HCT Creative Workshop Retreat

Register for our 2025 Helping Churches Thrive Creative Workshop Retreat!

Today’s landscape of church leadership is challenging but also full of opportunity. To thrive in this environment, congregations need new systems and practical tools for both paid and volunteer leaders. That’s why CBFNC’s Helping Churches Thrive ministry is hosting the Creative Workshop Retreat, an essential event for church leadership teams (deacon boards, finance committees, personnel committees, properties committees, other church leadership teams and church staff). This retreat offers impactful large group presentations on leading change and navigating conflict from pastors and lay leaders. It also includes practical learning tracks, collaborative learning spaces and small group sessions focused on the needs of today’s churches.

Participants can choose from learning tracks on topics such as church legal issues, financial sustainability, building vibrant volunteer cultures, hybrid staffing models, cultivating authentic community, leading change, navigating division and more.

Every session provides actionable tools to spark imagination and transform church leadership and ministry. Whether you’re tackling immediate challenges or rejuvenating your congregation’s vision, this retreat equips you to lead with confidence and creativity in an ever-evolving world.

We hope to see you November 14-15 at Ardmore Baptist in Winston-Salem to connect, learn and grow alongside other leaders in our fellowship!

 

Lodging

The Hawthorne Inn (included in registration)

Cost

• $70/person (shared room)
• $140/person (private room)
• $25 for locals (no room needed)

Financial assistance is available.

The registration deadline is Tuesday, October 28.  Register today!

→Download a retreat flyer here!

Retreat Schedule

Friday, November 14

9:30 a.m.	Check-In Begins
10:30 a.m.	Opening Session
11:30 a.m.	Learning Track One
12:30 p.m.	Lunch
1:30 p.m.	Learning Track Two
3:00 p.m.	Congregational Group Break
4:00 p.m.	Learning Track Three
5:30 p.m.	Supper
6:30 p.m.	Plenary Session One
8:00 p.m.	Wrap

Saturday, November 15

8:30 a.m.	Morning Coffee
9:00 a.m.	Plenary Session Two
10:30 a.m.	Break
11:00 a.m.	Learning Track Four
12:00 p.m.	Lunch
1:00 p.m.	Plenary Session Three
2:30 p.m.	Conclude

• LEGAL – Abuse Prevention and Response
  Session 1: Legal Items Every Church Needs To Know (Led by Jason Cogdill, CBFNC legal resources partner)
  Session 2: Abuse Prevention and Response: Power and Abuse (Led by Jay Kieve, CBF Global Abuse Prevention and Response advocate & director of Ministerial Transitions)
  Session 3: Legal Issues: Case Studies: Challenges Facing Churches (Led by Jason Cogdill)
  Session 4: Abuse Prevention and Response: Practical Prevention and Policies for Minors (Led by Jay Kieve)

• FINANCE & PROPERTY – Building Use, Legacy Giving, Financial Resources, Aging Buildings
  Session 1:Tithing Your Estate: Promoting Planned Giving in Your Church (Led by Larry Hovis, CBFNC executive coordinator; Jack Glasgow, retired pastor of Zebulon Baptist, Zebulon; and Jim Hylton, CBFNC business administration coordinator)
  Session 2: Aging Building Discernment (Led by Emily Hull McGee, senior pastor, First Baptist on Fifth, Winston-Salem; and Jeanne Baucom, senior pastor, First Baptist, Laurinburg)
  Session 3: New Resources for Finance Teams (Led by Scott Hudgins, CBFNC Helping Pastors Thrive director; and Jim Hylton)
  Session 4: Property Usage for Missions and Revenue (Led by Bradly Boberg, CBF Global congregational stewardship officer)

• PERSONNEL – Healthy Hiring Practices, Personnel Structures, Personnel Handbooks
  Session 1: Healthy Hiring Processes (Led by Lou Ann Gilliam, CBFNC Ministerial Equipping director; and Jay Kieve)
  Session 2: Revising Personnel Handbooks (Led by Dennis Foust, retired pastor of St. John’s Baptist, Charlotte)
  Session 3: How to build a cohesive staff team (diverse backgrounds, generations, etc.) (Led by David Hull, retired pastor of First Baptist, Huntsville, AL)
  Session 4: Healthy Models of Evaluation (Led by Larry McAlister, Ardmore Baptist personnel chair)

• CONGREGATIONAL LEADERSHIP – Volunteer Selection and Training, Spiritual Formation of Leaders
  Session 1: New Models for Congregational Leadership, Part A (Led by Matt Cook, Center For Healthy Churches director)
  Session 2: Selecting and Training Leaders of All Ages – Giftedness and Empowerment (Led by Jack Glasgow, retired pastor of Zebulon Baptist)
  Session 3: New Models for Congregational Leadership, Part B (Led by Matt Cook)
  Session 4: Helping Leaders Grow Spiritually (Led by Larry Hovis)

• The Theological and Organizational Psychology Dynamics of Leading Change and Navigating Conflict – Designed for Ministry Staff & Deacons
  Session 1: Why Does Change Feel Like Death?  (Led by Andy Hale, CBFNC associate executive coordinator)
  Session 2: I’ll Commit to the Trust Fall Right After You (Led by Andy Hale)
  Session 3: What We Have Here Is Failure to Communicate (Led by Andy Hale)
  Session 4: To Be Human Is To Experience Conflict (Led by Andy Hale)

• PLENARY SESSION ONE will be led by Chris Chapman, pastor of First Baptist, Raleigh; and Gary Knight, entrepreneur and congregational leader at First on Fifth, Winston-Salem
• PLENARY SESSION TWO will be led by David Niblock, legal mediator and deacon at Ardmore Baptist; and Alison Farrah, pastor of First Baptist, Hamlet
• PLENARY SESSION THREE will be led by Stacy Nowell, pastor of First Baptist, Huntersville