Planning Your Retreat
Regardless of the season, proper planning will make or break your next church retreat. Who is your retreat for? Is it a youth retreat, men's retreat, or women's retreat?
Timeframe and demographic are intricately linked. While many youth retreats work best during the summer while kids are out of school, a men's retreat could work better in the fall.
One very important thing that should be taken into consideration is to figure out the purpose, and what better way to dive into the purpose of your retreat than by gathering your church leaders and praying for discernment.
Once you have settled on a purpose, a theme must be set in stone. Without a purpose or theme, a retreat is pointless. Once you have decided on who a retreat is for, you can nail down themes and build activities and programming around your camp.
Once you have nailed down the above, finding a location and a time frame is key to hosting a great church retreat. While we may be biased, retreat centers that are connected to summer camp facilities make for impactful church retreats. Having the opportunity to go ziplining, do adventurous team-building exercises, and gather for worship all on the same property is very valuable.
Timeframe
The timeframe is probably the hardest thing to nail down. Getting everyone on the same page as far as scheduling goes can be tough, especially with a volunteer ministry team and normal working folks.
Scheduling should be done at least six months in advance to give time for attendees and leaders to ask off of work or procure childcare if needed. Because of this, summer is almost always a no-go, as teenagers are often working summer jobs, and families are off spending much-needed time together at the beach.
Winter time is also not very conducive to an engaging church retreat due to the cold weather that restricts outdoor activities. Who wants to be stuck at a summer camp with incredible outdoor facilities that they can't use because of cold weather. Winter weather can also create hazardous situations that would prevent people from being able to attend your church retreat.
This leaves spring and fall.
Hosting Your Church Retreat in Spring
Springtime is a great time to host a retreat. Weather is often mild and trending warm, and if you are spending any time outdoors, the bright, beautiful spring colors are inspiring.
While it may still be a bit too cold to jump in the lake, spring hikes are incredible. There are some negatives to scheduling your retreat in the spring, mainly rain.
Spring is the rainiest season in the northern hemisphere due to warm air holding more moisture than colder air. This could cause issues if you have a considerable amount of outdoor programming and activities for your event. While a little rain never hurt anybody, nothing can dampen a good time outdoors like a spring downpour.
Hosting Your Church Retreat in Fall
Fall is another great time for hosting church retreats. Typically fall doesn't interfere with holidays and vacation time and works well as it isn't during the spike of travel season. The weather is often mild and trending cooler, there is less rainy weather as well.
For most, fall is known for being more consistent scheduling across the board. That way, people can make more informed decisions about their availability.
The Best Months for Hosting a Church Retreat
May, September, and October are typically the easiest months to host a retreat. May weather is almost always incredible and typically late enough in the spring to avoid the rainiest times of the year.
September and October have the benefits of not being covered up with summer vacations or holidays.
While it is a summer month, June is also a great month to host a retreat, as it is not a peak traveling month for most of the US.
Camp Tekoa - The Perfect Retreat Venue
Regardless of what season you decide to choose for hosting your next church retreat, Camp Tekoa in Hendersonville, NC, is the perfect location.
Camp Tekoa offers a variety of outdoor activities as well as a variety of facilities to meet your church retreat.
- Ax Throwing: One of the newest additions to our onsite adventures. Ax throwing will challenge you and your colleagues as you take aim and throw a throwing ax.
- Lake Zipline - One of the most popular activities is our zipline, which takes you from the wooded shoreline to well over and across our lake.
- Low Elements Challenge Course - The challenge course offers a variety of activities that will challenge your group with teamwork and communication-based challenges. If you are looking for team building, this is where it's at.
- Lake Slide - There is nothing like sliding into our beautiful lake on our inflatable slide.
- Swimming Pool - If you are not sure about swimming in our lake but still want to spend time in the water, our swimming pool is a fun way to cool off!
- Archery Field - Another great sport that we offer. Our archery field offers open-range shooting as well as coaching from our staff.
- Orienteering - Want to learn how to get around in the woods? Our orienteering program will help you learn the basics of using a compass to find marks around the camp and navigate a treasure hunt!
Contact us today for more information on how to book your next church retreat!