Twelve years ago, after I retired as the pastor of Southeast Christian Church, I established Bob Russell Ministries (BRM). I envisioned preaching at churches, conducting leadership seminars, taping Bible studies for small groups, writing a weekly blog, and conducting mentoring retreats for young pastors.

The mentoring of younger pastors became a much larger emphasis than I anticipated. I had served as a pastor for forty years in a garden spot and was treated much better than I deserved. Consequently, I felt a burden for pastors who were often mistreated by their church leaders and beaten down by their circumstances. Many were really discouraged by the constant criticism and overwhelming responsibilities they faced every day, and as a result, the dropout rate in ministry has been alarming.

So, after retiring, I began a three-day retreat we entitled “A Time of Refreshing.” The intent was to provide encouragement, instruction, and reinforcement to preaching pastors. There are numerous conferences pastors can attend where they sit in an audience of hundreds and hear the finest speakers and are given helpful ideas. But for Time of Refreshing retreats, I felt the need for interaction, personal attention, and networking. So I limited my retreat to eight pastors at a time and invited them to spend three days with me, and a few other Christian leaders, at Country Lake Camp in Southern Indiana.

I told the Lord that I would conduct these retreats as long as I didn’t have to recruit anyone and I didn’t have to raise funds– I’d done plenty of recruiting and fund-raising in the located ministry and needed a break from the associated stress and anxiety. But I also wanted our retreats to be free of charge. I began by inviting the Timothy’s from Southeast Christian Church (pastors who had grown up or had trained at Southeast Church). I then opened up the retreats to others who had heard about them and wanted to attend badly enough that they were willing to fill out the detailed request form on my website.

Since we began in the Spring of 2006, the response has been incredible. Over the last twelve years, I have conducted 88 retreats involving almost 750 pastors. Currently, we have over 100 on the waiting list from various denominations representing a wide variety of church sizes. I’ve never conducted a fund-raiser, but God has touched several generous hearts and supplied more than enough to allow the pastors to come with no registration fee. That’s not easy to maintain because we try to treat the attendees like royalty – giving them gifts, taking them to a fine restaurant, exposing them to excellent guest speakers in addition to bringing them to our home and discussing the priority of the family — all that makes the retreat expensive.

To demonstrate how the Lord has supplied more than I asked or imagined, this past December, retreat alumni identified 63 fellow pastors they knew who were serving in smaller churches and struggling financially. BRM sent a generous check to each of them as a Christmas gift and included a word of appreciation for their service to Christ.

God has also blessed us with nearly a dozen loyal volunteers who transport pastors attending the retreats to and from the airport, valet their cars, drive vans, assist in serving meals and otherwise tend to the needs of those attending the retreat. Additionally, we have sponsored four businessmen’s retreats, five retreats for associate pastors, one retreat for Bible College Presidents, one for Campus pastors, one for pastors from India, and one for pastors from Korea.

One very generous benefactor who has a heart for benevolence asked if we could expand our focus to include helping those in need. With his encouragement, we established a separate benevolence ministry that channels financial assistance to families our alumni identify as being in desperate need. This fund operates entirely independent of our regular budget. Only pastors who have attended the retreat can request assistance for someone in their community. Once evaluated and approved by the board of Bob Russell Ministries, they are sent a generous check to be given to the hurting member in the name of Christ. Average turn-around time is less than two weeks. More money than I could ever have imagined (over $4 million dollars!) have been channeled through that special fund over the past nine years making it the most efficient and cost-effective benevolence program that I am aware of!

I share this report not to boast but to rejoice with you over what God has done through this ministry during the past twelve years and to thank all of you who have donated, prayed or in any way contributed to our efforts. God has done abundantly more than all we asked or imagined.

Below is a thank you letter I received last month from a pastor expressing appreciation for the retreat he attended. This response is typical of those who have participated. I hope you have time to read this pastor’s response and to pray that God will continue to use us to provide a time of refreshing for those who serve valiantly on the spiritual front lines every week. If you would like to support this Kingdom-building ministry, you can do so here.

Dear Bob,

As I sit back at my church office desk- the first thing I want to do is briefly share my heart of gratitude to you. The past week at the “Times of Refreshing” retreat by the Bob Russell Ministry has been a fulfillment of the Psalms, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

In my life personally, I have been allowing the enemy (who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”), the Evil One, to steal my zeal and courage for ministry. In his conquest to devour my passion for serving the LORD, he had conned me into listening to his lies and believing his warped perspective in my value as a minister. God used you this past week to shower me with His grace through your commitment to serve.

I have been serving eight years in a small rural congregation in the (Midwest) where the custom of leadership has been to freely share criticisms and discontents with very rare compliments or appreciations. I can honestly tell you that the “roaring lion” was terrifying me. The retreat, and being pampered, esteemed, prized, and appreciated, was overwhelming! “My cup overflowed.” Having respected, proven men, like Ben Merold and yourself, pour themselves into ME, was a renewing of God’s love cascading down on me.

I HAVE BEEN REFRESHED! I now am looking forward to seeing how God uses the “well-overflowing” in my life and in the life of His Church where He has planted me.

Again thank-you for being open to the Lord’s leading in making yourself available for me and so many others who need “their cups filled.”

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