You are listening to the Passion City Church DC podcast to learn more about

Passion City Church, including our gathering times in Atlanta and Washington DC.

Visit us online at passioncitychurch.com. Today's talk comes from Pastor Ben Stewart.

Well our staff here at Passion City Church went on a retreat this week and it was a lot of fun,

although the purpose was not just for fun. Our staff has grown from five to about 16 people

and God is growing this little community of staff, but we're a community with a cause, right?

We've got some place we're trying to go. We're a group of people that have a big purpose, but

what is true of a church is actually true of every organization. You can't just focus on the

mission. You got to focus on morale. If there's a we accomplishing something bigger than us together,

we got to make sure we respect and trust or even love each other. Particularly with a church,

if our mission is the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we should love each other,

and we should respect each other. We should trust each other. So we got to focus on morale

before we run into this mission and one of the ways to do it is a road trip.

Because when you do a road trip, what happens? Shared experience and sharing your stories

presents an opportunity to build trust, to build respect, and to grow love, right? And so the

road trip is a strategic tool in the hands of the leader to forge a family as they accomplished

their mission, right? And we did it and it seemed nice. We went out to Lou Rae Caverns

of Shenandoah National Park and had some adventures told some stories cried and laughed

and like each other. Hallelujah. But I got to let you know just full disclosure, I got that whole

strategy from the Lord. Because God is like that. When you see the Bible, God, when you meet him,

God wants a relationship with the people he made. Colossians says all things are made by him

and for him that in his presence is fullness of joy at a frenzied recently. You want a good

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