I started by telling you how having the right "formula" for something can make all the difference.
In this blog series, I’m showing you the 7 Important Elements that my friend, and former co-youth pastor, discovered worked best for us to create a fun retreat the students loved and that still was spiritually powerful.
You will be able to take these and add them to your retreat to design it in a way to take it to the next level.
In the first post, I told you the first 2 elements for a successful summer retreat. You can read them here. In the second post I shared the second 2 elements for a successful summer retreat. You can read them here.
Today, I'll tell you the final 3 elements I want to share with you...
5. Worship - A retreat is a time to encourage your group to worship the Lord in an even more intimate way than they usually do. Tell them that this setting is a chance to let go and not worry about anyone else except what God thinks.
Pray for God to help them to be able to do this. And expect it to happen by planning in extra time for worship. I'm not telling you to drag out your worship times, but don't rush them either!
Also make sure to allow for "altar times" and some worship times at the end of your gatherings. And most importantly, lead by example. You, your leaders, and your worship team need to really allow yourselves to enter in during these times, so the students can follow your lead.
6. Interactive large-scale games - We did these on some level during the day schedule. But we really went all out with them every night AFTER our worship gatherings. The cool thing about them being at night is it seemed to up the fun factor.
The purpose of these game is not just for fun - even though they are fun. We found that these large-scale games really help to build relationships! The key is that you want to get everyone playing - including you and adult leaders.
There's nothing that can compare to getting everyone out there laughing, running, playing and working together. It builds some new relationships and incredible memories.
You might not normally think of this, but we learned to plan a hang out/late night snack time after these games, so people could brag, laugh and talk about all of the things that happened during these late night games.
One of the things that our previous youth group students STILL talk about after all of these years is the large-scale late night games we played. They even still remember and talk about certain exact moments! :)
We found all sort of really cool games that we used for our retreats - some with some really cool "storylines" behind the game play, but a classic one you could do is "Capture The Flag". (We played a version called, "Capture The Nuke").
7. Themed sermons - Many youth groups try and bring in paid speakers to speak at these retreats for them - and that's totally cool. I don't have anything at all against it.
But one of the freeing things about retreats is that they give YOU time to talk in an extended, focused setting on topics you want the group to hear.
You don't have to worry about having just a short time to hit the topic or have to worry about losing momentum speaking about it over a couple of weeks.
In a retreat setting, you have 2-3 days in a row to hit the topic from all different angles. And unlike your regular mid-week gatherings, where you have some students there one week and then others the next, you know you'll have the SAME group of students to hear those 3 "talks" that you give.
You also have the chance to speak a little bit longer than you might on a normal mid-week gathering time. Don't drag out your "talks" and make them go on for hours (no one likes or appreciates that!) but adding an extra 5-10 minutes would be fine and even expected in a retreat setting.
Just make sure any time you add is filled with needed, important information! Don't go longer just to talk longer about something. Stop when you should stop!
Also, make sure to be even more relaxed and relational in the way you speak on your retreats. Let them feel, as you should feel, that this is a special intimate "family talk" from someone who is speaking to them as straight-forward, real and loving as they can.
I hope these ideas help you to pull off a more impactful and memorable retreat this summer and ever summer after. I'd love to hear any feedback you have on the elements I've shared.
Why I Changed My Mind About Canceling The "Instant Summer Retreat" Training
I was planning on doing some online training to show you the exact format we used, etc., but then things got busy for me and Ben and I wasn't sure how much interest there would be, so I thought I'd just forget about it this year.
But then I got an email from one of you saying that you were doing a retreat and asking if I was still doing the training! :)
Me and Ben are still really busy, but I've decided that we'll do the "Instant Summer Retreat" online training with 15 interested youth pastors and record it for anyone else to purchase and listen to later.
Our goal is give you everything you need to pull off the retreat - you just need to add students, leaders, and a location. :)
Here's what we'll cover:
THINGS YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE THE RETREAT
- How to find adult leaders
- How to figure out costs per person (important
- concept about what/if to charge adult leaders)
- Rental vehicles
- Permission slips
- How to promote it effectively to students and parents
- How we learned to stay longer on a retreat for less money.
- Best daily schedule/format we used.
WHAT TO DO DURING THE RETREAT
- We'll give you the exact schedule that we found worked the best. We used this same schedule as the core format and just tweaked it slightly over the years. You can use this same list and tweak it as you need to.
- It will give you a schedule that will help you implement all of the "7 Elements" I've talked about in these blog posts.
- We'll walk you through, step-by-step, how to use carry out the schedule, why things happen in the order they do, etc.
- We'll talk about how to run/play all of the games, and tell you what we learned from trial and error of doing them.
- We'll talk about meal preparation and how we pulled it off inexpensively and without one (or a few) doing all of the work.
- We'll have a question and answer time, so you can ask any questions you want.
- The goal is to help you feel totally prepared to pull this off yourself!
POST RETREAT - WHAT TO DO AFTER THE RETREAT
- Practical advice on what to do to tie up the "loose ends" so you can be done with all of the post-retreat stuff as quickly as possible.
- Things to do with your students to help the results last in your students lives.
- Things to do in your group in the following weeks to help more students to be excited to be a part of the next years retreat.
- Things to do with your church to increase support and participation in the retreats you do after this.
INCLUDED WITH THE TRAINING:
- Sample Menus
- Sample Parent Letters
- Sample Med Release Forms
- Sample Menus
- Sample Sermons You Can Use
- Adult Leader Packs
- Student Packs
- Games We Used
- Small Group Questions
- "To Bring Lists" we used that you can use as is or tweak.
COST
We were going to offer the 2 days training (4 and 1/2 hours) and all of the "tools" (menus, etc.) you can use to do a retreat this year and every year after, for $99.
But if you're one of the youth pastors that want to be a part of the 15 to be on the live training, then it'll just cost $69.
I'd love to share with you all that we learned to do these retreats and help you to be able to pull off effective summer retreats too.
If you want to be one of the 15 people on the live training, then please email me at: lastingministry (at) gmail.com. I'll give you more details by email on possible days and times we'll do the training.
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