No committees! No telephones! Not even a church officers' meeting! This is what we found when we arrived at Coff's Harbour some 300 miles north of Sydney, Australia, for our ministerial retreat, January 19-23, 1964.
It is always inspiring when a group of ministers and their wives can come together for a period of real spiritual fellowship. To be able to lay aside the pressures of conference and church business and give ourselves wholly to prayer and the study of the Word does something for a group of ministers.
The workers of the North New South Wales Conference gathered at the beautiful youth camp beside the rolling ocean. W. J. Richards, the president, and G. E. Burnside, Ministerial Association secretary for the Australasian Division, planned an excellent program. It was good to have a few of our senior workers with us, men and women who had spent long years in leadership in mission fields and home conferences, but now retired. Their counsel was truly helpful.
This was no pressure program, for we wanted to have time to rethink our responsibilities in both evangelism and worship. Rarely have I heard such inspirational singing. There were about ninety present, and everyone entered into the spirit of praise. Spontaneous singing of the right kind of hymns is always a preparation for a deeper study of the Scriptures. Some of the great truths on Christology flashed with new radiance. There were no mere spectators; all were participants. Each felt himself responsible to attend all the meetings as well as to take a little time each day for exercise and rest.
The accompanying picture indicates it was summertime, and the warm sunshine was a constant reminder of the warmth of the love of God that bound our hearts together. This retreat followed the camp meeting, the ministers journeying north just as soon as all the tents were folded away and the equipment stored.
Nothing can do so much for a team of workers as a retreat of this kind. And it is gratifying to find such gatherings being planned in many other parts of the world field. What would our ministers give in some places if they could but meet in this way! Those who preach the Word need to be recharged, as it were, and it is in such retreats as this that they grow in spiritual strength and vision and can return to their churches better leaders. The Saviour Himself set the pattern when He said to a group of busy preachers, "Come ye yourselves apart . . . and rest a while." Wise leadership seeks to plan the conference program to permit the burden bearers to follow the Master Preacher's example. Just as the disciples of old "needed to go to a place of retirement, where they could hold communion with Jesus, and receive instruction for future work" so we as Christ's ministers need opportunity to commune with the Master.
As the disciples had seen the success of their labors, they were in danger of taking credit to themselves, in danger of cherishing spiritual pride, and thus falling under Satan's temptations. A great work was before them, and first of all they must learn that their strength was not in self, but in God. Like Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, like David among the hills of Judea, or Elijah by the brook Cherith, the disciples needed to come apart from the scenes of their busy activity, to commune with Christ, with nature, and with their own hearts.—The Desire of Ages, p. 360.
He bids us, "Be still, and know that I am God." . . . Here alone can true rest be found. And this is the effectual preparation for all who labor for God. Amid the hurrying throng, and the strain of life's intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that will reach men's p. 363.
R. A. A.
