God loves the church! For 2,000 years God has faithfully used local communities of Christ followers all around the globe to change lives and bring glory to Himself. There is nothing in the world more beautiful than when the church is healthy, growing, fully alive, and, well…simply being the church. It is indeed the wonderful Bride of Christ!

Yet in America the church is on the decline. As in every organization, the problem often begins with its leaders. As author Peter Scazzero has pointed out, “The overall health of any church or ministry depends primarily on the emotional and spiritual health of the leadership.”

And the recent trends for church leaders are not encouraging…

• 11,500 pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention and conflict within their churches
• 80% of pastors believe their ministry has affected their family negatively
• 45% of pastors have experienced depression or burnout to the extent that they needed to take a leave of absence
• 30% of pastors currently are in an ongoing affair or have had a sexual encounter with someone in their church
• Loneliness, depression, mental illness, and suicide are all on the rise among pastors

In September of 2017 God planted a burden on our hearts to try and be part of the solution to these challenges. We began to dream.…what if there was a place for pastors and their spouses to come and get away from the pressures and demands of everyday life and ministry and spend time alone with each other and with their Heavenly Father? What if the leaders of God’s Church could slow down and spend some time focusing on their own spiritual and emotional health so they could then go back and serve and lead their congregations out of the overflow of a vibrant relationship with Christ? And what if this place was available to pastors completely free? This is precisely the kind of place we long for Quiet Waters to be!

Dan and Brenda Johnston founded the ministry of Quiet Waters Retreat in 2017. They have served in full-time Christian ministry for nearly 30 years and specifically as “Pastor” and “Pastor’s wife” for a lot of those years (some good and some not so good). As a result, they know first hand the joys as well as the challenges these roles present. They have been married for 30 years and have four children ranging in ages from seventeen to twenty eight. Brenda loves to read and use her gift of hospitality and is an avid photographer especially of nature and wildlife. Dan loves sports and games of all kinds especially if we are keeping score. Most all they love Jesus and long to see people experience Him and His Bride as it was meant to be!