Holy ground

Based on the story of Moses encountering God at the burning bush, the theme of this year's LDC was, "God calls when we turn aside." The 24 leaders, who joined us from 14 different nations, were all setting 40 days aside to meet with God, reflect on leadership development, and take steps in their own lives that would help them to "finish well."

Early in the course, we had a very meaningful worship time where we felt God exhorting us to, "Take off your shoes, because you are standing on holy ground." Different people experienced that in different ways: some felt that removing their shoes was symbolic of vulnerability towards God and others; some felt that it represented a commitment to set this quality time aside and not to rush off in the busyness of ministry activity.

Yesterday, as those six transformational weeks of LDC drew to a close, we finished with a time of worship and thankfulness to the Lord. As each one put their shoes on at the end of the morning, we were struck with the realisation that God had done a deep work in our lives and that we are commissioned to carry holy ground with us, no matter where we go.

Many of the LDC delegates were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, with many years of missionary service behind them. (Someone worked out that the 24 delegates had together clocked up more than 600 years of ministry!) In just two weeks' time, we'll cover some of the same leadership topics with a slightly different audience.

From 19th - 25th June, we'll be running the B2B (Be the leader God wants you to be) seminar for younger and emerging leaders. The content will touch on some of our  LDC values (self leadership, team leadership, servant leadership, strategic leadership, etc) but will be presented in a way that is more relevant to a younger audience with less leadership experience behind them. B2B participants are usually aged 18 - 30. I love working with young leaders, and so I'm looking forward to this stimulating time at the end of June.