When I first began planning women’s retreats 6 years ago, I started from the absolute beginning. I’d never been in charge of any aspect of organizing a retreat. That’s one reason I kept asking God, “Are you sure?” when I felt Him call me.
Through trial and error, I learned along the way. Since I’m a computer teacher by day and love the technology side of things, I enjoyed creating registration forms, brochures, surveys, and all of the other resources needed to organize and plan our retreats.
As I collected more and more resources, I realized that others might be in the same place I had been years before. I decided to compile everything I had learned through years of retreat planning in one convenient guide.
In this post, I’m sharing the retreat guide reviews received from other Christian bloggers. Here’s what they have to say:
Review of Your Complete Guide to Planning a Christian Women’s Retreat by Sarah Geringer, SarahGeringer.com
This resource saved me many precious hours on planning my first retreat. Even though I had years of experience as an event coordinator, I needed specific help for hosting a retreat. The forms were easy to edit and use as registration materials for my event. I appreciated the suggestions for the retreat agenda and activities to try. The ladies who attended my retreat were impressed, and I give Julie lots of credit for helping me organize the retreat behind the scenes with this excellent planner! Highly recommended especially if this is your first time hosting a retreat.
Sarah Geringer is a Christian writer, poet, and artist as well as a wife and mother of three. She’s publishing with Leafwood in late 2019. Find her at https://www.sarahgeringer.com/ and on social media at: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter
Find out more about the guide HERE.
Review by Kimberly Dewberry, Transforming Normal
Just thinking about planning a Christian women’s retreat can be stressful and overwhelming. I had the thought to do this for the Transforming Normal ministry late last year. I’ve been collecting ideas, brainstorming, and stalking watching others on Facebook to learn how it’s done.
Out of the blue, someone posted, in a Facebook group I’m a part of, that she needed beta readers for a new planning guide she had put together for women like me who desperately need help with this very topic. I was beyond excited. I immediately signed up for this amazing opportunity and I am so glad I did.
Julie Pfeifer has done an outstanding job compiling all of her knowledge into one succinct eBook, Your Complete Guide to Planning a Christian Women’s Retreat. The heart of her ministry, Loving Christ Ministries, is to bring all women together regardless of age, religion, or socioeconomic status. Her partner and friend Brooke, have developed systems to organize and lead many retreats that do just that.
Julie’s generosity abounds in Your Complete Guide to Planning a Christian Women’s Retreat by providing not only their best practices but also the exact forms, topics, fun activities, recipes, and surveys they use in their own retreats. From the basics of how to get started all the way down to the details of themes, speaker, music, and so much more; Julie has everything covered. I plan to use this as my go-to manual when my retreat plan comes to fruition in the future. It is an invaluable resource.
Kimberly Dewberry struggled for 25 years to cope with the pain, hurt, guilt, regret, unworthiness, and shame caused by her addicted father. As her life devolved into a predictable pattern of poor choices caused by the dysfunctional thinking of an alcoholic household, Kimberly’s image of God was skewed with an inner turmoil that only he could heal. Through the loving grace of Jesus Christ, she has broken free from the shackles of rebellion and anger and has made it her life’s mission to openly share her journey through courageous prose. Her heart’s desire is to help other adult children of alcoholics identify and overcome unhealthy cycles of destructive living that the specter of alcoholism leaves behind. Kimberly often speaks at recovery meetings about how the serenity and peace of God’s redemption are keys to personal wholeness. She also shares biblical insights to everyday problems through her blog, Transforming Normal. Kimberly has two grown children. She and her husband Patrick live in the Dallas area with their two furry friends. Kimberly enjoys writing, reading, Bible art journaling, participating in Bible studies, and dating her husband.
She can be found online at Tranforming Normal and on social media at: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter
Find out more about the guide HERE.
Retreat Guide Review from Cindy Barnes, Women’s Tabletop Friendship
Julie has written a concise Planning Guide for Women’s Retreats or Conferences. It contains everything you need, from start to finish, without having to search elsewhere. She includes forms and direction for the initial planning stages through to the evaluation meeting held after the event.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the recipes, craft ideas and ice breaker games included as they are an important part of any women’s retreat.
I was particularly pleased to see that she provides a way for retreat planners to customize her documents to your own logo and conference name. Truly this is a time saver for administration not having to recreate the documents to include their own specific elements.
Basically, everything you need is in this Planning Guide. What Julie has provided is your shortcut for a successful retreat.
Cindy Barnes, Women’s Ministry Leader, Women’s Tabletop Friendship. She can be found on social media at: Pinterest and Facebook.
Find out more about the guide HERE.
Review by Lisa Appelo, True and Faithful
Julie has thought of everything you’ll need to plan a women’s retreat! She includes a planning timeline, sample agendas, tried and true recipes, crafts, and games to break the ice. She also includes links to more than a dozen checklists, forms, and flyers that can be tailored to your theme and event. This is practical help from your retreat’s earliest planning stage to the closing activity.
Six years ago, Lisa Appelo became a sudden widow and single mom to 7. As her family’s whole world was rocked, God was her very present Rock. Lisa’s heart is to encourage and inspire women to anchor their faith deep in Christ as the One who is true and faithful.
Lisa is passionate about rich Bible study and teaches a weekly ladies Bible class at First Baptist Church, Jacksonville. You can find her writing at LisaAppelo.com.
Find out more about the guide HERE.
I’m thrilled I have the chance to help other women alleviate the stress of finding resources so they can focus on what’s most important – sharing Christ with others.
You can find more about the retreat guide including a few resources ‘a la carte’ at the Loving Christ shop.
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