21 tips for your next ministry retreat

We’re nearing the time of year when many college and young adult ministries are preparing for fall retreats.  If you've been putting off planning a retreat because it seems like too much work or because you're not sure where to start, now's a great time to start.

 In the average semester the young adults or college students in your ministry probably connect together in for maybe three 2-hour blocks each week. In a normal retreat you get the chance to be face-to-face for 48-72 hours straight.  That means that if you’re getting 3 2-hour touch points with those you minister to on an average week, then a weekend retreat has the relational impact of about over 6 weeks in just a couple days.  Even if a traditional multi-day retreat isn’t feasible for your ministry, a simple day-long retreat can still have massive impact.

Over our combined years of ministry, elementum’s team has planned literally hundreds of events to gather college students, young adults, and ministry leader. Here’s some of our top tips for you as you plan your next retreat:

The tips

1. Don’t just replicate what you did last year.

Just because your retreat last year was a success doesn’t mean you should replicate it. Take the time to evaluate your current reality before you make plans.

2. Take stock of what’s currently true before you start planning.

Grab a tear sheet or whiteboard and (with a group of people) list out at least 25 things that are currently true about your ministry, context, team, etc. Let those facts inform what you plan for your retreat. Want some specific examples of how this works? Check out our recent webinar on planning your retreats.

3. Define the win BEFORE you start planning logistics.

What’s the outcome you want to see from the retreat? Take stock of what’s true and then prayerfully seek God’s heart for that outcome. Put that in writing - the more specific the better - and THEN start planning details.

4. Start planning at least 6 months ahead of time.

The further ahead you’re able to plan, the better. We’d recommend getting your retreat’s dates and general topic locked in at least 6 months ahead of time.

5. Plan the retreat as a team.

Part of the value of being 6 months ahead is that it enables you to pull a team of people into the planning process. Planning a retreat is a great opportunity for both discipleship and leadership development conversations with some of your young adults.

6. Retreats don’t have to be a full weekend (or even on a weekend!).

You can have a killer one-day retreat - you don’t necessarily need to book overnight stays and plan meals. It can be a huge win to simply have 7-10 hours together as a group in a new context.

7. Shape everything about the retreat to help you achieve the win.

Whether the retreat is a weekend or just a half day, you should be intentional about every part of the event. How will people sit - circles or rows? Will there be up-front teaching? Will we cook a meal together or have food catered? As much as possible, let everything you do push towards your desired outcome.

8. Communicate in waves.

Don’t blast a message out to everyone in the ministry at once. Once details for the retreat are set, communicate to your leaders and core students to save the dates before you publicly announce the retreat. That will ensure that they’re able to be present, and give them opportunities to personally invite others.

9. Have a written budget.

You don’t want to discover after the fact that you blew 3/4 of your ministry’s annual budget on a retreat. Make sure you’ve got an estimated budget written down and then track your expenses as you go.

10. Do the retreat at least 45 minutes away from your home base.

If you do an in town retreat it’s almost guaranteed that people will have other commitments that cause them to dip out for a portion of the time. If you do your retreat out of town, even if it’s just 30-45 minutes away, the experience of being in a different-than-normal space will cause people to commit to being present.

11. Make sure the food is excellent.

If you’re doing food (which you should!) make it quality food. This can be a huge draw for students.

12. Have some sort of actual registration (not just verbal statement of intent).

A common conversation we have with leaders is frustration that the students or young adults in their ministry will say they’ll come to an event but then back out at the last minute. Mitigate that by having a formal registration of some sort. Even if it’s just filling out a google form it’s a psychological trigger of commitment.

13. Have students pay something.

Another way to mitigate that last minute dropout tendency is to require some sort of payment. Even if it’s just $20, paying money for something will cause people to value it more. Plus then if the student doesn’t show they’ve at least covered some of the expenses of their food, housing, etc.

14. Leverage student-led fundraisers to help cover costs.

Have students who want to come but can’t afford even a low price? Give them opportunities to do student-led fundraisers. Do a cookout after the church service and ask for donations. Do a bake sale. You name it - just make sure that your people invest some of their time in the fundraising process.

15. A retreat doesn’t have to be large to be impactful.

There’s a reason elementum prioritizes what we call micro events. Often times the impact of a couple days with 5-10 other people can be even greater than a weekend with 100+ others.

16. You don’t have to create your own content for every retreat.

It can feel overwhelming to have to plan content for an entire retreat. But the reality is you don’t HAVE to write a sermon for each session of your retreat. You can draw from the numerous high-quality sermons available from world-class preachers online or have students lead simple Bible study sessions.

17. Set the tone from the moment students arrive.

Your first hour or so - especially your first official session of the retreat - will do a ton to set the tone of the time together. Make sure both the structure and the content of the first couple hours of your retreat are intentional.

18. Leave more down-time thank you think students need.

Unless you intentionally want your retreat to be intense (like we do with our Intensives), be sure to leave plenty of down time during your retreat. A huge part of the value of retreats are the relationships that are built during that free time.

19. Put conversation starter questions on the tables during meal time.

Make conversation over meals simple and purposeful by printing out and placing some conversation starter questions on each table.

20. Do a post-mortem review.

Within a week of concluding your retreat you should gather the team of leaders who helped plan and execute it for a 2-3 hour meeting to review how the retreat went. What worked? What didn’t? Discuss. And don’t forget to thank and celebrate all that was accomplished! 

21. Do some sort of follow-up.

Don’t let the momentum that can come from a retreat die. Do some sort of follow up with the students or young adults who attended. That might be a simple survey to get their feedback, a midweek service preaching series on a related topic, having your leaders have follow up conversation with each person, or something else. Just make sure to follow up!