A Great Retreat Starts With A Great Youth Retreat Theme

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So, you’ve added a retreat to your ministry calendar and you’re ready to plan it and start narrowing down your youth retreat theme. First, let me say “Great job!” because you’ve taken a step that has the potential to be the largest impact your ministry has seen so far. As a person working with young people in a small church, you probably have lots of questions that need answers and maybe not as much money as you’d like, but we are going to take care of that today.

I have worked with youth groups of all sizes over the last three decades and have learned many creative ways to make all of your effort and investment pay off. Let’s get started creating and leading a mountaintop experience for your young people!

Allow Time For The Planning Process

As you begin your planning process, be sure to allow yourself enough time to not feel too rushed or “under a deadline”, which can really sour your experience as the youth leader. Not allowing enough time for the planning stage can also limit the potential impact of the retreat on the participants. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll want to allow enough time for what I like to call the “God conversation” to occur.

As we are reminded in Jeremiah 29:11, God has good plans for our ministry because He wants it to succeed and not fail. That’s why I like to be deliberate in opening myself to what God is nurturing in me when I think about and pray for my upcoming retreat. I strongly suggest that you do your best to invite God into your planning process from the very beginning so that you’re not leaning only on your own understanding.

Sometimes we end up not making room for the Holy Spirit to work through us, but when you do, you can take the leaps of faith that are required to make a retreat extra special. Quieting the noise of your life to listen for God’s voice is important and can be tough if we’re too wrapped up in our day-to-day busyness. 

The very first step of planning a youth retreat is to pick a theme. The theme is the topic that you want to explore and should reflect the main goal you have for the retreat. As the good youth leader that you are, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea of what your young people need and what information would help them grow in their lives and faith. If you aren’t sure of their needs, spend some time talking with other trusted leaders in your church, the parents of your teens, or the teens themselves, in order to better identify what is needed.

To make this process easier, I’ve chosen five broad goals you might have for your ministry and we’ll explore a variety of themes that will help you achieve that goal. 

Narrowing Down Your Youth Retreat Theme Based On Your Goal

Goal #1:

I’m hoping to build my youth group and help them get to know each other.

This is possibly the most common situation I’ve found myself in as a youth leader. The goal to grow my ministry, whether it was with a brand new group or an established group, has undergone some changes over time. This type of retreat is a great way to build interconnectedness within your group in a way that will allow them to truly experience Christ-centered community. 

Group building retreats are perhaps the most basic, and yet most important, type of retreat that will allow group members to grow closer to each other and to God. These retreats often put trust-building and personal sharing at their core and help to put the Christian call to love one another into real action. You’ll want to make this type of retreat fun and should rely on active learning, rather than didactic classroom-style learning. After all, making friends is supposed to be fun. I find there really is no better way to grow a close-knit community than a shared experience, where memories are made and the interpersonal relationships of your group’s members are strengthened.

Suggested Retreat Themes:

• Come Together: Oneness in Christ (John 15:12-13 and Romans 12:4-8)
• Sharing Your Faith Story (Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15)
• Where Two or Three Are Gathered: The Power of Community (Galatians 6:1-2)
• E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 and Hebrews 10:24-25)

Goal #2: 

I’d like to focus on faith formation and help people walk closer with God.

This is another great goal for a retreat since you will have your participant’s attention for a prolonged period of time with fewer distractions. You’ll also want to incorporate active learning, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be impacting on a cerebral or spiritual level. By planning a variety of activities, you will be able to better reach all of your participants. The suggested themes in this category build on the positive effect that faith can have in our lives. 

Unfortunately, the world is very good at leading people away from God. These types of retreats help bring people closer to God, sometimes by simply helping us discover where we are at this point in our lives and where we’d like to be. Making these heavy topics lighter, and illustrating ways to incorporate the theme into your daily living, helps your participants realize how achievable their faith goals can be. 

In the midst of your retreat community, it becomes clear that we are not struggling alone, instead, we have our faith friends to help us overcome the challenges life puts in our path. These retreat themes are perfect for established groups who want to build on the foundation of trust they’ve already created in their time together. This is where they will experience real spiritual growth. Leaders who take on these themes are helping their group members grow their Christian faith in new and powerful ways and also have a lot of fun at the same time.

Suggested Retreat Themes:

• Confession & Forgiveness (James 5:16 and 1 John 1:9)
• How To Pray: Prayer Basics (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and Philippians 4:6-7)
• Sharing Your Faith Story (Romans 12 9-21, Acts 4:32-35)
• The 23rd Psalm (Psalm 23)
• Putting on The Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18)
• Making Yourself a Home for God (Psalm 116:1-2 and 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20)
• Relying on God (Romans 8:38-39, John 1:5 and Joshua 1:9)

Goal #3: 

I’d like to use the retreat to augment our church’s teaching ministry.

In the world today, having well-attended traditional Sunday School/Confirmation classes can be difficult, given families’ busy schedules and also what can seem like a decreasing commitment to worship and their faith community. This might be due to involvement with sports teams, heavy work schedules to help make ends meet, or just growing apathy within our culture. This is also compounded in many cases through less-than-ideal family situations. 

The great news is your teaching goals can be made more achievable through the use of a single, well-advertised, weekend-long event. A retreat allows enough time to focus on a single important topic and helps your participants better understand the importance of that topic in their lives. Our church has used retreats to augment our confirmation classes, which can cover a topic that would require multiple weekly sessions to explore. This type of retreat can be a great opportunity to involve multiple generations where all participants experience the topic together. Here are just a few biblical themes you can explore.

Suggested Retreat Themes:

• The Lord’s Prayer
• The Creeds
• Baptism
• Confession and Forgiveness
• The History of Our Faith
• Heroes of the Faith
• The Gospels 

Goal #4:

I’d like to help my participants put their faith into action.

This is a perfect goal for a retreat. Servanthood, and the call to love others, are perfectly suited for a retreat setting. I would definitely include servant trips in this category. But trips are not the only topics that can encourage your group to take leaps of faith. Anything that encourages participants to look outside of themselves and see their faith as an opportunity to have a positive impact on their world would also work. 

On a previous retreat, we focused on this idea and created an opportunity for our young people to have a positive impact on others. We prepared a number of individual projects that could be completed in about three hours. Participants were challenged to use that time to make as big of a positive impact in the lives of as many people as they could. We equipped them with what was needed, instructed them in what the task required, and encouraged them throughout the process.

The leaders dove right in as well to share the work. We discovered the impact on the participants was larger than the impact they had on others. The activities we led had built a desire in many of them to continue to do those sorts of tasks in the future. That’s the kind of powerful and unique impact a retreat can have on its participants because it offers enough time to go beyond the ordinary. 

The words that come to mind when I think of this type of retreat are: Be The Change You Want To See In The World.

Suggested Retreat Themes:

• Live Boldly, Love Deeply (2 Timothy 1:7 and Acts 4:29-31)
• We Are God’s Hands (Matthew 25:40 and Colossians 3: 23-24)
• Love Is A Verb (1 John 3:16-18 and John 15:13)
• I Am My Brother’s Keeper: Caring For Others (Ephesians 4:32 and James 2:14-17)
• Here I Stand: Standing Up For What You Believe (Deut. 31:6 and Philippians 1:27)

Goal #5:

I’d like to equip my young people to face life’s challenges.

This is another great goal for your retreat as well as your ministry in general. Helping young people face their struggles, and then teaching them about the positive role faith can play in their lives, can truly be transformative. Knowing we don’t face life’s difficulties alone, that we have a real support system in God and our fellow Christians, can be the difference that gives a person hope when all seems lost. Knowing that in advance, before times of intense troubles arise, can build an inner strength we sometimes forget we have.

The potential personal impact of these retreats is immense. I often hear from former youth group members, now adults, about how the lessons learned on one of our retreats has helped them to overcome a personal crisis. 

Suggested Retreat Themes:

• Fear Less: Facing Your Fears (Psalm 46:1-3 and Isaiah 41:13)
• Living a Trustworthy Life (Proverbs 10:9 and Zechariah 8:16-17) 
• Changing Your Perspective (2 Corinthians 4:18 and Colossians 3:1-2)
• Overcoming Stress and Finding Peace (James 1:2-4 and John 14:27)
• Positive Peer Pressure (Proverbs 17:9 and Hebrews 10:24-25)
• Being a Better Friend (Colossians 3:13 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)
• Decision Making (Proverbs 3:5-6 and Isaiah 30:2)

Tips For Success

As you can see, there are a variety of time-tested themes which can be great for any retreat. The secret is to make sure the theme you choose meets your group where they are, and challenges them to grow together toward a common goal. While retreats are often associated with youth ministry and are designed for young people, a multi-day activity is perfect for any age group because it is a great way to experience the benefits of a loving faith community. Be sure your chosen theme supports your current and future ministry goals and is appropriate for your specific participants. 

Also, while retreats are great stand-alone events, they work best when they are part of an ongoing calendar of ministry. This prepares participants for the event and also supports them after it as well. It can be challenging to take a brand new group on a retreat, who don’t have some level of knowledge of each other or amount of trust established in advance. Effective youth ministry utilizes fun games that help you teach your lesson, when you do this, your group is able to build relationships that last a lifetime. 

Historically, it has been difficult to find games to play that are actually fun, but that is exactly why we have spent the last two years developing a free resource called The Game Index. It contains dozens of engaging games, and you can sort by criteria such as your group’s age, how many people you have, and the materials you need. 

Build Your Retreat Team!

The early stages of retreat planning are also the perfect time to build your retreat team since such large undertakings rarely happen without assistance. If possible and appropriate for your ministry, consider involving young leaders in the planning as well. Being deliberate about incorporating a variety of voices on your leadership team, as long as everyone is working toward the same goal, helps to ensure a successful event.

Seeking assistance to make sure all the details are covered, including transportation, communication, and food, can help to take some of the burden off of you. This will allow you to better focus on the theme of the retreat, which will help you make the event more impactful. Having multiple leaders for your small groups also helps you to be able to assure that great small group discussions occur and that all of the retreat participants get to speak and feel heard. If you are intimidated by the idea of building a youth ministry team, we make it easy for you in this article.

Every aspect of your ministry should begin and end in prayer and be fully grounded in God’s Word. Be sure to center yourself on Him throughout the retreat planning process. I like to be deliberate when I ask God to guide me throughout the planning process, to help me see His plans for my ministry, and to help me identify the needs of my group. I find that helps me not to rely so much on my own understanding, but instead allows me to make room for God. Remember the words from Jeremiah and take comfort and strength from those words, and God’s promise to us His people. 

Remember, It Is All Worth It!

Retreats are a big undertaking! However, all the work that goes into planning and leading one outweighs the benefits experienced by your participants. The real secret to leading a retreat is this… do the work upfront and then get out of the way and let God in, through the Holy Spirit, to do the most important work. That’s not to say that a leader doesn’t do what a leader does during the event, it’s more a statement to remind you to let God be God. 

The retreat will also be a chance for you to step back from the world and draw closer to God. Be ready to take some faith leaps where it is appropriate. Go above and beyond to make it memorable for your participants. Try new things rather than being stuck in a rut of old habits. Build traditions for your group because those can link a group’s members in very real ways. And as soon as you’re done with this one, open your mind to where you’ll lead your group on your next retreat. When it comes to retreats, Nike sums it up pretty well… Just Do It!

Read More:

6 Important Steps To Build A Strong Youth Ministry Team

Incorporating Mental Health Awareness Into Youth Ministry  

6 Best Youth Activities That Focus On Spiritual Growth