Brent had a hot pepper eating contest (video coming soon); I laughed so hard I cried.  I love the team I work with, and it’s refreshing to be able to just have fun together.

4)  I network — I’ve developed great friendships over the years with Pastors who have become friends, mentors, and encouragers. It’s a great chance to exchange ideas, hear what God’s doing in other churches, and be reminded that the Kingdom of God is being built around the world.

So this week I, and many of our Pastoral team are at the Creative Church Conference.  Last year at this conference I had an encounter with God like I’ve never experienced before.  I knew His presence so strongly that I began to weep, and weep, and weep (for about an hour).  He spoke some things into my heart, encouraged me, and challenged me in ways I still can’t verbalize.

Tonight I’m in Dallas with great expectation for what God is going to do in my heart this week, as well as our other Pastors.  Quite honestly, I need Him to refresh me and encourage me.  I’m tired this week.  The past few months at PVC have been incredibly rewarding, but greuling: I’ve been teaching my heart out, we’ve experienced incredible growth, this past month I had to make some incredibly tough, painful decisions that were for the best of Palm Valley and honored the Lord, but came at a personal cost.  In short, as always, I need Him to minister to me.  I’m hoping to experience God in a fresh way, to know Him better so I might love Him more.  I’m praying the same for our team.