I believe in retreats.
From my earliest days of working at Lutherdale Bible Camp in Southeastern Wisconsin, to working as a youth ministry volunteer, and eventually working in full-time youth ministry, I have seen the power of a retreat be a powerful opportunity for spiritual formation.
The Bible includes plenty of stories of people who slowed down, withdrew or ran away from normal life, and as a result had meaningful encounters with God. Albert Einstein said, “Learning is experience, everything else is just information.” How many times have we led mid-week lessons about spending time with God, developing spiritual practices, or breaking away from cultural norms…then never actually gave our students an opportunity to do them?
As students are developing—spiritually and developmentally—taking time to withdraw from the busyness of life is extremely important; and learning through experience is a powerful tool for youth workers to use. As our students walk through their adolescent years, they begin to develop deeper cognitive abilities. They see themselves and the world around them differently. If an idea does not come with an experience, it is easily dismissed. As leaders, we must be intentional about providing students with opportunities to step out away from the noise of life so they can hear the still, small voice of God.Just circling a weekend on your calendar is not enough, however, and putting together a retreat that is spiritually formational and leaves an impact on your students takes work. Here are seven things I’ve learned that help make a retreat the best experience it can be.
1. Play to Your Strengths
We all have things we’re good at and things we love to do. What are you great at doing? On what topics are you an expert? Focus on that! Make that your role. This doesn’t mean you can ignore everything else, but it allows you to outsource other responsibilities to people who are talented in other areas. This might mean partnering with a church down the street you’ve never worked with (even if it’s another denomination). Putting together a worthwhile retreat is a lot of work, but the good news is that you don’t have to do all that work yourelf! Many camps and retreat centers offer great programs to sign up for, and they’ll do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. If you’re planning your own retreat, get others involved!
2. Set Clear Expectations, but Don’t Try to Control Everything
Work on a schedule, take time to recruit volunteers for the event, work through what you want to do, and make sure all of your leaders are on the same page when it comes to the who/what/where/when/why of the retreat. Also, make sure you don’t try to control every second and every single thing that happens. Allow for those random moments and conversations to occur; and let volunteers play to their own strengths, as well.
3. Balance the Schedule
Learning happens through a variety of circumstances and situations—regardless of whether we don’t always realize it. As you plan your retreat, make sure you keep your schedule in balance. We should want our students to retreat from the normal, busyness of life. If all we’re offering them is a jam-packed, busy weekend at another location, what have we really offered them? Find the balance between programmed activities, free time and time to slow down and rest intentionally.
4. Value Innovation and Tradition at the Same Time
When a retreat has a certain amount of tradition, certain things can become spiritual landmarks that students remember for the rest of their lives. Make sure, at the same time, you can innovate what you are doing. A retreat should be something students want to come back to year after year, never knowing quite what to expect each time.
5. Build Long-Term Connections with a Retreat Site
Whether you want to camp in the wilderness, stay at a 5-star resort, or something in between, take time to build a (good) reputation with the people in charge. This will help your planning immensely and make it easier to put your retreat together. You’ll save yourself a lot of time not having to Google a new camp every year.
6. Make it Financially Accessible and Worthwhile
One reason I have seen a lot of churches abandon the practice of retreat is the cost that goes along with this type of an event. Planning a great retreat is all about making sure the cost is low enough to allow as many people as possible attend. Is a week of camp not really an option? Plan a weekend! Two nights too expensive? Plan for one night! Live simply from your activities, to your equipment, to your lodging.
7. Next Steps
Retreats are opportunities to develop intentional spiritual practices. We want to withdraw from our daily routines, setting aside time to focus more intently on God…but if what we and our students learn or experience that weekend cannot transfer into the chaos of daily life, then we have wasted our time. Allow students to take leadership roles as often as possible. Involve them in a variety of ways beyond being event attendees. Prime your group for life back home, send them back equipped for walking with Jesus. Follow up with them periodically after the event: one week later, one month later, a few months later. Share stories from the experience.
Spiritual formation happens in a variety of ways and in a variety of places, but there is something special about a retreat. Whether you’re worshiping together, sledding down a hill, visiting a waterpark, or just hanging out together, spiritual formation happens when we break from the norm and allow the Holy Spirit to be what we listen to the most.
