“This was the first time I concentrated an entire morning for communion with the Lord,” remarked one of the pastors who participated in the 2-day Leadership Retreat held this week in Bokonzo.
The group singing together
With the invitation and encouragement from President Mboka, Cindy and I worked with Vice-President Vungbo, Rev. Sabuli, Rev. Mbewa and Dr. Lingili to plan and lead this first-ever retreat for leaders of the CEUM. For this first time we just invited the heads of the church departments and those working with them as heads of particular ministries within the department, a total of about 32 people. We had proposed to take everyone away from Gemena for a true retreat away from home, but the finances to do that were not available so we held it here at the church headquarters.
Leadership Retreat Participants
The retreat started Thursday morning. After a full day of presentations addressing the following subjects we closed by watching the movie COURAGEOUS.
- Our identity in Christ
- The challenge of living with Christian ethics
- The importance of affirmation in our lives. This included assigning everyone homework of giving a slip of paper with three affirmations to three retreat participants.
- Christian leadership in this with the Ebola crisis
- Personal spiritual retreat – what it is and how to have one
Rev. Sabuli speaking on our identity in Christ
Watching the movie COURAGEOUS together
Friday morning was a half-day personal spiritual retreat. VP Vungbo gave everyone a helpful guide to use during the time and then everyone was sent off to various places in the area where they could be alone.
Vice-President Vungbo speaking
We closed the retreat with a time of testimonies and worship and taking an oath to be a good Christian leader. The following testimonies speak to how powerful this was in people’s lives:
- Through this retreat I have been convicted that I need to forgive someone I had decided not to work with for the rest of my life. I have already written that person a letter.
- The personal retreat this morning was a great joy to me to take time away to commune with my Lord.
- I have sometimes wondered about my role and have already received 4 notes from people with encouraging words.
- As you know I lost my 19 year old son just a few weeks ago. I was encouraged after watching the movie where the father lost his daughter and seeing how he stayed strong in the faith and sought to be a responsible father and leader. I was also challenged by the talk on Christian ethics.
- As a woman I had questioned my role as leader of men at the IPOK Ag Center and your affirming words have encouraged me.
- The film challenged me to reflect on my role as a husband and father, as a MAN.
- When can we do this again? We need it.
To answer the last question, we aren’t sure what the future is for retreats such as this. The CEUM desires more training in leadership. Pray with us for the Lord to guide the CEUM to the next steps in training leaders.
Taking an oath to be a good Christian leader
