The Magic of Getting Away with Your Team

Something magical happens when a team gets away together. Away from our regular routines, our guards come down, and we let each other into our lives in ways unique to environments like conferences or retreats. This year, I encourage you to bring your team with you to Cultivate Conference 2024: Cultivating Discipleship.

Cultivate Conference 2024 is just over a month away as I write this. As you read this, it is only weeks away. This year gives us plenty of reasons to attend, not least of which is celebrating the faithful leadership of Jim Capaldo and our subsequent vote to confirm Steve Krier as our new Regional President. We also look forward to the great lineup of keynote and breakout speakers. We have the opportunity to connect with our fellow laborers for the Gospel right here in the Heartland. Personally, I look forward to going to Cultivate with my team from Gospel Life Church!

Why bring a team from your church to Cultivate? Let me share my reasons and the benefits our team enjoys.

Reason #1: Creating memories and cultivating relationships

Sharing stories over buttermilk hotcakes at the Original Pancake House, watching a comedy together and laughing our heads off in our AirBnB, praying together and for each other as a team, sharing insights, struggles, and goals for the fall—this is the stuff that strengthens relationships, and it is priceless.

Getting away together gives us time and opportunities to laugh, cry, and play together. It also gives us time to help know one another—to know and be known, meeting one of our greatest needs and laying a foundation for those dark, difficult, or just plain busy days when we’re back home striving to see the gospel go forward in our cities.

Reason #2: Considering and collaborating together

In his article about the “science of the silly,” Bruce Daisley reports what he has learned from research about laughter: “If a group is laughing together...[their] protective guard is down.” Daisley argues that laughing together bonds teams, enabling people to feel free to express more creative ideas. So, when we have fun together and let our hair down, we create an environment for ideas to flow. We open our hearts and minds to consider new ideas and ways we can collaborate.

Reason #3: Increasing capacity

Having your team there expands your bandwidth. How many times have you wanted to attend two separate breakout sessions only to find out they are at the same time? If your team is there, you can divide and conquer, debrief later, and learn from one another.

I hope to see you at Cultivate Conference in September. And I pray you’ll consider bringing some of your team with you. Trust me, you can’t afford not to bring them.