Church's Mini-Spiritual Retreat

Yesterday our church family had what I like to call a "mini-spiritual retreat". I am only calling it "mini" because it only lasted several hours. Normally when I think of a retreat I think of leaving the city and going somewhere different for a couple of days. It was a holiday here in Rio Grande do Sul (our state) so it was easy for most people to get together to talk about what is going on with the house churches and Celebrations.

We met in a gazebo at the Botanical Gardens for the morning session.

We decided to meet at the Botanical Gardens here in town and have a time of reflection. We spent about an hour and a half remembering the blessings that we have experienced in house churches over the last year and a half or so. There were many wonderful things that were commented on. To list a few we mentioned:

• That we have learned that house churches really do challenge you to develop close, intimate relationships with those you meet and worship with. Superficial relationships get thrown out the window!
  
• The offering that is given in house churches is usually given to an immediate need. Although we are renting a house (the C.A.S.A.) it is not that much rent and upkeep. If someone in a house church knows of someone that really needs financial assistance - we help right away with what was given!
• The environment of a house church helps you see the needs of others. You can perceive much easier when someone in your group needs help. Plus, our house churches try to do regular service projects in the community. We are challenged to serve!
• House churches allow everyone to participate and use the gifts they have been blessed with to in turn bless the body. Anyone can read a scripture, share a word of encouragement, lead a prayer or a song, etc.
• In house churches, individuals are given more freedom to interact and question during the Bible study. It is much easier to retain what you are being taught (or even teaching) because of the discussion that takes place around the study. Not too many people ask a preacher a question about his sermon... during the sermon!
  
• We are learning that anyone can lead or host a house church. You don't have to worry about money for a new building to start a sister church. They can reproduce and multiply quite easily!

Around noon some of us went and did our own thing for lunch. Because the weather was getting much cooler it was a little hard to stay comfortable and concentrate on the task at hand. So, we all ended up meeting at our house for the afternoon part of the retreat.

In the afternoon we briefly reviewed the blessings that we had experienced in house churches. Then, we spent some time reflecting on some of the more difficult and challenging aspects of house churches. We realized that there are some common themes in what a lot of people were saying. Most of our struggles centered around:

• Lack of communication (on different levels).
• Lack of feeling of celebration in the Celebrations - no real dynamism.
  
• Lack of feeling responsible for others who are not in our own house churches. No consistent encouragement.

There were a few other struggles that were mentioned that we need to address as well. Benay Blume read a passage from I Peter that really helped put us all in the right mindset as we talked about our challenges. We know and trust that the Lord can use our struggles to stretch and mold us. It is important to remember to be positive about struggles. We know what we need to improve on, so now we will spend time praying about how to actually make adjustments to bless this church family.

We needed to spend some time brainstorming about how to do better where we struggle. The group decided that the best way to go about this (because we ran out of time yesterday) is to pray about these blessings and struggles and come back together on May 22nd for a time of brainstorming. May 22nd is a holiday too, so we hope to at least have the group that participated yesterday.

This is the group that met in the afternoon at our house. What a blessing it is to see all those smiles right after we spoke about our failures and challenges as a church family. I really believe that the Lord blessed those who were present with the right attitudes, mind-sets and hearts.

I feel so blessed by the way people handled themselves and spoke up yesterday. We all realize that this is just the beginning of an incredible journey that the Lord is guiding this church family on. Please partner with us in praying that He be the one to lead us and that we don't try to achieve any thing on our own. Please pray for our focus to be on God and His family. Please pray that He bless us with ways to resolves the issues that we see are problems. It is our constant prayer that what we do in the following days, weeks, months and years will bless many people and will help grow the Kingdom of God in Brazil.