Our Fall Retreat is over and it was awesome!

Adults and students alike appreciated the challenging lessons brought by Pat Bills (way to go Pastor Pat—new preacher of the Highland Oaks church of christ) and enjoyed the times of worship and learning activities together.

It was a blast!

Exhausting, but a blast!

Setting up what I am about to say, let me be clear. First and foremost, it is God who creates truly powerful retreat weekends. We are simply vessels of that power. Without God, even the most creative retreat planning falls short (thanks, I feel better).

With that in mind, our staff pulls out all the bells and whistles for retreats. Although our imaginations are often limited by budget (we could not pull off the glider rides), we do pretty well at making things "pop" so we can help create the best experience possible. This weekend was no different. We had video, music, glider competitions, a gauntlet experience (easier seen than explained) and even made real rockets that were launched at the concluding gathering. All that and...it was the unprogrammed moments that God used the most.

When I started out in youth ministry I was way too stressed about the logistics and creative elements involved in retreat planning. Even though I still plan retreats with the same creative passion, I am not at all offended and actually have come to expect God to use the "planned" activities as spring board moments for his "planned" and "scheduled" work in the lives of teenagers and adult sponsors. This knowledge actually takes the stress out of retreat planning and adds a sense of expectation and excitement that God is going to show up and do more than we have "asked or imagined" (borrowed that phrase from the apostle Paul).

Now for the Youth Ministry Tid Bit. If you are a Youth worker or volunteer reading this blog, please continue to be as creative as possible when planning a retreat weekend. Students and adults are giving you a weekend of their life. Do something with it! Even so, this may seem rather contradictory, relax a little and don't take your abilities too seriously. Bath all of your planning in prayer and humbly ask God to take your creative, programmatic offering and do something awesome with it. Remember, if God doesn't show up nothing is going to happen anyway.