Pinnacle Retreat And This Christian Movement

Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader

Not often are we together in person, making this gathering for thirteen of our sixteen people in the Pinnacle Team Retreat really sweet. Including our seminary intern plus another prospective team member provided perspective from the outsider point of view. Toward the retreat’s end, I asked for feedback from these newer persons, with one replying, “How did you get so many happy people on one team? There’s so much laughter and encouragement in this room.” And, I think she’s right. Being with one another was such a joy. Our hearts and spirits were strengthened, while also enjoying great food and some beach time.

Yet now, after a couple weeks reflection, I’m discovering an unexpected takeaway from this experience. I’m learning much about the Christian Movement through learning about this Pinnacle Team. With reflection, this shouldn’t be surprising. We are disciples of Jesus who are actively engaged with others in our faith, pursuing the Way of Jesus. We are pastors and denominational ministers, actively leading congregations toward living into their best selves. So, it really should not be surprising that the way we are engaging one another in our ministries reflects much of what’s happening in this Christian Movement. Specifically, this is what I learned about this Pinnacle Team, which reflects larger movements in the Christian faith.

We come alive when mixing it up around the invigorating, adventurous Way of Jesus. I watched and listened during our work sessions. When the topic at hand turned to the emerging expressions of church rising up in our world, people leaned forward. When we were exploring the kind of pastoral leadership needed to help churches engage transformation, the chatter in the room escalated. When we shared stories of new paradigms for leading churches into their next seasons of life and ministry, this team grew unruly with excitement. So clearly we follow a God who is creating, doing a new thing here in North America as we speak. Just as our team is really focused on growing edge of church life as we know it, so are many Christ-followers. We meet many in this Christian faith story who are hungry, yearning for robust invigorated engagement with God and one another. When we find others who share those longings, engaging our collective callings, we come alive as do so many others. There’s no way we want to miss out on what’s coming next in the unfolding story of God’s people and Church.

We are focused on helping churches live into genuine, authentic expressions of church rather than institutional protectionism.  When a church is looking for help for how to increase its membership and budget, we may not be the best group with whom to partner. When a church simply wants to hang onto the members it currently has, we don’t have a service for that. When a church wants to be a really good 20th century church who does what it did in its hayday again, we can refer you to others who might help you with that. We believe your church’s opportunity is in forgetting itself, in laying down its self-centeredness, and taking up the call to follow Jesus into the world. It’s when we are too busy being the Body of Christ to worry about protecting that to which we’ve grown accustomed, that we come alive as churches. Anything less probably won’t sustain us in this challenging Postmodern context.

We accept our clients where they are, while simultaneously challenging them to keep moving. Not every church is ready for transformation…to the same degree. So instead of a one-size-fits-all, we personalize our approaches to congregational transformation. Through careful listening and learning, we immerse ourselves in the unfolding story of a church, discerning its themes and character, followed by designing next steps. This is what our Transforming Church Initiatives are about. Starting where one is, accepting and affirming, followed by inviting toward the next steps of this sacred journey.

I could mention so many more insights from our retreat, yet perhaps these will do. I came away knowing we are not so different from our clients; yearning and longing for a better way, for wildly invigorated churches gathered around the living Christ. May we, and you, and everyone else find ourselves caught up in something far bigger than we can even imagine….alive in the adventure of Jesus.