A VP3 Gathering: Walking with God and Others through Pain and Suffering

At our core, we at VantagePoint3 strive to be a learning and praying community whose life together (i.e. our processes, service, & team) invites others to vantage points where they can discover more deeply who God is, who they are, and what God desires to do through them. This October 24-26 in Banff, Alberta, we will be hosting a unique VP3 gathering that expresses our deep desire to both learn and encourage a more relational way of life and ministry with God and others. The theme of the gathering will be “Walking with God and Others through Pain and Suffering.”

Throughout the past couple years we have leaned into the importance of walking along side others on the journey, adopting more of a mentoring way to life and ministry.  As we have entered into these many conversations we recognized again and again that the theme of suffering,  and how we make sense of it, plays such a critical role in our maturing and mentoring. Growing up into Christ is never a simple, straight line from infancy to maturity. If we are to walk compassionately and honestly with others like Jesus did, then we must bring to the table our best thinking and praying about living wisely and faithfully amidst great difficulties. Consequently, we thought it would be a good time to invite people, who are interested, to engage in a conversation about suffering’s place in our formation  and in our work of serving others.

We immediately thought of our good friend Scott Shaum as the perfect person to facilitate the conversation. Scott and his wife Beth work with Barnabas International as shepherds and spiritual guides to mission leaders globally.  Both in their own lives and in the lives of so many folks across the globe, they have sought to be a presence that encourages honesty and hope, thoughtfulness and prayer amidst tremendous pain and suffering. We are excited that Scott will be facilitating this conversation. Some of our sessions will include “God’s Redemptive Work in Our Suffering,” “Suffering as an Element of Effective Ministry,” and “A Spirituality Adequate to Serving in a Rough and Complicated World.” We trust that this conversation will launch a rich time of prayer, learning, and fellowship for everyone.

Randy Reese and I will be hosting the time along with the rest of the VP3 team (Kay, Brent, Pam, and Emily). We feel like this is going to be an important and fruitful weekend. You are invited. We hope you can join us.

Click on this link if you want to register or find out more details about this upcoming VP3 Gathering.

Tagged as Lifelong Learning, Spiritual Formation, spiritual mentoring, suffering, vantagepoint3