A Personal Focus for the Year
Happy New Year, Summit family!
If I don’t know you already, my name is Jessica Meyer, and I’ve been on staff here for almost 12 years. I’ve held a few different roles during my time on staff, but for the last two years, I’ve been the executive assistant to our lead pastor, John Parker. I truly enjoy my role and the opportunity to work alongside our leadership team and serve in a behind the scenes role. One of my responsibilities is to plan our monthly all-staff meetings. As a staff, we meet once a month to connect, learn, serve, and worship (and even play a game or two) together.
And for the past four years, we’ve moved our first all-staff meeting of the year off-site to a local retreat center to enjoy a day of prayer and planning for the coming year. We aren’t planning meetings or events or ministry but instead praying through and thinking about what it looks like for us individually to be closer to Jesus. We are often reminded that our personal holiness is the greatest thing we can offer our vocational ministry, and this particular day each year is intended for us to slow down, reflect, and plan what personal holiness looks like for the coming year. Life and work are busy and the rhythm and balance is often hard to find—but is so very important. This off-site retreat has become a favorite for our staff and a mile-marker that starts our year after a busy season in ministry.
You may be wondering how this all looks practically and maybe even how you can make your own personal holiness plan. We have a super easy template we use, but it doesn’t have to be that structured. It’s about honesty on where you are and recognition of where you need God to fill in. We encourage our staff members to ask themselves what it looks like for them as individuals to pursue personal holiness in their devotional life, moral life, family life, relational life, vocational life, and even in emotional, mental, and physical life and to write it down. For me, some years the list is long with lots of thoughts and goals, and other years it may be short with only one or two things on which I’d like to focus.
This year’s off-site (which just happened this past Tuesday) started off like those of years past: We sang songs and worshiped together and heard devotional thoughts before entering into a time of silence. This year, we heard from Pastor David Jacques, the lead pastor at The Kingdom Church. Once our time of silence began, we scattered around the retreat center to spend a few hours with just ourselves and God. During this time, we can read, pray, rest, and/or journal, and are able to take any posture that we need to feel God’s presence and closeness to Jesus. We have access to big comfy chairs, an old chapel, and nature paths. Some people bring blankets, worship music, chairs, and even hammocks. I know for me, this time is a gift—an opportunity to put down my phone, not check my emails, and just sit or take a walk, read, listen, and just be.
“It’s about honesty on where you are and recognition of where you need God to fill in.”
After a few very clear prompts, I feel like this year God is calling me to rest. And I don’t mean to sleep a lot or take naps every day, which would be awesome, but to truly rest in the Lord. To rest in the faithfulness of God, to give him my fears, doubts, insecurities, and even control. To rest in the goodness of God, knowing that he will provide. And this year, my personal holiness plan reflects this idea and focus of rest in my life, and I listed practical ways I am hoping to move toward that, one of which includes incorporating a day of Sabbath for my family.
At the end of our time of silence, we gather together for a meal and connect with each other. This is always a wonderful time when we can share our experiences with each other, laugh, and reflect on the day so far. From there, the rest of our day is spent in community with smaller groups of people. We share our personal holiness plans for the year and invite each other into the process for accountability, support, and prayer.
Your personal holiness matters and is the very best thing you can offer the people and communities God has placed you in. So here’s the challenge: What does personal holiness look like for you? Is there a word or focus God is calling you to this year? How can you incorporate that into the different aspects of your life? How different would your office, your school, your home, your community, our church be if you offered your personal holiness?
I truly love that we participate in this retreat day each year. I love setting goals and focuses for the year and I love that we do this together as a staff. There is something special and unifying about sharing this time and what God is teaching me with the people I see most each week, am on mission with, and serve alongside.
Jessica Meyer is the Executive Assistant at Summit Church, which basically means she can answer any question you have! Send her an email over at jmeyer@summitconnect.org.