The Principles

Each team member is to be wholly committed and present to every element of the WFL programme regardless of their individual role. Being present is about actively listening with all one’s attention to whoever is speaking (to what is not said as well as to what is said) and to God. We value each team member’s contribution and every participant equally. Through being present during the retreat, the team will become more intuitive and sensitive to noticing and attending to the expressed training needs of the participants.

In many contexts where there is strong hierarchy, it is essential that the team models what parity (equality) really means. How do we treat one another in the team and all our participants? Do we feel the need to be treated differently because of our status, age, length of service, ethnicity, language or education capacity? In God’s sight, these distinctions are not important. As a team, we need to model how to lay aside our status, roles and responsibilities in order to remember and recognise that God loves us not for what we do but for who we are.

The team should not come with preconceived ideas as to what might be suitable training for a group of participants. Rather each member should listen carefully to the expressed needs and wishes of the participants in order to offer something tailored and particular to each person, rather than something the team predetermines.

The team should expect that God, who sent His Son to die for us because He loves each of us unconditionally, will have things to say to each participant that are particular to that individual. The team should listen expectantly, and without a strict agenda, to enable God to work in the minds and hearts of each person.

We must remember that it is God who adds to and multiplies what we offer. Each person offers their gifts to God as part of a team; each person’s gifts complement one another. Where we seek to use our individual God-given gifts, God adds to and multiplies the effect, and where we do that as a team, the potential released far outweighs the individual value of our offering.

We should also be expectant to see the same potential released among the participants as God works in and through them also. The total is more than the sum of the individual parts.

Only God can work in individuals’ lives to bring about change; only God can enable an individual to rediscover that they are loved, chosen and called. Therefore, it is essential that a WFL Gathering be covered in prayer from its inception and preparation, during the gathering and afterwards, as individuals seek to respond to what they have received and share some of what they have learnt with others.