What a way to start the New Year! I had the honor of working with my partner in Leadership Roundtables, Pastor Tracy Weaver, to facilitate a Couple’s Family Charter Retreat this weekend. We had 14 Couples that spent the entire weekend focusing on discerning their family’s purpose and values with God’s intention for their family.
Many people start the New Year by establishing resolutions to drive themselves to new levels of performance in any number of areas. This can be a very positive practice, and certainly can lead to improvements in people’s lives.
The process we went through this weekend was at another level. This was a group of couples, composed of extremely high performing servant leaders, that wanted to get very intentional about clearly articulating their family’s purpose and values so that it would give direction to their marriage and family activities.
Webster’s Dictionary defines a charter as “a written constitution or description of an organization’s functions”. In the training I have had in the past from the Blanchard Companies, I have learned that key components to a great charter include purpose, values, norms, key responsibility areas, goals, and communication strategy.
With this in mind this group of servant leaders dedicated an entire weekend to the development of a charter for their family. It was a profound weekend. Through significant instruction, prayer, singing, worship, sharing, and personal reflection, all couples made significant progress on the establishment of their family charter.
This amazing weekend provided many significant lessons on servant leadership and the importance of intentional focus on purpose and values as the foundation for everything.
Servant Leaders:
- Commit significant time and effort to work on purpose and values. This is just as relevant and important in their personal lives as their professional lives.
- Seek help from a number of sources in the establishment of their family charter including spiritual, professional, and peer groups.
- Are vulnerable enough to be totally transparent which leads to break-through improvement, and extreme respect and trust from those in their life.
- Are willing to stretch themselves to areas that might be uncomfortable, but will lead them to new areas of performance and impact. Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.
I don’t know of all the positive impact that will come out of this weekend, but I do know that 14 couples left having a better understanding of their purpose and values, and will now be tracking their activity, decisions, and goals against their purpose and values, and will end up leaving a legacy in which they intended to leave.
Have you taken the time to form a charter for your family? I encourage you to do it. I guarantee it will provide focus for all you do and make a profound difference in your life.
Mark
Tears are still streaming down my face as I reflect on whats coming about having attended the family charter weekend.
God was in our midst, so graciously, guiding us, revealing His idea for our family, it truly was/is an indescribable beginning.
I appreciate you & Pastor Tracy immensely!
Thank You,
Kristi
Kristi,
Thanks so much for your comments and sharing with others your feelings on the weekend. The power was in the active participation by you and all of those in attendance! It is amazing what can happen when people get intentional about aligning their purpose with God’s purpose for their life. Thanks for being such a great model for many!
Mark
Sally and I chose to go to this family retreat because we valued what we knew would be accomplished. What took me by surprise was how Jesus showed up and infused our hard work with such powerful purpose and relationship; relationship with Him, and with each other. This weekend we were in the center of God’s will, and He graciously allowed us to know it! Yes, Sally and I now have a family charter that will help us leave the legacy we believe Jesus desires; but I never thought I would come away from the weekend saying Wow! That was fun! Thank you Mark and Tracy and Jill for your servant leadership.
Brent,
Thanks for weighing in on your insights on the weekend! It was an honor to serve this amazing group of people, and it was certainly fun seeing how God took the reins and guided the process. Thanks so much to you and Sally for your huge contribution and active participation in everyone’s lives during the weekend.
Mark