2020 Staff Retreat

This year FCHC was blessed to have the funds to hold a one day staff retreat with speakers Patrick and Katie Mahoney. Patrick and Katie have been married for 47 years.

Patrick Mahoney is one of the founding board members of FCHC. He graduated Faith School of Theology and is currently the Director at Christian Defense Coalition in Washington D.C. Pat enjoys challenging the Christian community to live out their faith in the public square, by engaging culture through radical Biblical obedience, discipleship and intercession.

Katie Mahoney also graduated from Faith School of Theology and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is a health coach with a huge heart for the poor. Her and Pat live in Fredericksburg and have started a church Washington, DC, reaching out to the underprivileged. They have 3 children and 6 grandchildren. Katie currently serves on our Board of Directors as our Secretary.

Patrick and Katie hosted a seminar that would uplift us, encourage us, inspire us and transform us by teaching our staff how to Look Upward…Look Inward…and Look Outward.

Looking Upward:

Patrick challenged us to see the power of God. He had our entire staff participate in writing down situations on a note card we were all currently struggling with. At the end of each sentence we were instructed to write…”but God.” This exercise opened the hearts of our staff in a very vulnerable way. One by one we shared our struggles and finished our sentences with…”but God is in control,” “but God is good,” “but God is all powerful,” and so on. We were all able to sit together as the body of Christ and wholeheartedly pray for one another to trust in our Father for everything we need.

Looking Inward:

Katie spoke about the 3 basic areas that we all know of commonly called Body, soul, and spirit and the importance of each one.

SPIRIT – Spiritual life first and foremost. Personal relationship with God. As the most important foundation for our life, if we get this wrong, everything else is on sinking sand! Personal devotional life – having a regular daily devotional time helps to keep us connected to God, and gives Him time to speak to us.

BODY – Taking care of your physical body and the importance of food, exercise and sleep.

SOUL – Emotional/ stress control. Taking time for yourself, breathing, and recognize God is in control.

“So remember… give your inward life to God. Put Him first, He’ll add all the rest. Wait on Him to provide and be all we need… we can’t do it by ourselves.“

Looking Outward:

Patrick led us to the Word in Isaiah 6:5. Isaiah looks outward and sees the need of the people. “I live among a people of unclean lips” In other words, he saw the struggles, hurts of people around. As he looked outward, he didn’t see these people as problems or burdens but saw them based on the struggles and wounds.

“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As we look outward, we look at the people we serve as God does. With compassion, mercy and love.

We are so thankful for Broomtree Fellows Alumni Grant for awarding us $3,000 for Staff Spiritual Development and Education and for our guest speakers Patrick and Katie Mahoney for their dedication to the FCHC ministry and leading our 2020 Staff Retreat!