Those attending the Southwest Focus Retreat are heading home today after 48 hours in the foothills north of Los Angles.
After lunch on Tuesday, the leaders had the afternoon free for fellowship, golf, archery, or other leisure activities.
The group gathered for dinner then the evening session, which focused on the importance of relationships.
Clancy Cruise, pastor of Grace Church, Marysville, Ohio, and executive director of Charis Fellowship, led Jeremy Bury, executive pastor at Marysville Grace, and Phil Sparling, pastor of Auburn Grace Community Church, Auburn, Calif., as they told the story of how Phil had reached out to Clancy and Jeremy when the Auburn church began to look at developing leaders from within. The Marysville church has an established internship program that Phil hoped to replicate in some way.
Phil realized during the process that they needed to step back and do additional work before creating a similar leadership development program. However, he told the group that he has come to realize that the answers to what he needed was found in the relationships he’d formed within the Charis Fellowship.
On Wednesday morning, the group concluded with a discussion of the new unified examination process for men who desire to serve as a pastor in the Charis Fellowship.
Click here to see additional photos from the retreat.