Student Life Leadership and Discipleship Retreat 2018
Colette Cross, Director of Discipleship
What a great start to the 2018-19 academic year! The Lord has blessed us with a grant to be used for discipleship and because of this generosity for the past three years, we have been able to fund a leadership and discipleship retreat to prepare our leaders for the new academic year. On August 13-15, three big charter busses and 1 HCU van carried approximately 145 student leaders, staff and faculty to Camp Allen in Navasota TX. These three days were filled with worship, small group discipleship growth, reflection time, and student leader training. The retreat was centered around Romans 12:2 with HCU faculty and staff sharing in four main sessions on the following topics:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 (ESV)
- Becoming a Spiritual Leader led by Lynn Ziegenfuss, Ministry Development Consultant, The Looper Foundation
- Servant Leadership Today led by Dr. Steven Jones, Chair, Department of Classics & Biblical Languages
- Living Life Together in Discipleship led by Dr. Kristie Cerling, Associate Dean, College of Education & Behavioral Sciences
- Where Do we go from Here? led by Saleim Kahleh, Associate University Minister
The purpose of the retreat is to help student leaders realize that discipleship and leadership go hand-in-hand as we learn to lead and “do life” together. The retreat outcomes were for each student leader to . . .
- Demonstrate a sense of commitment to assigned leadership position
- Develop a sense of commitment to discipleship
- Articulate how their faith impacts their leadership
- Discuss and implement how discipleship can be integrated in specific leadership roles
- Discover the role their leadership position influence play throughout campus life
At the conclusion of the three days, we were tired but energized and ready for the new year to begin. The evaluations were exciting to read as the Lord continues to work within the hearts of our student leaders thru discipleship. Here is some of the feedback from student evaluations:
- God spoke and revealed His will for me
- I loved that there was a variety of speakers. I loved the free time . . . it was refreshing. I was thankful that we did so much during the time with our group and I feel ready for the year.
- Wonderful people and staff that truly cared about my relationship with Christ.
- I always love Camp Allen and the facilities/activities it offers, such as hiking (which is very gratifying especially ending at the cross at the lake) and delicious food. I loved my small group.
- This has been the best Kaleō retreat so far (I’ve been to all three). It continues to grow and develop to best aid our next set of leaders. I hope to use what I’ve learned in my next steps of life.
- God continues to bless us and we are grateful!