Blog - Page 56 of 65 - Retreat-in-a-Bag 56

High Call High Privilege – A Book Review

Posted by Debby on October 6, 2010

In her book High Call, High Privilege, Gail MacDonald offers encouragement to women involved in church leadership and/or married to a church leader. She speaks from her experience of many years of “fishbowl living” as a pastor’s wife, and presents principles she has gleaned over her years in ministry. She focuses on five key relationships: a woman’s relationship to the Lord, to herself, to her husband, to her children and to the church and community. Her main themes are the joys and the privileges of ministry; however, in pursuing those themes, she touches on the realities of life in the ministry, which include pressure, applause and criticism, anger and joy, and failure and success. In order to have that joy in serving, a woman needs to learn to handle those realities.

If a woman is to survive in the ministry, the author emphasizes the primary importance of “tending the fire” of one’s personal relationship with God. Learning to listen to His voice and spending time intimately communing with the Father is the heart of “tending the fire,” and this prepares us for whatever we face in ministry. She discusses spiritual disciplines which are key to staying spiritually fresh. She encourages women to find and use their spiritual gifts.

Much of this book reiterates truths that we know. But Ms. McDonald’s many personal examples, as well as her honesty about her own struggles and failures, makes this book one that is not only very readable, but one that is also very applicational. Originally published in 1981, is was revised and updated in a 2000 version.

It is very obvious that this author loves the ministry. She encourages her readers to have a life of servanthood that is characterized by joy, knowing that God has given us the privilege and calling to ministry.

Posted in: Book Reviews

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Rooming Option Lesson Learned

Posted by Debby on September 30, 2010

When we book a hotel for our retreat, there are often two queen-sized beds in each room. In order to bring the price down for the ladies, we offer a “four-to-a-room” option, which means that two ladies would need to share a bed. This could be a difficult situation for ladies who don’t know one another well. So we adapted over the years, and we now require that a woman who wants the lower-priced option must designate one roommate on the registration card (the one with whom she will share a bed). This way, both ladies sign up knowing with whom they will be sharing the bed, and thus prevents the awkwardness of sharing a bed with a stranger. It is best if these ladies sign up together, each designating the other as their roommate, to avoid the possibility of designating a roommate who never actually registers for the retreat (and believe me, that has happened!)

Posted in: Lessons Learned, Retreat and Event Planning

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Rooming Options

Posted by Debby on September 24, 2010

Rooming options for women’s retreat may change, depending on the location of the retreat and what rooming options the hotel or retreat center has available. While some women are willing to pay the higher price for two-to-a-room, we try to offer other options. Normally, the cheapest option at a hotel would be four-to-a-room, where there are two queen-sized beds per room. This means two ladies are sharing each bed. The one challenge has been the sharing of beds, which we will address in our next post.

Other rooming options could include:

Requesting a rollaway bed, if available;
Special rooming for those accompanied by their nursing infant (not all women want to be in a room with an infant);
Handicap room;
Room close to the meeting room (specifically for those with mobility problems);
Smoking room;
Quiet room (we also provide ear plugs at the hospitality table should a problem arise).

Posted in: Retreat and Event Planning, Rooming Issues

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Journey to Retreat 2010 – September

Posted by Debby on September 23, 2010

Our September leaders’ meeting has come and gone. With minor discussion and planning for our new women’s Bible study and an upcoming women’s event, the meeting was primarily focused on the retreat.We got an update from all leaders:

Registration: All registration materials are ready to go, as church registration opened on Sept. 19. We also had a flyer for the bulletin that day, and an announcement was made. Registration is staffed, so that there will be people to answer questions and accept registrations and deposits. Although it is too late for this year, we discussed giving some kind of monetary incentive or discount to encourage early registration.
Skit: The skit writing process has begun. This year, the skit will not be an ongoing, character driven “serial” skit; instead, preliminary drafts include various scenarios of gift giving, possibly written as 15 minute vignettes.
Retreat Planning: The preliminary schedule was handed out and reviewed. The schedule will be tweaked over the next month, as we finalize skit timing, times when the book table will be open, workshops, etc.
Quiet Time: In process.
Book table/book reviews: In process
Decorations/Remembrance gifts: In process;

As registration begins this Sunday, other areas of retreat planning will kick into gear, such as compiling the rooming list. This retreat marks our 25th year (our silver anniversary) of women’s retreats at Calvary Plano. We will be acknowledging this at the retreat by having comments and insights by those who have been around those 25 years.

With such a big “to do” list, this is a critical time for prayer. Everyone who plays a part in putting on the retreat should be seeking the Lord at this time. It’s easy to get lost in the work (like Martha) but we also need to be sensitive to God’s leading and spend time at His feet (like Mary). We want to please and bless the ladies who come to the retreat, but most of all, we want to please God!

Posted in: Journey to Retreat 2010

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Managing the Prices at Your Book Table

Posted by Debby on September 22, 2010

Managing the prices at your retreat book table is key to having a successful book table. It is not always possible to offer good deals if the books you wish to showcase are all new releases. But we like to have a variety of books, including older and classic books, as well as a variety of price ranges. Here are some of our ideas:

We try to make available small, quality books in the $3-$4 range. Sometimes you can find mass market paperback copies of classics that are available for a very low price, which can then be offered at a low price.
If possible, we try to offer books priced below their retail price. The two primary ways that we are able to do this is by shopping sales (both at retail stores and from online distributors) and by ordering through our church bookstore and passing their discount on to the women.
We keep the prices as low as possible after factoring in taxes and any applicable shipping charges. This is a service to our women, not a money-making venture. Our goal is to break even.
We always check Amazon.com to see if the books we want to order are available used. This is tricky, because the shipping costs can sometimes be prohibitive. However, if I do find books used (in very good condition only), I mark them clearly as “gently used” so no one is deceived into thinking that they are buying a new book.

One note: Even though it is tempting, we would advise that you DO NOT lower book prices at the end of the retreat just to get rid of books. This would be unfair to those who purchased the book at full price early in the retreat. If ladies find out that by waiting they may get a better price, you will lose a lot of early sales.The exception to this would be if you had sold no copies of a specific book and wanted to lower the price on that book only.

Posted in: Book Table, Retreat and Event Planning

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