A month ago we had our first all-staff retreat. Just to give you a little bit of context, we are a resident staff team of thirty-two people ranging in age from twenty-four to sixty-two. Six of our team are single, and most of the moms work half days. A staff retreat is something that comes up often in our brainstorms as a benefit for our resident staff. I would highly recommend that you do something like this—it was great for our team. Below are some of the things that I learned.

Choose the purpose of your retreat. This was not an extended working meeting, a brainstorming time, or something that anyone had to prepare for. We
wanted a time that we could just get to know each other beyond the work day.

Not everyone will see this as a valuable time. Projects will be mid-stream, and other matters will be pressing. Keep pushing to not let anyone stay back because of a work issue.

Find a place that will make all your folks comfortable. Health issues, diet concerns, and even the landscape are all things that affect your team.

Plan times when everyone gets to play together. At work or in ministry, we rarely get to put everything aside and relax as a group. A game, an activity, or something that you all get to do together is important.

Set aside time to share testimonies. During our three scheduled meetings, we spent a bulk of the time sharing testimonies of how God has worked in our lives. We would start with a light question such as, “If you had to spend a $100 in Walmart right now, what would you spend it on?” to heavier questions such as, “What is one thing that you plan to improve personally in the next twelve months?”

Review ministry philosophy and core values. One of the sessions we called a WhatYWhat session—taking one ministry facet and sharing what we have done in the past, why we did it that way, and what that means for us in the future. After reviewing, we opened it up to questions and answers.

Return on time. Everyone has made plans based on your return time. Plan for something to go wrong as you return so that you can still be on time.

Don’t expect 100% attendance. Four of our staff members missed the retreat because of conflicts with other roles in their lives (family, church, etc.). Don’t
make your staff feel bad when they are being responsible in other areas of their lives.

Plan for it in your budget. It is much easier to spend $200 per person if you plan for it.

Expect the unexpected. Know that the best part of a staff retreat is not what you had planned and that it will be very hard to put your finger on the value of the trip. If your team are better friends at the end of a couple of days together, you can rest assured it was worth every penny and moment.

Plan ahead. Put it on the calendar for twelve to eighteen months from now and work hard to keep it there. We plan on doing it every other year. This makes it even more of an event.

Figure out something for staff children. Our staff children went to their own camp designed just for them. Coordinating some of the details for babysitting or helping out with some of the costs would be very helpful.