Our entire staff heads out to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore for our annual planning retreat this week. We do two retreats every year. In the summer we do our Play and Pray Retreat. In the fall we focus on Planning.
Just thought I’d share a few thoughts on planning retreats. First of all, I think you need to go somewhere offsite. New places inspire new thoughts. We love the inner harbor because we get out of our routine and out of our backyard. It also has my favorite book store, the Barnes & Noble at the converted Power Plant.
I like to schedule plenty of time for personal planning and praying. You need margin in the schedule for people to dream. We also schedule team time for our campus pastors, kids ministry, discipleship team, creative team, etc. And you need all-staff time to make sure everybody is on the same page. I think your weighting of those times depends on what you want to accomplish.
Every year I want to put everything on the table. In other words, no sacred cows. We want to re-evaluate everything we do. If we need to kill something let’s kill it quickly and decisively! I also want everybody to come up with a few new ideas because experimentation is part of our DNA. We want to keep trying to new things! And I think it’s the new initiatives that often energize us. And it’s not 14 new initiatives. You’re setting yourself up for failure. What are 1 or 2 or 3 experiments you want to attempt this coming year?
Sure would appreciate your prayers for our team as we head to Baltimore!
