About Church Groups & Faith-Based Retreats

Maple Ridge’s Loon Lake Lodge & Retreat Centre has been hosting lakeside church retreats and faith-based getaways for over 25 years. That’s a long time with many lessons learned.

Perhaps, the biggest lesson of the all is in learning ‘why we are different?’.

Sure, we’re close to major populations centres, we have a variety of lodges that can meet most budgets, and we have a lot of things to do. However, what makes Loon Lake such an ideal destination for church groups is simple. A lack of distraction. 

Being lakeside in nature is ideal for quiet reflection, but if you were to take Loon Lake Lodge and drop it in the middle of a busy town, or even on a shared recreational lake it would provide a completely different narrative. 

As a destination, our goal is simple. We help connect people and place to their purpose. That purpose is often unique. It could be therapeutic, it could be educational, and it could spiritual. It can also be a combination of all 3.

In the dictionary, the word retreat means to take a step back. For those of us in the hospitality sector, retreat has come to define a place of safe sanctuary. We take both those terms to heart, and want our groups to arrive, take a deep breath, and begin to reflect in a manner that allows them to ‘be’ and to ‘grow’. 

We all know that growth is rarely easy, but with added distractions and missed expectations it can be even more difficult to achieve.

Below are some helpful tips around expectation setting for anyone in the research and planning stage of a church getaway or faith-based retreat. Whether you stay with us or now, hopefully you can find this early stage framework helpful.

1.) Define the purpose and define the participants

Take a moment to visualize what success looks like. Is it a group of teens that you are helping steer down a path at a difficult time in their lives. Are you helping married couples find a way to make spirituality a bigger part of their often all-too-hectic schedules? This ‘finish line’ look will give you a channel that you can then ‘reverse engineer’ into creating a very special event.

2.) Pick the right services and the right dates

Be practical when looking at the calendar. Understand the many other time commitments that your guests will be juggling. The school year, long-weekends, other religious holidays can be seen as both challenges and opportunities worth planning around. Also, your level of accommodations is almost always tied to a level of comfort and convenience. If your group is older, with bad knees and wonky hips, perhaps dorm style accommodations isn’t the right choice. At Loon Lake, we have a full range of lodging options that start at dorms and scale up to private, wheelchair accessible hotel style rooms. 

3.) Programs and activities

You may have a good idea of your purpose, and your participants, but how you connect those dots can be somewhat of an art. Everything from guest speakers (that aren’t boring), to timed activities that get the heart rate up, and the personal walls down will be important considerations. We are happy to share best practices and help with timetable building if you are looking for ways to bridge your efforts.

4.) Get paid

This may be a fundraising effort, or a subsidized program paid for from past donors. However you get paid, you need to ensure you get fair value for fair price. Make sure you always add 10% for surprise costs that you didn’t see coming. If anything COVID-19 has taught us that cancellations can happen fast and there are things out of ur control. Expect the best, but always prepare for the worst.

5.) Smile

Putting events together can be a stress, but we recommend finding the moments of joy as the retreat gets going. Take a step back and be grateful for what you have accomplished and the ripples you are creating.

6.) Follow-up

There are always ways to improve, and your guests are a great resource to help everyone do just that. Send a post-event survey that addresses what worked, what didn’t, and any other ideas they may have for future events. There are some excellent free and easy to use survey tools out there for you to take advantage of.

If you are planning a church retreat or a faith-based getaway, give us a call today. You can ask for some references from past groups and use us as resource to help design your perfect group experience. 

*We’re also very happy to offer free COVID-19 compliant meeting space, with Coffee/Tea station, for every new group booking that stays with us in 2020.