Retreat Means We’re Advancing!

“What goes on at retreats?” someone asked me this morning. I had reported to her that I was just back from women’s retreat at Covenant Harbor. I mentally buzzed through the array of images and moments swirling through my head and cobbled together a response. “Well, worship, seminars, a speaker, fellowship, food.” Take it one level deeper, I thought. “Really, women worship God with joy and delight. They connect with passion on the key initiatives of Women Ministries. They learn, grow, get excited, give, join hands and funds to be world changers. And they meet God.”

Does that resonate with your experience of women’s retreats?

It’s the thick of retreat season, and women are getting away to connect, unite in purpose and passion and to worship God with their hearts and lives. In fact, I think that if you took all the women attending WM retreats this fall and put them in a room, it would be the second largest gathering in the Covenant, after CHIC!

Let me tell you three reasons why I think retreats are vital to our ministry to women in the ECC:
1. Retreats strengthen the local church in its Covenant identity. As we gather from geographically and culturally disparate corners of a region, we rub shoulders with others who are different from those in our usual circles. We see each other in relationship, in worship, in learning situations and in fellowship, the differences fade and our commonalities emerge. My term for this is cross-pollination. In the Covenant, we agree to embrace one another with the focus on all that we have in common. This happens in spades at retreats. Did that happen to you at retreat?

2. Retreats are a boiler room for leadership development. Women who may not have the opportunity to serve in their local church, or who would never dare to step up to leadership on the conference level get invited into the process when their church is on the retreat planning team. After months of planning, work and preparation, the retreat is over. While they are packing the car, they realize how beautifully they saw God at work—in them! Making the trip from timid-but-I’ll-try to I-can’t-believe-I-could-do-that is a wonderful journey. Do you have a leadership story from retreat?

3. Retreats make a bold statement about our need for Sabbath rest and renewal. God desires to meet us in special moments and special places, and when we intentionally set aside time to pull away from our daily routine to honor him, we are changed. The scriptures come alive in fresh new ways, we gain new perspectives on our lives, we are renewed in body and spirit. Can you tell us how you were renewed at a retreat?

I was at the Central Conference retreat at Covenant Harbor in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin where a great team of volunteers worked together to serve 300 women so very faithfully. I love seeing dozens of volunteers make a complete sacrifice to bring their vision for a weekend to reality. As they partner with the dedicated camp staff, something amazing is created.

Part of being a leader at these events is the jiggy feeling of not knowing if it’s all going to come together. But it always does, and God is there. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough to say to Ann Richards and Cherith Anderson and their awesome leadership team as well as the W.I.L.D. (Western ILlinois District) women who planned it all and the awesome Harbor staff. Where did you retreat this weekend? Tell us about it!

I’m headed out to Northern California to connect with the women at Mission Springs. I can’t wait to be with those terrific people and to see God at work there. I hope to see you there!