Welcome back families! We hope your Thanksgiving weekend was super restful.
This past Friday, October 8, we hosted our staff retreat. Our guest speaker was Reverend Dr. James Ellis III, TWU Chaplain and Director of Student Ministries. He spoke to us about our annual school theme passage from Micah 6:8.
Dr. Ellis shared the following:
-”An educated head without a consecrated heart won’t bring peace.”
-The question of, “Who is educating you?” as a way of understanding the importance of continuous discipleship and learning from Christ.
-How we need to sit at the feet of Jesus, the Master Teacher to learn.
-The cost that we cannot afford to be what we do and that our vocation should not become an idol.
-He also raised the question of whether we are raising children to be safe or to be brave, smart or loving (Gary Haugen).
-How we understand justice, mercy, and humility in Micah 6:8 is not in an image or concept, but in the pointed reflection to the person of Jesus, who is the firstfruit and archetype of justice, mercy, and humility.
-It is impossible to be educated if the aim is survival.
-And that “you can’t scare dead people” because of our baptism and resurrection life in us.
It was a time filled with laughter, reflection, and also corporate worship.
Here is a link to the talks:
Session #1: Rev. Dr. Ellis – The Power of the Educated Educator (Micah 6:1-5)
Session #2: Rev. Dr. Ellis – To Be Educated: For Safety or Service (Micah 6:6-8)
It was also great to be led by a team of talented worship leaders.
Here are some of the lyrics to one of the lament songs from our time of worship that fits beautifully with our themes of reconciliation and God’s restoration:
Drive out the Darkness (by The Porter’s Gate)
Come, O Come
Be our light
Drive out the darkness
Come, Jesus, Come
Every year under the thorn
Every wrong that we have known
Every valley will be raised
Ancient ruins will be remains
Come, O Come
Be our light
Drive out the darkness
Come, Jesus, Come
Every weapon made for war
Every gun and every sword
Will be melted in the flamе
To be used for gardening
Comе, O Come
Be our light
Drive out the darkness
Come, Jesus, Come
In the emptiness of grief
Through the night of suffering
In the loss and in the tears
God of comfort, O be near…
Come, O Come
Be our light
Drive out the darkness
Come, and end all the violence
Come, do not be silent
Come, cling to your promise
Come, break all injustice
Come, Jesus, Come
