LAUNCHee Retreat 2010

2010/09/21

tags: equipping & teaching, launchees, resources, young leaders

by William Raposo, LAUNCHee Coordinator

This past weekend LAUNCH held its second annual retreat for our LAUNCHees and alumni. Bouldering, once again, provided to be very interesting this year as students were faced with the task of crossing over large rocks off the shores of Lake Ontario to the lighthouse at the end of the stretch. There were some challenges along the way but we stuck together as a team and followed our motto of “leaving no man (or woman) behind.” Some took great lessons from this experience and God gave us practical applications for our daily lives as we overcame obstacles and pressed forward with the desire to not give up.

While the weather was great and bouldering extremely eventful, I was more impressed with the amazing interaction I witnessed between our young leaders. They were encouraging towards each other and willing to listen to each other’s ideas and comments. Each one had the opportunity to share about themselves and their ideas and how God has been leading them.

The focus of the retreat this year was to challenge our LAUNCHees to lead with an awareness of who they are. LAUNCH has been in the process of developing a unique, web-based spiritual gifts assessment test. Though we are still in the beta-testing phase, our LAUNCHees at this year’s retreat had the opportunity to be the first group to utilize this new assessment tool. Our group discussion was centered on going to Scripture and learning about the different spiritual gifts, how each believer has received gifts and that these gifts are given with the purpose of benefiting the Body of Christ. Then each leader viewed their results, revealed where they scored the highest and shared their thoughts about their results. Finally, they were challenged to put a growth plan in place for the fall in order to be more active in using their spiritual gifts.

The day seemed to escape us and the next thing we knew, the day was drawing to an end. I was very encouraged to see these LAUNCHees on a path of discovery with God and one another while becoming more self-aware of who they are and how God desires to use them. One of the core values that we have at LAUNCH is that we strive to “walk alongside young Christian leaders.” We do this knowing that God is already at work in their lives and believing that we can contribute to a vital part in their leadership development. That’s the heart of our LAUNCHee retreats – to walk with our young Christian leaders!