Plan a Successful Ladies Retreat In (8) Steps

Do you desire the women of your church to really get to know each other better? Are you hoping to bring your ladies closer to one another to communicate better? Do you desire your ladies to have the opportunity to relax and have little distractions? Or do you really want to have fun and grow in the Lord at the same time? Have you ever thought of planning a Ladies Retreat?

Planning a ladies retreat can be a big task. However, it has so many benefits as well. Whether you are hosting a retreat for 10 or 500, the steps of planning are similar. You can plan a successful ladies retreat in 8 simple steps. Assuming you have prayed about it, spoke with your pastor and have the green light; let’s get going! Excitement has kicked in, take advantage of it!!!

Upon continuing this series, if you are planning a retreat- I highly recommend a notebook dedicated to your retreat. This can be a simple sectioned notebook if you like things fashioned with detail and written precise. OR a cute decorated journal notebook to jot as much or as little as you desire to pull off a great ladies retreat! Let’s get started!!!

Plan a Successful Ladies Retreat In (8) Steps: Part 1 of 8

Part 1) Have a Goal or Purpose

Start your planning with an end goal and/or purpose. Is this a refresher for everyone? Or is this to kick off your ladies ministry program in your church? Perhaps a celebration of hard work in your ladies ministry? Or an event you would like to make annually as a refresher, fun activity and wholesome purposeful fun? Start Here. This will help guide everything else smoothly. You will also have to decide here, is it just your church ladies? Your local ladies and a few christian women/friends? Or will you be inviting other churches and etc.?

Now that your thoughts are brewing and spinning, let us pull them back in and assess. To help sort out the whys, hows, who’s and such to obtain our end goal or purpose; let’s break this down into 6 questions.

1. Who is the retreat for?

Do you intend to have your main core of ladies attend the retreat, all ladies that participate in your women’s ministry in some fashion, any christian woman in your community, all christian women near and far that desire to come, and/or for any women?

2. What is the retreat for?

Is the woman’s retreat for strengthening your group? If this is your desire, perhaps a simple close knit women’s retreat is more up your alley. Is this women’s retreat to grow your ladies group in your area? Perhaps you would like to invite all local christian women in the area then. Determining your “what is the retreat for” will not only help you find your goal, but make all the other answers easier to obtain.

Whether your desire is to help enable your ladies to relax, focus, and/or grow together, having a set why and what for can help establish a solid foundation for kicking off a great ladies retreat!

3. Is the retreat intended to be an outreach as well?

Are you wanting to bring non-believers through the door as part of the goal for this women’s retreat? If so, this may change your presentation, focus, length and of course location.

Determining your who you are desiring to attend, will make picking your location, season, dates and times so much easier. If you are searching more for a “big outreach event” perhaps a tea, social or such event (yes, some call these a retreat as well) would best suite your purposes.

4. Who will be leading the retreat?

After answering the first three questions, number four should be simple. Now that you know who will be attending, who will be leading? Keep in mind you will want to start to transfer that to a number. What is your minimum, your maximum? Your determination on length of the retreat? Will this be a full day of sessions-type of conference? Or a several day retreat? Do you intend to have different activities, crafts and/or just free time? If you are still thinking more like a retreat, not a day event, proceed to determine a leader and/or if there will be a guest speaker or multiple guest speakers. And how you picture the retreat proceeding. Will it be leisurely with meet up sessions each day? Or are you intending close nit, but a little bit of free time with a few activities planned for early risers or late evening fellowship? This will help you determining your desired location “setting” as well.

5. What are some outcomes you would like to see from hosting a retreat?

Although this could be number four, it fits as five too. Upon leading and hosting a retreat, what outcomes are you hoping to see as a church? Is this to give back and encourage multiple churches? Is this to offer speakers a different audience and in return give your ladies (and possibly visiting ladies) a different perspective and/or uniqueness someone has to offer? Or is this to promote growth? There are so many benefits to hosting a women’s retreat, even though there is a ton of work that goes with it. What are you hoping to see from hosting a women’s retreat?

6. What kind of retreat do you desire to host?

What type of ladies retreat will you have? According to your goals is this more for relaxation, fellowship and growth? Or do you desire a jam packed focused time to grow together? Do you want a book-based retreat? Are you hoping for multiple leader-lead studies. Perhaps a few different break-out sessions to accommodate different ages? Maybe you desire a theme type of a retreat. Or a purchased kit. There are many on the market today that come as a package you purchase as the host and just go with it, adding only what you desire. Another option is a topic or educational retreat. This could be women’s health, a particular need among your ladies, and so on. Last, but not least, the Bible study approach. Simple, effective and more broad in the approach to meet many different needs of your women. Often wrapped up in a more generalized theme. Like “Love” or “Motherhood” again, this is dependent on your desires from questions 1-5.

Overall Goal

Now that you have a good bit of your questions answered, you are probably getting a clearer picture of all the other details. This is the point. Logistically thinking after God has confirmed for you to host a ladies retreat will make the rest of the planning simplified. If you have a motto for your ladies ministry or church for the year, this would be a beautiful way to tie it into your retreat. However, if you do not have one yet; determine your overall goal. What do you want overall from hosting a women’s conference? Having answered the questions prior, what will need to be done to obtain this goal?

With all of these questions now answered in your notebook, go to a new page. Jot down a list of what you know you are looking for already. (ex. Where, when, Location size, how many days, min/max capacity, guest speaker or no, how many speakers, will food/meals be needed, etc ?) The more details you have upfront, the easier it is to plan. And lastly, since you have prayed about this and the Lord has confirmed it, you have received permission and the go-ahead (perhaps with a budget already-if not keep this in your thoughts as you plan.) Begin to pray about God leading the details and bringing you a helper/s.

Above all, have a goal in place help lays the foundation of your planning, desires and flexibility if the Lord points otherwise. May HE bless your hard work and endeavors for HIS kingdom! HE is good!

Happy Ministry!