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)

*Register by September 15 to receive early bird discounts: $55 per person for shared rooms or $110 for single rooms. 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
  (Leaders: Jay Kieve, CBF Global Abuse Prevention and Response advocate & director of Ministerial Transitions; and Jason Cogdill, CBFNC legal resources partner)
  

• FINANCE & PROPERTY – Building Use, Legacy Giving, Financial Resources, Aging Buildings
  (Leaders: Shauw Chin Capps, CBF Foundation president/CBF chief development officer; Bradly Boberg, CBF Global congregational stewardship officer; Jim Hylton, CBFNC business administration coordinator; Scott Hudgins, CBFNC Helping Pastors Thrive director; Jeanne Baucom, senior pastor, First Baptist, Laurinburg; Emily Hull McGee, senior pastor, First Baptist on Fifth, Winston-Salem)

• PERSONNEL – Healthy Hiring Practices, Personnel Structures, Personnel Handbooks
  (Leaders: Larry McAlister, Ardmore Baptist personnel chair; Dennis Foust, retired pastor of St. John’s Baptist, Charlotte; David Hull, retired pastor of First Baptist, Huntsville, AL; Lou Ann Gilliam, CBFNC Ministerial Equipping director)

• CONGREGATIONAL LEADERSHIP – Volunteer Selection and Training, Spiritual Formation of Leaders
  (Leaders: Matt Cook, Center For Healthy Churches director; Jack Glasgow, retired pastor of Zebulon Baptist, Zebulon; Larry Hovis, CBFNC executive coordinator)

• LEADING CHANGE & NAVIGATING CONFLICT – Designed for Clergy

• 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