9 Values of a Church Staff Retreat

As I write this post, my wife and I have just finished a staff retreat with our church, Restoration Church in Wake Forest, NC. The retreat was just 2 ½ days long, but I was still reminded of why these kinds of events matter:

1. Something just happens when you get away from the church context to meet. Leave the chaos of daily ministry behind, and it’s easier to listen to God and one another. In our case, we met in the mountains of North Carolina. It’s hard not to see God’s handiwork there – and even harder not to want to magnify Him in all you do as a church.
2. Families can get to know one another. If the retreat includes families (which I recommend), spending time together strengthens bonds among the staff. Children especially have a way of lightening the mood and helping the staff focus on things that really matter.
3. Most church leaders need some time to relax. Our staff actually played kickball, a game I had not played in decades. It was great fun, though – a reminder to me that I don’t take enough time to play in general.
4. A retreat pushes staff to examine their own spiritual walk. You’d hope that staff members evaluate their walk continually, but sometimes the daily grind of ministry gets in the way of self-review. A retreat that schedules intentional time for personal reflection helps correct that problem.
5. Staff friendships can deepen. Staff are brothers and sisters in Christ, but those relationships are sometimes surface-level, church hallway relationships. Friendships develop best outside of the office, and a retreat offers that opportunity.
6. Focused retreats help move staff toward decisions. Sometimes, a staff discusses particular issues for months, with no resolution in sight. A retreat time can drive the staff to push through the obstacles, discuss the issues at hand, and stay on task until a decision is made. 
7. Staff need time to just listen to God’s Word. We hear the Word every Sunday, but our mind is often more attentive to things that need to get done that day. It’s hard, frankly, to stop being a staff member to just be a hearer of God’s Word on a Sunday. That changes when you’re sitting in a retreat setting, relaxing with friends in Christ and listening quietly to the Word taught.
8. We need time to hear each other’s stories. We often serve alongside staff members whose stories we really don’t know well. We may not know their testimony, and we don’t always know their present-tense worries. Learning those stories in a well-designed retreat, though, helps us share those burdens.
9. Any church can do a retreat. Regardless of size or setting (our church is under 200, and only one staff member is full time), any church can plan a staff retreat. It can be costly, but it doesn’t have to be if planned well. Either way, it’s worth the effort. 

How have retreats helped your staff? Help others with your insights and reflections.