Responsibilities of a Retreat Coordinator
The position we call “retreat coordinator” may or may not be filled by the ministry leader. In our case, our pastor’s wife is the ministry leader. But she is called upon for many other needs, and it would be very hard for her to coordinate the retreat both in the planning stages and at the retreat. That is why we have a retreat coordinator. She reports to the ministry leader, but does the organization and supervision involved in planning a retreat. It is important to have this position filled by a strong leader.
The best way to really see what the retreat coordinator does is to look at one of our flow charts. She is like the hub of the retreat, and other leaders are in charge of various aspects of the retreat. But everything is overseen by the coordinator.
The coordinator is involved in the retreat from the beginning – determining the who, when, where and what of the retreat. As retreat planning begins, depending on what is most important to you, you book the speaker and date of the retreat, OR you book the venue on a certain date and then find the speaker who can work with you on your chosen date. The retreat coordinator communicates with the speaker throughout the planning stages and works with the venue so that a contract can be signed. Once you have the date, a speaker and a venue, then the fun begins. If your speaker has not already suggested a theme, one of the preliminary planning activities is determining the retreat theme.
Once the basics have been confirmed, the coordinator works with a leadership team who will report back to her and/or she will hold their hand as they go through the process of planning the retreat. The leadership team is given responsibility to oversee the various ingredients of the retreat: registration, greeting, printed material, prayer team, skit, workshops, etc. In small churches like ours, the members of the leadership team often takes on more than one of these responsibilities. But the need for one person to coordinate remains.
