B2b

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Last week saw the last of our summer seminars at the leadership retreat centre in Málaga. It was one of my favourite weeks of the year: the so called B2b. That stands for, "Be the leader God wants you to be," and it's an interactive workshop aimed at equipping young and emerging leaders. This year's group ranged in age from 18 - 35, and came from places as diverse as New Zealand, Sweden, Scotland, Spain and the Republic of Georgia.

We ended up with rather a small group of participants in the end. Six of the original applicants (from places like Egypt and the Ukraine) cancelled a couple of weeks before it started. Several late applications came in to take their places but, strangely enough, one or two of those people didn't turn up on the day.

Despite the smaller group size, it turned out to be an amazing and encouraging week: the young leaders were very engaged and enthusiastic, asking lots of questions and responding with sincerity to the topics we covered. B2b takes some of the LDC topics and presents them in a way that is relevant for younger leaders with less experience behind them. I taught, for example, on topics such as vision, mentoring, conflict resolution, and the importance of godly character.

We also had encouraging times of prayer, worship and hearing God's voice… and a number of the participants also requested "one to one" meetings where we could coach and counsel them more personally. At the end of the week, when they gave feedback about what they'd learned, it was so encouraging to hear what God had done in their lives in just a few short days.

We'll offer B2b again in 2016, but first we'll take time to pray about the best timing; we're wondering if June or July would be a better time frame than August for the young leaders who want to attend.