Day One
Spending a little time at the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Pastoral Couple Retreat - a worthy endeavor.
The husband and I have spent the afternoon as human beings as opposed to doings and that feels nice! Facilitator Norm led us through the ice-breaker which revealed several ribbons of commonality and then he talked with us about being off the spot as opposed to on the spot. Facilitator Cecil shared the story of how Jacob out redded Red with the red (it's all in the Hebrew ;-)) and how that story reveals wilderness experiences, a forsakenness, a being in-between things, that gives God an opportunity to reveal Himself - this happened both after tricking Esau and after tricking Laban - times of transition, a time to be open and ask "what are You showing up to tell me", a time ripe for revelation.
We also listened to a humorous monologue
"Pastor Ingqvist's trip to Orlando" that peered into aspects of husband/wife interactions in ministry giving
pause for as our facilitators would say 'percolation' - and truly it
resonated with our group. Now we have a little free time - and we'll be
back at it on the morrow.
Meanwhile we are 'percolating' on Life/Patterns/Habits adjustments we can make ... wonder where that will lead. And as we allow that to happen, we have a gift bag!
Day Two
We were supposed to read Shooting the Rapids but I forgot along with others; it was postponed to Day Three. Cecil insightfully takes Jacob's story further, into the life of Joseph - a story of loss (Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, respect and the actions of his children), living "in a minor key", behind closed doors.
We watched "High Noon at Mayberry" - very amusing episode with Griffith, Knotts and Pyle and others that showed the effects of anxiety and shared the Trevino brain research on how the brain reacts. Spouse to spouse, we shared the others behavior in the presence of anxiousness.
This day we were given the gift of the rest of the afternoon and of dinner with our spouse on the town. We had a wonderful trip up to The Valley of Fire as the sun set and a delightful meal at Applebee's.
Day Three
This arrived all too quickly, having warm and congenial community, and so many moments of 'oooo' and 'aaahh'. Cecil had yet more to share about Joseph - about all the weakness of eyes that "don't see what you imagine they should". Joseph learned that God will show up, enough so he put his affairs in order wanting things to unfold as he believed they would take place. Cecil showed us the circle of Joseph's life was within the circle of Jacob's and that within the Hebrew people and that within the Church.
Shooting the Rapids read - it was allowed to percolate within ourselves. We next talked about our story and how we tell it which our tables discussed afterward and tied everything up neatly - with Jacob, with Pastor Ingqvist, Andy & Barney - looking at the narrative and connecting events. We talked about defaults of telling stories with characters as victim, villian, or hero. We talked about how with anxiousness we create mental clusters, how we do herding and become married and attached to preferred versions. We talked about our lives as film on the cutting room floor where we keep what we like, "cutting" and "splicing". It is impossible to replay the original reel. But we can re-evaluate how we tell and edit our story - more whole & authentic with our community.
We were invited to loosen our grip on our narrative and to enter the cutting room floor of our lives - to as Cecil would say "thicken" our story; share more of the "composting" (stinky stuff). Our anxiety would have to lower. We'd have to see the destinations like Jacob in the end - these not only in ministry, but our marriages and personal lives. As we do this, we can be alert to how we talk about the transitions in our lives so our sight would not be weak and we would approach our destination with clarity maybe not of the details of the path, but of Bethel and Peniel - the awareness that God is with us.
This summary does not begin to touch on the special conversations that took place, friendships - I think we ventured to begin this invitation in this place as a time to be open and ask "what are You showing up to tell me", a time
ripe for revelation before we transitioned home.
Spending a little time at the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Pastoral Couple Retreat - a worthy endeavor.
The husband and I have spent the afternoon as human beings as opposed to doings and that feels nice! Facilitator Norm led us through the ice-breaker which revealed several ribbons of commonality and then he talked with us about being off the spot as opposed to on the spot. Facilitator Cecil shared the story of how Jacob out redded Red with the red (it's all in the Hebrew ;-)) and how that story reveals wilderness experiences, a forsakenness, a being in-between things, that gives God an opportunity to reveal Himself - this happened both after tricking Esau and after tricking Laban - times of transition, a time to be open and ask "what are You showing up to tell me", a time ripe for revelation.
 |
| Facilitator Norm sharing |
Meanwhile we are 'percolating' on Life/Patterns/Habits adjustments we can make ... wonder where that will lead. And as we allow that to happen, we have a gift bag!
 | |
| presents! |
We were supposed to read Shooting the Rapids but I forgot along with others; it was postponed to Day Three. Cecil insightfully takes Jacob's story further, into the life of Joseph - a story of loss (Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, respect and the actions of his children), living "in a minor key", behind closed doors.
We watched "High Noon at Mayberry" - very amusing episode with Griffith, Knotts and Pyle and others that showed the effects of anxiety and shared the Trevino brain research on how the brain reacts. Spouse to spouse, we shared the others behavior in the presence of anxiousness.
This day we were given the gift of the rest of the afternoon and of dinner with our spouse on the town. We had a wonderful trip up to The Valley of Fire as the sun set and a delightful meal at Applebee's.
Day Three
This arrived all too quickly, having warm and congenial community, and so many moments of 'oooo' and 'aaahh'. Cecil had yet more to share about Joseph - about all the weakness of eyes that "don't see what you imagine they should". Joseph learned that God will show up, enough so he put his affairs in order wanting things to unfold as he believed they would take place. Cecil showed us the circle of Joseph's life was within the circle of Jacob's and that within the Hebrew people and that within the Church.
 |
| Facilitator Cecil sharing |
We were invited to loosen our grip on our narrative and to enter the cutting room floor of our lives - to as Cecil would say "thicken" our story; share more of the "composting" (stinky stuff). Our anxiety would have to lower. We'd have to see the destinations like Jacob in the end - these not only in ministry, but our marriages and personal lives. As we do this, we can be alert to how we talk about the transitions in our lives so our sight would not be weak and we would approach our destination with clarity maybe not of the details of the path, but of Bethel and Peniel - the awareness that God is with us.
 |
| pastors and spouses |
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