We do two staff retreats every year.  In the summer we do our play and pray retreat.  In the fall we do our planning retreat.

Our planning retreat is pretty intense.  Every year it gets more complicated as we grow numerically and financially.  More staff = More complications. But it also means you can accomplish so much more!  I’ve come to terms with the fact that “it’ll never be the same.” What I mean by that is that we can’t be who we were.  We’ve got to change–change our systems, change our structures.   

This thing is out of control, but I mean that in a positive sense.  We’ve been praying a simple prayer for the last two years: Lord, do something unprecedented and uncontrollable.  The price we pray for the answer to that prayer is a loss of control.  That means we’ve got to manage high levels of uncertainty.  It’s also called faith. And it forces us to live in raw dependence upon God.

I believe in the old axiom: failing to plan is planning to fail.  I also believe that plans must be conceived in the context of prayer!  I call it prayerstorming.  That’s what our planning retreat is all about. We don’t need a thousand good ideas. We need one God idea. I honestly feel like our MO going into 2012 is getting people into the presence of God. That’s where dreams are conceived and problems are solved. That is where miracles happen.  That is where we are transformed. That is where the will of God is revealed.  The primary mechanism?  Prayer and worship.  We need to pray and worship more strategically.  We need to pray and worship with more faith.  We need to pray and worship personally and corporately.

I look at what God has done at NCC and I’m filled with gratitude.  Then I think about what God could do if small groups turned into prayer circles, if our entire team turned into a prayer team, if our congregation lived out our core value: work like it depends on you and pray like it depends on God.

May Your Kingdom come! May Your Will be done!