The 3 R’s of Staff Retreat: Our Opportunity to Re-Centre, Rest, and Build Rhythms

When we are tired and weary, Jesus calls us into His presence, to centre ourselves on Him, where we can find rest from the busyness and demands of the world and let His grace inform our habits and rhythms:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”

(Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

(Matthew 11:28-30 MSG)

As a staff team, our retreats offer us the opportunity to re-centre ourselves (individually and corporately), rest in His presence through worship, prayer, learning, and time having fun together, and be part of a healthy rhythm which reminds us of Youthscape’s vision and God’s call in our lives both personally and professionally. This model feels useful, more broadly, for those of us in youth ministry, a calling which pulls us in every direction and often has us giving our whole selves, denying ourselves the time to re-centre, rest, and build rhythms.

At the start of a new term, it feels more important than ever to build these habits into our lives before we feel ourselves sliding down the slope of burnout.

Re-Centre

It’s easy to forget, or not focus on, Jesus and what He has done and is doing in our lives, particularly when we are busy and when we are focussed on attending to the needs of the young people we work with. As Gemma shared in the blog last week, there can be moments in our work in which we don’t see the changes we’d like to see and seeds of doubt begin to creep in. However, it’s imperative that we regularly re-centre ourselves in order that, in whatever we do, “whether in word or deed”, it is all done “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God in the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Re-centring, then, serves to ‘keep the main thing the main thing’ and to lead us, gently, into moments of rest and stillness as we seek to hear from God.

How can you put things into your daily / weekly life which enables you to re-centre and take stock of why you do what you do? Is there something you and your team can do together?

Rest

I don’t know about you, but I find resting hard. In the ‘go go go’ of the world, I have sometimes fallen into the unhealthy trap of making ‘rest’ synonymous with being ‘lazy’. However, I have recently come to realise that not only is rest not laziness but, in fact, it can be quite the opposite. It can be a pause in which you are actively pressing into God.

I was recently given an encouragement card by a friend of mine at a church event, who didn’t know I was feeling thoroughly burnt out at the time. I have included it below in the hope it might encourage you too:

“There is purpose in the pause. God is proud of you and there is so much he wants to do with you, but rest is just as fruitful and just as glorifying. Psalm 46:10 There is so much blessing for you in the stillness”.

I encourage you to reflect on how you might be able to build moments of rest into your life – give yourself permission to be still even when the world wants you to always be on the move.

Rhythms

I often realise I need to spend some time re-centring and resting when I’ve already reached burnout (or am well on the way!). When my calendar begins to overwhelm me, and I have said ‘yes’ to too many things because I don’t want to let others down and I want to live life to the fullest. That’s why I am so thankful for the rhythm that staff retreat offers. No matter what happens, I have three opportunities a year to re-centre and rest. This has built a healthy habit for all of us at Youthscape.

We are shown holy habits, or rhythms, by the followers of Jesus in Acts 2:42-47:

^“42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved”.

How can you ensure the re-centring and resting becomes rhythmic within your life so that it becomes part of a healthy habit?