Retreats come in many shapes and sizes.
Prayerfully consider which type of retreat God is asking you to plan for your women in this season.
You may host one time of retreat this year and a different type of retreat the next.
I’ve brainstormed 6 different types of women’s ministry retreats. If you know of others, please comment and share!
1. Speaker-led Retreat
You may want to bring in an outside speaker or have one of the women from your church speak. I believe there is value in both. It’s great to bring in a fresh word from a fresh perspective. There are many talented speakers that would bless the socks of your women. On the other hand, it can deepen and grow relationships within your church to have a woman or women from your church share. I’ll get into the details of finding a speaker in another post!
2. Workshops
You may want to offer a variety of workshops based on the needs your women have. Some groups choose to offer the same workshops multiple times so women have a better chance of attending the ones they are interested in. You’ll want to have them sign up before the retreat so you can make copies of materials, place them in a big enough room, etc.
3. Book-based
Perhaps God has led you to a specific book and the weekend should be centered around it. The last retreat I attended was based on A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23
(affiliate link). You may want to ask your women to read the book before the retreat or you may want to walk through some of the chapters during your weekend, like we did. Side note: This book will change the way your forever read Psalm 23 – I highly recommend it!
4. Themed Retreat
Perhaps God’s led you to a specific concept, person in the Bible, a verse, or section of verses. Your whole retreat might focus on “Love One Another”, “Bear Much Fruit”, or “The LORD is My Shepherd.” You may want to consider using my Prayer Warrior Boot Camp Kit for Groups as a retreat.
5. Retreat-in-a-Box/Kit
There are many retreat kits you can purchase. Some find it less stressful to “plug and play”. We used one successfully many years ago. I do suggest that you pick and choose which parts of the kit will work best for your group. I’ll link to a few below, but please let God give you your theme before you place an order.
6. Bible Study Retreat
Some Bible studies lend themselves well to a retreat weekend. If you read my review of Lazarus Awakening, you might recall that Joanna Weaver has already created a retreat using her study. She has gone to great lengths to make it interactive. You can certainly create your own Bible study retreat or find a Bible study that offers that as an option.
The great thing is you don’t have to pick just one!
Your retreat might have 3 speaker sessions and 2 workshops sessions, all theme driven.
You might decide to spend the weekend digging through a book together and have 4 women facilitate your book study.
Pray about what type of retreat is right for your theme and your women.
Here are a few retreat resources your team might want to review:
*Please note these are affiliate links, should you make a purchase I may receive a small commission which helps cover the costs of this blog so I can keep providing free content for you!
Hi Cyndee. This article was extremely helpful. I’m planning my first women’s retreat and I’ve been sensing the Lord leading me to center this retreat around a book I’ve written. I asked my husband, who’s also my pastor, and he confirmed the same thing and thought it was a great idea. I’ve never heard of or thought about having a retreat centered around a book.
Once again, your article was on point. Thanks so much!
Rhovonda, you are so welcome! Thankful God could use it to confirm what He’s been speaking to you. Praying for your preparations!
Thank you for this article. Currently, doing some research for my upcoming retreat in Tennessee and found this article very helpful. There is not a whole lot out there about planning a Christian retreat so I really appreciate the information that you have outlined on your site.
Thanks Sandra! 🙂 So glad I’ve been able to help.