Our Annual YM Team Retreat

This past weekend was our annual YM Team Retreat.  When we have our retreat we focus in two areas:  Spiritual challenge/health in our own lives and our team goals for the year in youth ministry.  We all gathered in a vacation rental home for the retreat.

Here is what it looked like:

Friday - 6:30 - Dinner (Tacos and Enchiladas if you are interested)
              7:30 - Goals for the weekend and look back at 2013's goals
              8:00 - Small Things Big Difference.   Viewed a message on the small things. 
              8:40 - Discussed the small things we should be doing and discovered they are the same         things we are encouraging in student's lives and if we aren't doing them how can we expect the youth to do them?
Here is our "small things" list:  (not all encompassing)
Prayer
Word
Sharing our Faith
Time Management
Quiet Times
Give thought to my words
Faithfulness
Trust
Dependability
Attitudes
Discipline

         9:00(ish) - have some fun/hang out

Saturday -
        9:00 - Breakfast (Biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, hash browns if you are interested)
        9:45 - Small Things Big Difference #2
     10:30 -  Discussion then a break
     11:00 -  Discussion on 2014's focus the three areas we are focusing on this year:
                   1.  Developing Student Leaders
                   2.  Growth
                   3.  Mission Projects
                   and there was much discussion and input from the team.  Great group of thinkers on our  team.
     12:30 - We went out to Lunch together
       2:00 - Afternoon free time
      6:00 -   Supper (Lasagna, salad and bread if you are interested)
      During Supper the team asked some questions and we talked about some changes we would make in our flow of students around the building while at youth group, safety/security issues, dealing with cell phone use.
      7:00 - Life Mapping (each individually taking a look at the coming year on a personal level)
      8:00 - We cleaned up and packed up and went home.

I hope you spend some focused time each year with your youth ministry volunteers doing some training and growth together.  Spending an extended time together gives you a real glimpse into the hearts of your team and their love and dedication to serving students.

When else do we meet?  Glad you asked.  We meet every Sunday night a half hour before our youth group gathering to have a "pre-game" meeting and prayer together.