Planning and Implementing Retreats: A Parish Handbook

An Indispensable Resource for Pastoral Agents Responding to the need for resources to set up, sponsor, and lead retreats, Planning and Implementing Retreats: A Parish Handbook provides an array of simple yet creative tools to achieve a successful outcome. This book is a practical, time-saving guide for those who are involved in designing experiences to enhance people's spiritual lives--in parishes especially, but also in hospitals, campus ministries or other locales where Christian adults gather for spiritual formation. At the heart of this resource are five planning and design strategies for professionals and volunteers who want to create a well-organized and spiritually sensitive retreat experience. Other chapters deal with the theological and scriptural bases for retreat design, as well as special areas of concern, worship and liturgy, and participation evaluation. The strategies and tips outlined in this book can help planners--novice or experienced--nourish their own spiritual life as they prepare for the task of journeying with those in search of the living God. This is truly a fundamental and much-needed resource. Nicki Verploegen is co-founder of TATENDA International, a nonprofit started in 2007 to provide free rejuvenative retreats to caregivers in Africa and Asia. She has been conducting retreats and providing spiritual direction for over 25 years. She is a faculty member at the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati and is author of.... Previously, she served as Director of Spiritual and Ministerial Development at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.