Michigan Winter Retreats
Let's face it, as a youth leader, pulling together all the elements of a slam dunk winter weekend event can be a challenge! SpringHill Winter Retreats 2010 may be just the boost you're looking for! SpringHill puts together an awesome weekend, including the program, the schedule, the speaker, the music... All you need to do is hang with your kids and their friends, get to know them better, and build relationships that can have eternal impact.
2009 Archives
Watch videos and download sessions from the most recent Winter Retreat Weekends!
jr. high dates
March 19 - 21, 2010: Jr. High 5⊕ ⊗
Speaker: Ricky Page
Music: SevenGlory
⊕ Tubing Hill Snow Guarantee: If snow is not available for tubing,
we will refund $25 per student.
⊗ $15 discount weekend
Our cancellation policy in the past has been that the church is responsible
in full for the numbers of spaces that they reserved. Please note the
following adjustment in the cancellation policy:
- If cancellation is made 4 weeks prior to event, your deposit is fully
refundable.
- If cancellation is made between 4 weeks and 1 week out, the result will
be forfeiture of deposit.
- Cancellations within 7 days prior to event will result in forfeiture of
the full retreat fee.
Why bring students to SpringHill Winter Retreats?
Interview with Toran Scott, Director of Student Ministries at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, MI
So Toran, why do you bring your students to SpringHill for Winter Retreat?
In the past, we’ve always done our own high school retreats. So, why do we now go to SpringHill Because, to be honest, we can’t do it better. They know what they are doing. They think through ministry well, which to me, that’s huge. They bring in great speakers, which are fantastic. The environment, the different activities, but most of all it's the spiritual component. That’s why I’m bringing students to a winter retreat. I want to take them away from their normal environment. I want them to connect with God. I want God to come in and break into their hearts in a new and fresh way. I want to create markers for them where they can look back and say I remember God did something, and that happens at SpringHill. I just have a high degree of confidence in what SpringHill does. And to be honest, from a financial stand point, I don’t think we could do what they do for that price. So that’s why we choose SpringHill, why we don’t decide to do our own.
What is the big draw for your students to come to SpringHill Winter Retreat?
I think, what’s a draw for our students is the variety. You can bring a snowboard, go to the terrain park. You can go tubing. There’s horse back riding you can do in the winter. You’ve got the pool, you’ve got the game room, you’ve got the open mic night. There’s just so many things that students are able to do. That’s, for our students, a big draw. The gym, the high ropes course that they’ve got inside, the climbing wall inside; there’s just so many things that they’re able to do, so we’ve never had students that get tired of the free time. So, that’s been a cool thing for our students. I just dig that.
How does SpringHill help you minister specifically to your students?
When we do our own retreats, it requires a lot of energy from us just from a programming aspect. When I come to SpringHill I’m able to spend time with my students. I’m not worried that the lights are going to work and the PowerPoint? is ready to go and we got candles and whatever other creative elements need to be set up. That’s all done for us. So it allows for me to engage with my students in worship. I can engage with my students in worship along side them. I can model worship with them for them. SpringHill provides time at the end of each session for you to have small group opportunities. To kind of do a talk through. That’s huge. That was where we had our biggest success. We had prepped our students for it and we had already seen God at work and a lot of students had shared in their small groups what God was teaching them, some things that God had convicted them of. We knew of two students that had given their lives to Christ. And so, for us having those opportunities, to be able to facilitate, to really be able to build a relationship, to then be able to go deeper with our students after the talk, it's huge. So, they really think through that well.
Would you say that as a youth pastor you are more fully present because you’re not having to worry about anything else?
That’s exactly what it is, that idea of being fully present with my students. I’m not worried about who’s getting the games set up. I’m not worried about all of the other details of a retreat. I’m there with my students. I’m laughing with them, I’m joking with them, I’m hanging out with them, I’m going tubing with them, I’m sitting with them in sessions. As leaders, that’s what we get to do and that ability to be fully present is huge.