Prophets' retreat

Yesterday the Prophets spent a day apart in retreat. We had a great group that included our musicians and our tech team. We took time giving warm-fuzzies to everyone in our group. We also tried playing one another's instruments! Andy G. (our facilitator) asked us to take an instrument other than our usual one and using that instrument play a song (together). It wasn't quite as bad as one might expect; we joked that it would be fun to demonstrate that to the congregation some time (with a little more practice!!).

We also reflected on the joys and concerns that we are experiencing in our ministry as worship music leaders for FirstLight. Some will be easy to address, some will take some imagination and some will take some real effort to address. But our list of joys was by far the longer of the two lists. We took time talking about the history of FirstLight as well as our development as a music ensemble, and some of the folks who have helped us get where we are. We also shared with one another musical selections that were especially meaningful to each of us. All the music was great, but Melissa C. tipped the scales by singing a song she herself had written. It was a whole new side of her we had not known before!

After a great lunch we continued our sharing and near the end heard from Karen Haak about her hopes and plans for FirstLight worship. We closed by sharing ways to tweak this retreat event if (and when) we do it again. You can look at a typed version of our post-its here. We were thankful to the Montreat Conference Center (thanks Judy S. and Mike M.!) for hosting us (for free) and our own Andy who was back in his pre-retirement role as group facilitator. We will do it again for sure. Be sure and ask Caroline P. what color her toes were; she'll blush and have to explain herself!