GUYS ONLY – Time to UNPLUG and Reconnect!
Have you ever wanted to UNPLUG from the hectic busy pace of ministry life? That is the entire point of Yosemite Summit. It is a week where you are unplugged in every sense of the word. No computer, no e-mail, no phone calls, no work, no deadlines, no ’emergencies’, no pressure. Better than a day off spent catching up on personal things – it is a complete break for the sake of complete rest and renewal.
I was once told by a very wise mentor, “Karl, you need to stop being a human doing, and learn to become a human being.”
That is what Yosemite Summit is all about. It is an annual cessation of activity. Too often we confuse busyness with what God is truly seeking from us. Not that we aren’t busy doing good things! But we get so busy doing these good things that our relationship with God can grow distant, and soon God is wondering, why or who we are truly busy for.
Stopping completely, once a year, is an opportunity to recalibrate. It is a time for reflection and renewal. It is not a time of evaluating ministry goals and seeking a new “ministry vision” from God! It is a time of setting all that down and walking away from it.
Why? God did not save us to gain a worker. He can manage quite fine without us. (Something to consider when you are working so hard – God doesn’t need you!) He saved us so that we might enter into a relationship with Him and get to know Him. If we are so busy working that we aren’t getting to know Him, then the working isn’t working. It is actually counter-productive to what God’s true aim is.
We are busy “making Him known,” but we forget the first half of “To know Christ, and to make Him known.” If we forget our relationship in the pursuit of the second part, we are then working to reproduce something that isn’t what God wants. No wonder many non-believers have no interest in becoming a Christian! They see a lot of busy-bodies instead of disciples of Christ, men and women who walk with God.
So once a year I stop all the activity and simply walk with God for a week doing nothing else but enjoying Him. And I invite a small group to join me. It changes me and helps me continue that walk when I get back to my God-given work.
This may surprise you, but the best thing for your ministry right now may be to get as far away from it as possible and to get as close to God as possible.
Spend a week focusing on what matters most to your ministry: your walk with God. NOTHING is more important, and nothing will impact your ministry more than your private walk with God. Come join a few other children’s pastors and walk with God for a few days. Let Him speak to you directly… through nature, through worship, through fellowship, through the Word, through the quietness you may only find at a sunrise at Glacier Point or in the midst of a 1,000-foot waterfall.
You will never be the same after meeting God here. if you feel God is hinting in your spirit that He wants you to get away with Him soon, cast off the excuses and allow God to provide.
Will you join me this May?
Take some time and browse through the blog on YosemiteSummit.org – you’ll discover inspiration and the answers to the questions you have about this unique event.
