Christian Women’s Retreat Resources

If you’re planning a Christian women’s retreat, you’re in the right spot to easily access all the women’s retreat materials you need for a smooth planning process.

Christian Women’s Retreat Kits

Maybe your human resources are in slim supply. You want to plan a retreat that is streamlined and easy to put together. If you want the little-assembly-required version of a retreat, you can find it by scheduling one of these options:

Reflective Life Ministries Retreat: Reflective Life offers retreat bundles for women’s retreats featuring speaker Carla McDougal from Faith Bible Church in The Woodlands, Texas, and optional worship leader Ellen Olive. “Mother, Daughter, Sister, Friend” is a current theme example. Reflective Life Ministries relies on Biblical truth to restore hope to the brokenhearted.

Sacred Story Retreats offer women the opportunity to find and share hope as they reflect on God’s faithfulness in their lives. Speaker Laura Wilcox shares how Jesus came to heal and free women. Then Laura and other Sacred Story facilitators encourage and guide ordinary women—not just writers—in recording their own faith stories. Sacred Story Retreats are customized to meet women’s ministry needs through a combination of live facilitators and video sessions. Read more about sample retreat schedules and agendas here.

Retreat-in-a-Bag offers retreat guides and book series to help women planning retreats. Resources include skits and teaching ideas centered around a theme verse.

If you prefer a just-show-up approach, consider visiting a Christian retreat center such as The Cove near Asheville, NC, for a Christian women’s retreat weekend. The price tag is higher than many retreats, yet the tradeoff is an inspiring speaker and fully planned sessions and activities in a beautiful setting. Your group can even stay in facility lodging and enjoy delicious meals at the facility. Read about an upcoming example here.

Themes for Christian Women’s Retreats

A retreat theme is a central concept or truth that ties together the content of the retreat. The retreat theme especially impacts teaching content and discussion groups. Themes can also give shape to workshops, decor, and printed materials or even retreat T-shirts.

There is an infinite array of retreat theme ideas. Here are a few:

Loneliness and the Six Conversations

Dr. Heather Holleman, associate professor at Penn State University, is the author of The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility. Six Conversations provides a pathway to deeper, more meaningful conversations for women. And the supportive environment of a women’s retreat is a great place to start practicing!

Holleman’s practical book explains the four mindsets of a loving conversation and provides interactive question lists, assessments, and helpful tips. These features can help shape the retreat content.

Sharing Your Story

Sacred Story Ministries offers one-day or weekend retreats to help women connect with one another over personal stories. Videos or a live speaker guide each woman in writing or recording a chapter from her life that shows God’s faithfulness. Retreat attendees also benefit from professional editing of their stories after the retreat for a final polished result.

Seasons of Womanhood

Women consider seasons and situations of their lives, such as building a career, enjoying singleness, raising a family, and mentoring others. Supporting Bible texts may include Ecclesiastes 3:1-12 on the seasons of life, Titus 2:3-5 on the connections between older and younger women, and 1 Corinthians 7:25-35 on the benefits of singleness. Retreat discussion groups can group women together who are in similar seasons to discuss their current challenges from a Biblical perspective. Another approach is to mix women from different seasons to seek ways to empathize with and support one another.

Hard Conversations

Wycliffe missionary Leslie Radke shares how her church in Dallas, Texas, used this theme for a 2021 women’s retreat. The Art of Hard Conversations: Biblical Tools for the Tough Talks That Matter, by Lori Roeleveld, inspired the retreat theme. The book includes funny personal stories, Biblical principles and conversation tips to practice. The tips for practice can be reinforced in retreat workshops.

Choosing a retreat theme and implementing it require wisdom and understanding of the women in your group. Learn helpful principles for how to choose a retreat theme here.

Group Activities for Women’s Retreats

Women go to retreats to deepen their relationships with God and with one another. Shared activities provide a catalyst for friendships to grow.

Know and Be Known Activities

Women want to know and be known, and the right group activities can help that happen. Try these:

This or That?

Create a list of 12 choices that are related. Pie or cake? Summer or winter? Organize your desk or do yard work? Eggs and bacon or cinnamon rolls? Each woman talks to two or more other women, discovering preferences from the list.

Favorite Threes

Women interview other women, finding out their top three favorites in various genres, such as movies, dinner choices, leisure activities and vacation spots.

What We Share

Women break into groups of three and look for something about their lives that is specific and unique but is also true of all three of them. For example, they all have two sisters. They all were born in the same state. They all majored in education in college.

Options Outdoors or Indoors

If the retreat venue and weather allow, women can share a walk in the woods, row a canoe across a lake, or play pickleball.

To allow for variations in weather or personal preferences, provide access to indoor games and activities. Try these:

Just One™ is a group game that promotes teamwork and takes only minutes to learn. A group of 3-6 helps one person guess a word everyone else knows. Blank Slate™ is a similar word association game.
Play Jenga™. While women take turns moving wooden blocks, hoping not to make a tower fall, they can talk without interrupting the flow of the game.
Women may prefer to relax and chat with adult coloring books and colored pencils.
Or you can provide nail polish and supplies for do-it-yourself manicures.

Women’s Workshop Ideas

Workshops provide an opportunity to develop skills and knowledge often connected to the theme and teaching sessions at the retreat. Here are two ideas for retreat workshops. Find more in the article Women’s Retreat Workshop Ideas.

Sweet and Simple Daily Devotions

The workshop leader shares practical ideas for short, simple times with God, such as the SPEC method. In this method, women read the passage, looking for a Sin to confess, a Promise to claim, or an Example or Command to follow.

Marriage First Aid

Regardless of the faith and maturity of the women at a retreat, marriages always need work, and sometimes they’re bleeding out. Invite an experienced marriage counselor to present practical principles to improve marriage, such as The Gottman Institute’s Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work.

Retreat Agendas

If this is your first time planning a retreat, it may be hard for you to imagine how the flow of the retreat will come together. You can see sample retreat agendas here for a one-day retreat, a one-night retreat, and a two-night retreat.

How to Plan a Women’s Retreat

As you consider retreat themes, workshops, activities and schedules, you may be feeling overwhelmed. Remember that where God leads, He equips. A practical guide to help you walk through this process is available: How to Plan a Women’s Retreat: A Step-by-step Guide.

What the Bible Has to Say About Retreats

It’s helpful for Christian believers to take a step back at times and ask why we are doing something.

“We aren’t just planning events for the sake of the event,” says Missy Edgmon, Women’s Minister at First Colony Church of Christ, in Sugarland, Texas. “We want to equip and encourage one another.”

The Bible points to the principles of a retreat in passages about physical rest, focus on God, reflection and restoration, and connection with other believers. Example passages are Psalm 23, Luke 10:38-42, and Acts 2:42-47. Read more about what the Bible says about retreats.

Whether it’s your first time planning a retreat or you’re just looking for fresh ideas, read more about the various aspects of putting a retreat together that’s just right for your group. From choosing a theme to the final evaluation, you can plan a Christian women’s retreat God will use for his glory!