Church leadership retreats provide the breathing room your team needs to think strategically, address challenges honestly, and reconnect with your shared mission. The Western North Carolina mountains offer an ideal setting for this critical work, combining the focus of getting away with the inspiration of God's creation.
Camp Tekoa Retreats in Hendersonville, North Carolina, specializes in hosting church leadership retreats that facilitate genuine breakthrough. Located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, our 296-bed facility provides the space, amenities, and atmosphere your leadership team needs to do their most important work.
Church Leadership Teams Need Dedicated Retreat Time
Leadership retreats remove your team from the daily ministry environment where interruptions and immediate needs constantly demand attention. When you're physically separated from your church building, you create mental and emotional space for deeper thinking.
The mountains provide particular advantages for leadership work. Natural beauty inspires creativity and opens hearts. The change of scenery shifts perspectives, helping leaders see familiar challenges with fresh eyes. Physical distance from church buildings symbolizes the mental distance needed for strategic thinking rather than tactical problem-solving.
What Makes Western North Carolina Ideal for Leadership Retreats
The Blue Ridge Mountains create a natural cathedral that reminds leaders of God's grandeur and faithfulness. Morning walks through mountain trails provide space for personal reflection. Evening gatherings around fire pits facilitate the kind of informal conversation where trust deepens and authentic community develops.
Camp Tekoa's location near Hendersonville positions your retreat within easy reach of additional resources and outstanding attractions. Downtown Hendersonville sits just five miles away. Asheville's vibrant downtown lies 30 miles north, while the Blue Ridge Parkway entrance is only 25 miles distant.
Strategic Planning in a Mountain Setting
Effective church leadership retreats balance structured planning time with space for relationship building and spiritual renewal. The mountain setting naturally facilitates this balance, offering both inspiring meeting spaces and opportunities for informal connection.
Creating Your Strategic Planning Agenda
Your leadership retreat agenda should reflect your team's specific needs and season. Successful leadership retreats typically include these elements:
- Extended blocks of uninterrupted planning time (2-3 hours minimum)
- Smaller breakout sessions for specific ministry areas
- Shared meals that facilitate informal conversation
- Personal reflection time for individual leaders
- Team building activities that strengthen relationships
- Worship and prayer times that center the work spiritually
- Recreation or outdoor time that refreshes and re-energizes
The mountain environment enhances each of these components. Planning sessions in spaces with mountain views inspire bigger thinking. Team building activities on challenge courses create shared experiences that translate into ministry collaboration. Prayer walks through forest trails invite encounter with God that renews ministry passion.
Facilitated vs. Self-Guided Retreats
Some leadership teams bring outside facilitators to guide strategic planning processes. Expert facilitators help teams navigate difficult conversations, ensure all voices are heard, and keep discussions focused and productive.
Other teams prefer self-guided retreats where senior leaders facilitate discussions. This approach works well for established teams with healthy communication patterns tackling straightforward planning tasks.
Camp Tekoa accommodates both approaches, providing appropriate meeting spaces and technology while also offering the independence self-guided teams need.
Camp Tekoa's Leadership Retreat Facilities
Camp Tekoa offers the infrastructure church leadership teams need for productive strategic planning combined with the mountain atmosphere that inspires and refreshes.
Meeting and Conference Spaces
Our facilities include multiple meeting spaces suitable for different group sizes and retreat formats:
- Laurel Main seats 85 people and provides a versatile space for large group sessions, presentations, and plenary discussions
- Chapel in the Woods offers a unique setting for worship, prayer, and reflection times, seating 75 between two mountain streams
- Multiple breakout spaces throughout camp allow ministry teams to divide for focused discussions
- Open-Air Pavilion creates ideal space for informal gatherings, evening campfires, and casual conversation
Many leadership teams find that their most significant breakthroughs happen during unstructured time in relaxed settings.
Accommodation Options
Camp Tekoa's 296-bed capacity across multiple lodges and cabins provides flexibility for leadership teams of various sizes. During cold months (mid-October to mid-April), our 183-bed winterized facilities with heat ensure comfortable accommodations.
Lodges like Thrushwood Lodge offer more refined accommodations with WiFi access, making them popular choices for leadership retreats where participants need to stay connected during planning sessions.
Traditional cabins provide authentic camp experiences that help teams focus on their work together. All accommodations include appropriate restroom facilities, and most buildings feature covered porches perfect for small group conversations.
Dining Services
Our commercial kitchen and dining hall seat 195, accommodating leadership teams from small groups to large gatherings. Camp Tekoa provides meal service for groups of 25-200 people, handling all food preparation and cleanup so your leadership team can focus entirely on retreat objectives.
Team Building and Leadership Development Activities
Strategic planning represents only one dimension of effective leadership retreats. Equally important are the relationships, trust, and communication patterns that determine whether strategic plans get implemented successfully.
Challenge Course and Team Building Elements
Our Low Elements Challenge Course provides team building activities specifically designed to develop communication, collaboration, and trust. Elements like the Spider Web, Whale Watch, and 3 Islands present problems requiring genuine teamwork to solve.
Teams discover how they communicate under pressure, how they leverage different members' strengths, and how they support each other through challenges. Debriefing these activities with ministry applications helps leadership teams identify patterns they want to replicate or change.
High Adventure Options
For leadership teams seeking more adventurous bonding experiences, Camp Tekoa offers high ropes course elements that build confidence and create memorable shared experiences. The 40-foot High Ropes Course challenges participants with elements like the pirate's crossing and jungle swings, culminating in the 40-foot Giant Swing.
The Big Zip—a double zipline beginning 50 feet in the air—provides thrilling experiences that create stories leadership teams will reference for years. The Lake Zipline offers another adventurous option, starting in a wooded shoreline and zipping over our three-acre lake.
Hiking and Outdoor Reflection
Sometimes the best team building happens during simple activities like hiking together. Camp Tekoa features multiple hiking trails ranging from easy walks around our lake to more challenging options like the Eagle Trail. The meditation trail offers contemplative space for personal reflection and prayer.
Many leadership teams incorporate morning or afternoon hikes into their retreat schedule, providing informal settings for one-on-one conversations and physical activity that refreshes minds tired from intensive planning work.
See our rates and booking information here.
Sample Leadership Retreat Schedules
Effective church leadership retreats typically span 2-3 days, providing sufficient time for substantive work without keeping busy church leaders away too long.
Two-Day Strategic Planning Retreat
Day One:
- Afternoon arrival and check-in
- Opening session: Vision casting and retreat objectives
- Evening worship and prayer time
- Informal fellowship around fire pit
Day Two:
- Morning prayer walk
- Breakfast
- Extended strategic planning session
- Lunch
- Breakout sessions for ministry area planning
- Free time for recreation or reflection
- Dinner
- Closing worship and commitment time
- Departure
Three-Day Leadership Development Retreat
Day One:
- Afternoon arrival
- Team building on challenge course
- Strategic visioning session
- Dinner
- Worship and teaching on leadership
- Evening fellowship
Day Two:
- Personal devotion time
- Breakfast
- Strategic planning session
- Lunch
- Ministry area breakouts
- Free time for hiking or activities
- Dinner
- Workshop on healthy communication
- Evening campfire
Day Three:
- Morning worship
- Breakfast
- Action planning and next steps
- Closing celebration and prayer
- Departure
These schedules provide frameworks you can adapt based on your team's specific needs, size, and objectives.
Seasonal Considerations for Leadership Retreats
Each season in the Western North Carolina mountains offers distinct advantages for church leadership retreats.
Fall Leadership Retreats
Autumn provides arguably the most spectacular retreat setting. October and November bring vibrant foliage that transforms the landscape. Crisp air energizes outdoor activities while comfortable temperatures make hiking and challenge course activities pleasant.
Many churches schedule fall leadership retreats for strategic planning ahead of new calendar years.
Winter Planning Sessions
Winter leadership retreats offer advantages beyond avoiding summer's busy ministry season. Bare trees provide clearer mountain views. The stark beauty creates a contemplative atmosphere conducive to deep thinking.
Camp Tekoa's winterized facilities with heat ensure comfortable accommodations even during cold mountain weather.
Spring Renewal Retreats
Spring brings renewed life to mountain forests with blooming wildflowers. This season naturally aligns with themes of renewal, fresh starts, and new growth—powerful metaphors for churches entering new ministry seasons.
Churches often schedule spring leadership retreats after Easter when that intense ministry season concludes.
Summer Leadership Development
While our programming for summer camp is in full swing, we aren’t able to take groups during that time. Campers can come and experience warm weather that enables maximum use of outdoor spaces and activities. During our summer camp programming, campers get to combine strategic planning with extensive team building on challenge courses, lake activities, and hiking.
Practical Details for Planning Your Leadership Retreat
Successfully executing a church leadership retreat requires attention to logistical details beyond just scheduling dates and reserving facilities.
Determining Optimal Group Size
Church leadership retreats typically range from intimate senior staff teams of 5-15 people to larger gatherings including elders, deacons, and ministry leaders numbering 30-50 or more. Camp Tekoa accommodates groups from 20-200, providing flexibility for various leadership team configurations.
Budgeting for Leadership Retreats
Consider these budget categories:
- Facility rental and accommodation costs
- Meal service or food expenses
- Professional facilitator fees if applicable
- Activity fees for challenge courses or adventure elements
- Materials and supplies for planning sessions
- Travel expenses if applicable
Many churches fund leadership retreats through designated line items in annual budgets. The investment in focused leadership time consistently proves worthwhile in improved team health and strategic clarity.
Pre-Retreat Preparation
Effective leadership retreats begin with preparation weeks before arrival. Distribute any reading materials or pre-work assignments in advance. Clarify retreat objectives and desired outcomes so everyone arrives aligned.
Assign someone to handle logistics—confirming reservations, communicating details to participants, arranging transportation, and managing any special needs or dietary requirements.
Why Churches Choose Camp Tekoa for Leadership Retreats
Camp Tekoa has hosted countless church leadership retreats, developing expertise in supporting the unique needs of ministry teams doing strategic work. Our mission—"Touching hearts, changing lives, sharing the light of Christ"—aligns perfectly with the transformational aims of leadership retreats.
As a United Methodist camp owned and operated by the Western NC Conference, we understand church culture and ministry dynamics. Our staff recognizes that your leadership retreat represents sacred time with eternal significance.
The combination of quality facilities, beautiful mountain settings, team building options, and experienced hospitality makes Camp Tekoa ideal for church leadership retreats of all types and sizes.
Ready to Plan Your Church Leadership Retreat?
Your church deserves leadership that's unified in vision, healthy in relationships, and strategic in planning. A focused retreat in the Western North Carolina mountains can provide the breakthrough your team needs.
Contact Camp Tekoa today to discuss dates, availability, and how our facilities can support your leadership team's retreat objectives. Our staff is ready to help you plan a retreat that strengthens your leadership team and advances your church's mission.
Explore our accommodations and meeting facilities to envision what your leadership retreat could look like at Camp Tekoa. The mountains are calling your leadership team to step away, think strategically, and return refreshed and aligned for the ministry ahead.