In a bit over a month in a half I will have the great pleasure of being part of the Evangelical Free Church’s annual youth worker’s retreat, Rebound. I am looking forward to the time with my old tribe. For just under a decade I worked as a youth pastor in the Free Church and I again attend and volunteer at a wonderful Free Church, in Western PA. I have to say, some fine folks can be found ministering in this cool denomination.

I wrote a little “promo” for how I would be approaching my part in serving the youth workers at Rebound, so here it is:

Ministry can become consuming - it is a rewarding, challenging, frustrating, and joy-filled experience; as a result, it can become a dominant and driving force in our lives. In the process of fulfilling our ministry roles with and for youth we can lose our bearings and find ourselves near empty, somewhat depleted and maybe even wondering when we look in the mirror, “who am I, and how did I get here?”

As we gather in Daytona Beach for Rebound ‘07 we will be looking to God and to the Scriptures to replenish, refresh and restore our souls. We will rediscover and experience again the ways of Jesus learning how we can nurture a “sustainable faith” (a faith we maintain and develop week in and week out). We all know intuitively that old saying, “what is down in the well, comes up in the bucket,” our hope is that we will learn to dig and maintain “deep, full and life-giving wells” in each of our lives.

In taking this time away we hope we will return to our Faith Communities a bit more authentic and ready to share from hearts of integrity with our own family, students, parents and others that God has put in our care. Replenish, refresh and restore us, O God.

If you are a reader of this here blog and you are from the free church tribe… please leave a comment!! And I hope you consider making the pilgrimage to the beaches of Florida’s East Coast at the end of October!

Oh, and just to make this a one stop shop… the brochure for Rebound is below!

Rebound Brochure