Join us for a retreat full of rest, play, and spiritual renewal. We’ll have space to explore the wonders of nature, and time to intentionally collaborate around the evolution of pastoral practice for contemporary culture and congregational reality.
Cost: $800* (includes all meals and overnight private accommodations), capped at 9 participants.
Limited scholarships available. We encourage Pastors to first inquire with support in their tradition (denominational entities, etc) to help offset the cost if your church cannot support the entire cost.
*Our kitchen can accommodate special diets/allergies with advance notice, but to do this service requires a 15% increase to the meals for the person(s) needing the special diet since our retreats are kept to a small level of participants. This is simply to cover food costs. Select and identify your needs at registration and our Food Services Director will follow up with any questions.
Registration Closes August 31st.
Retreat begins Sunday October 6th with dinner, and ends Thursday October 10th after brunch (~11am). Any questions, please contact becca@ingallscreek.org
“New leadership is needed for new times, but it will not come from finding more wiley ways to manipulate the external world. It will come as we … find the courage to take an inner journey … to become healers in a wounded world.”
General Scope of our Time:
Centering in scripture: We’ll make space to listen to God together, study scripture in conversation with one another, and carve out time for silence and personal processing.
Practicing Curiosity: We’ll ask you to read a couple books in advance to help us launch conversation. These readings will center around the realities of doing ministry in today’s world, and the work it takes to cultivate collegial and collaborative church culture.
Core Readings:
1. Being Church in a Liminal Time (Jones & Frederickson)
2. Tempered Resilience (Bolsinger)
Suggested readings that have contributed to our imagination on these topics, should you be hungry to expand the conversation (not required):
a. When Church Stops Working (Root & Bertrand) - God’s action and our invitation to do Church differently
b. How to Know a Person (Brooks) - deepening human connection
c. Woven (Miller) - faith transmission across generations
d. Think Again (Grant) - building our imagination to think differently
Play: Let’s laugh, explore, have fun, and relax. Our property and location are stunning in the fall - we hope you delight in these woods as well. All recreational activities are optional, and any hikes will be at the level all interested parties feel comfortable with.
Requirements: One hour zoom a month ahead of our retreat, sometime early Sept. (time TBD depending on participants availability), and required reading (see above).
Facilitators:
Roy Howard has been in pastoral ministry for 35 years. He recently served for 19 years as the Lead Pastor of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in N. Bethesda, Maryland. He is a certified coach with the International Coaching Federation and has a vital ministry coaching pastors around the country and leading retreats for pastors and congregations. He is now serving as Pastor for Discipleship at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gaithersburg Maryland. During May-June he will serve as Minister-in-Residence at the Community Church of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Becca Niemeyer has been in pastoral ministry for 15 years, first with College Students and Young Adults in Pullman, WA and Bellingham, WA. She’s recently served as Associate pastor at First Presbyterian church of Bellingham, and currently serves at Quincy First Presbyterian Church. She is passionate about helping all people share God’s good news amidst the mess and questions of our real lives - fostering spiritual conversations about the realities of God with folks both inside and outside the church.