All Saints,
In a couple weeks–on Saturday, July 14–the New Vision Team will host All Saints’ second Good Soil retreat, this one focused on Acts. Like the previous retreat, you are invited, whether you were in a Good Soil group or not, whether you read Acts or not.
This retreat will be more focused than the first retreat on Luke. It will start at 8:30a and end at noon. Breakfast will be provided, lunch will not. (I will be going to Kelly’s Irish Pub for lunch. Please join me!)
But besides eating, the retreat has two goals. The first is talking all together about Acts as a whole. We’ll do that in large and small groups. A question we’ll consider is: What key lessons would you say any church should learn or remember from Acts?
The second goal is preparing the soil for God to grow new vision at All Saints. The first retreat on Luke did this in a broad way. This second retreat will continue it in a focused way. Taking inspiration from Acts 4, I will share a key lesson I believe Acts invites us to learn. For now, I’ll whet your appetite with an equation: Vision = Purpose + Core Values + Time.
The Good Soil Acts retreat will be held in All Saints’ gathering space from 8:30am until noon on Saturday, July 14. I can’t wait to see what the Holy Spirit has in store for us.
I mentioned the New Vision Team is hosting the retreat. “Hosting” is a good way to think about the work the New Vision Team is doing generally. The purpose of the team is not to tell the rest of us what God’s vision is for All Saints. Instead, its purpose in this first phase is to host conversation that helps as many All Saints’ folks as possible pray about and think through and eventually write down what God’s vision is for All Saints. Like the first retreat, this July 14 retreat aims to help us do that praying and thinking.
We will start writing in September, during a third retreat. Given the importance of time in the Vision equation, the New Vision Team may split the writing into two parts. So a probable fourth retreat will come after the September one. Together, the retreats in September and after will help us draft a statement of All Saints purpose and core values. Given the time to test it, potentially revise it, and then live into it, this statement will become God’s vision for All Saints to guide all our decisions and actions.
The New Vision Team believes that everyone matters. Everyone has a piece of the puzzle that will become All Saints’ new vision. God gave you a piece of the puzzle. So by all means come to the retreat on July 14!
Thanks be to God.
Pastor Clark Olson-Smith
[…] Acts Retreat – Saturday, July 14, 8:30 a.m. – 12 noon at church. Pastor Clark and the New Vision Team will lead and host it. Breakfast will be provided (but not lunch). Come for the food, friends, and reflection on Acts and God’s vision for All Saints. For more information, see Pastor’s article in the July newsletter. […]