Why Should a Variety of Students Come to Your Retreat?

Many years ago, I realized that if we were going to reach a wide variety of students for our Back To School Retreat, we needed to offer a variety of things.  So, I began to think about the widest variety of Breakout Seminars.  We listed those in our promo materials about the Retreat.  Plus, I realized that one thing we need to do in equipping our students for the life to come that we needed to be teaching life skills.

So, many years ago I started having my wife, Sue, teach a "How to Cook Seminar".  She would make up a little cook book and give it to them.  In the seminar they would always have a great time working on one or two of the things and then would have her little cookbook she made to take home.  This weekend, we had our Retreat for the church where I serve as College Minister and she did her cooking seminar.  The speaker shared that he and his wife were still using the cookbook from one of her 1999 seminars.

We have offered "Self Defense for Ladies" and "5 Questions to Ask Before You Marry", "Being a Better Leader", etc, etc.  No, these are not all we offer.  There are your "more spiritual" topics as well such as "Spiritual Gifts", "Understanding the book of  Revelation", etc.

Our "Challenge of the Classes" Volleyball tournament was huge for students as part of the Retreat. We did it with Sophomores vs Freshmen and Seniors vs Juniors with the winners playing for the championship.  A couple of years ago I was at Virginia Tech's Big Weekend, which is their Fall Retreat, and their volleyball tournament featured their Family Groups against each other.

Look at your Retreat and ask, "Why should a lost student come to our Retreat?'  Or, why should a student who is not making their relationship to Christ a priority at this point come to our Retreat?  When they get to choose two or three different seminars and hear the main speaker, plus connect to more committed students, who knows how God will use it in their life?


Arliss Dickerson is the author of five books on college ministry available in eBook format on Amazon.com for 99 cents each.  His paperback, FIXING A BROKEN COLLEGE MINISTRY, is specially priced for $3.99 right now.