Pastors Retreat Reflection

Ane (my wife) and I arrived back in Auckland on Saturday morning with our little girl Louise. We were in Samoa for 6 days to attend the Pastors Retreat.

It was great to connect with other pastors and to have the opportunity to share with them what God is doing in our lives. I spoke 3 times alongside TD Jakes and Reinhard Bonke. Thats right. Two heavy weight speakers (ministered to us through DVD). Praise God it cost us nothing to have them except for the DVD cost. Jakes spoke on ‘excellence in every level’, Bonke spoke on ‘reaching the lost’. I spoke on ‘Change’, ‘Building the House’, ‘Vision’.

Some thoughts after speaking, listening, hearing, and ministering I came away thinking:…..

• We need more room for the Holy Spirit. The more room we give Him the more he moves in our lives and in our churches
• Leaders create spiritual atmosphere. Its an environment of faith, worship, excellence, overflowing and blessings. An environment of impartation and the presence of God.
• Great Leadership is still the key to Great Churches
• If leaders don’t change Church will still be boring, dead and ugly.
• When courageous leaders lead, the church makes impact
• ‘Change’ is still a dirty word to some people
• Every church must continually make changes to its structure and systems as a result of growth.
• If the church is not growing something is terribly wrong somewhere. Check the leader first.
• Every leader must value and lead with  ‘excellence’. You are a representative of God. Please represent him well.
• A church without an active dynamic youth ministry has no future.
• Leaders are learners. Every leader must read at least 10-15 books a year apart from personal studies, sermon preps, conferences and seminars. Leaders must read on a variety of subjects

What would happen if….

Local churches partnered together to reach out to their community

We put works to our faith

We became serious with our prayers for those who don’t know Christ

Church leaders stop being so territorial about their church

The church became so bright in the community

The Body of Christ became so generous

We are not ashamed of the Gospel

Christians were so committed to their faith

All the Local churches came together on a Sunday morning to worship together in one location

We stopped playing church and start being the church

We started interceding for our political leaders and our nation

Church leaders would stop thinking about their own local church and start thinking about the Kingdom of God

We acted on truth – The Word of God.

We Christians stopped living in sin, clean up our act and pursue holiness

Christians believed what they believe