ARC Thanks and Leadership Question

I sent the following email to Mike Bradley of the Alliance of Renewal Churches this afternoon - his reply follows. We at Crossroads can learn from the ARC leadership team. As leaders, they find it good to spend significant time together in worship and listening prayer. Should the leaders of Crossroads do this? Can we? Let's pray and talk together about this.

Dear Mike,

I absolutely loved the ARC gathering. The speakers were inspiring (can't wait to get the recordings if they'll be available), the workshops were helpful (I'll mark the ones I went to on the schedule that I'll attach below), the worship was more than music (wow!), and the times of prayer and prophetic ministry were bold examples of Holy Spirit led freedom. Thank you for your part!

I'm looking forward to many more opportunities to get together with you all, either in person or in writing (like I'm doing now). My wife Toni picked up Graeme Sellers book The Dangerous Kind and I'm hoping we can gather a few people in our area to read and pray through it. Paging through a bit makes me really look forward to doing that!

It was a great example to all of us that you said, on Saturday, that it seems to you that the Lord is leading in a particular direction as to (1) whether, (2) when, and (3) under what theme to meet again as an ARC Midwest Gathering in 2015.

I assume it is you and the leadership team that are seeking the Lord's desire about this together.

Would you be willing to share a bit about the process of discernment that you and the leadership team use? Do you meet only in person to do this? If you use telephone or skype or something, could you share with me how you do this?

I'm asking because I believe it's always best for a team of people to seek God together instead of just relying on one solo leader as sometimes happens in local churches. I've been a part of Per Nilsen's network, which has been really helpful for me (and I continue to be on the phone with the Community of Hope and the Mission Point folks for prayer most mornings at 6:00 AM) BUT it's not the same as having a LOCAL team of pray-ers.

I'm hoping to learn from the process that the ARC uses in your discernment, not to copy it here, but to see what elements are important.

Thank you again.

Steve Thorson
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And here is Mike's reply:

Hi Steve,

I'm glad you attended and were blessed.

The ARC National Leadership Team is always praying. On top of that we meet face to face 3 times a year for 2 1/2 days at a time; a large portion of that which is spent in worship and listening prayer. We also meet via conference call once a month the rest of the year. When appropriate and necessary we also involve other select ARC leaders in praying through and discussing issues specific to their expertise.

Mike
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Here's the schedule we followed at the three day ARC gathering.

www.equalsharing.com