BEHOLD! A Great Time
Behold! Discernment, Innovation, and Sacred Imagination for Contemporary Ministry was a retreat offered this past March by OPSF program Pastoral Leadership Revitalization. It was a time for pastors to explore practical tools for discernment and change theory, enjoy community, rest, and worship together.
The workshop leader was Rev. Larissa Kwong. She serves as the Executive Director of NEXT Church, and is founder of Courageous Spaces, inviting others to co-create spaces for disruption, transformation, and change. Behold! retreat participant, Chas Gowing shared “Larissa’s Cultivated Leadership presentations had many great points… I find myself quoting Larissa many times per week in my head.”
Worship was led by Rev. Kate Murphy (pastor of The Grove Church and co-host of “2 Pastors Take A Walk” podcast) and Eric Baird (contemporary worship leader of First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa). Chas Gowling also shared “one beautiful moment in worship makes this (almost) literally sacramental. Everyone there was authorized to serve communion (teaching elders and Commissioned ruling elders), so when we had communion in worship Kate prompted all of us to say them together. Instead of the leader saying the words of institution, all of us leaders said them in the unity of the Holy Spirit. We left that service and we left that retreat in the unity of that same Spirit.”
Darrell Moses, a retreat participant shared “I also enjoyed the worship time, vespers and the fellowship time with each other. To just put aside the issues of the world and just be in fellowship with people who can love without bounds and hold each other up in an uplifting and compassionate way is so refreshing and a great experience.”
Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation is thankful for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City, who hosted most of the retreat on-site with welcoming and heart-felt hospitality, as well as all the leaders and participants. Glimpsing the hearts and minds of these loving people of God fuels us with even more hope for the love God has for the Church and its future.
