About this resource

Retreat: Higher Love: a Retreat Event Guide for Youth Ministry EVENT CATEGORY: Retreat SPIRITUAL HABIT: Spend Time with God, Spend Time with Others AGE GROUP: Students For a well-rounded and holistic approach to your ministry events, there are 10 different kinds of events we recommend including in your annual event strategy. The category for this event is a RETREAT. This type of event is focused on helping teenagers grow spiritually and build relationships. Over a weekend, they'll practice the spiritual habits of spending time with God and others. A weekend retreat is the perfect environment to challenge students to go deeper in their faith. It's an opportunity to take all the relationships and trust you've built throughout the year, and leverage them for a significant spiritual moment for your students. The right weekend retreat, when done strategically, can help your students grow closer to God, grow closer to each other, and connect more deeply with your ministry. Whether you decide to hold your retreat in your community (at a combination of church and host homes) or at a nearby retreat center, this Event Guide will help you plan a weekend retreat for the first time, or maybe just get a little better at it! All our events are built to be flexible! You can customize this event to your ministry's needs, but here's how we recommend using this one: use this event for spiritual growth, outreach and fun. You can do this at a retreat center or host homes. You'll receive games, group activities, teaching and more! This event includes Higher Love: a 3-Day Teaching Series for Youth Ministry TOPIC: Love SCRIPTURE: New Testament DECORATING THEME: 80's AGE GROUP: Students The 1980s brought us some of the most amazing love songs and romantic movie scenes the world has ever known. Kids of the 80s grew up learning all about love through big on-screen gestures and rock bands with amazing hair, but several decades later we still don't have a full grasp on what exactly we mean when we talk about love. The word love itself might bring up a different idea or memory for each person who hears it - so what exactly is love? In this series, designed for a weekend retreat, we'll look at the words of Jesus and his closest followers to discover that love is not something we should have to earn or something only meant for a few. Instead, we are free to love others and we are free to be loved. BIG IDEAS & BIBLE STORIES We are free to love others. (The parable of the good Samaritan: Luke 10:25-37) We are free to love others. (Paul defines love: 1 Corinthians 13:1-7; Romans 12:1-2) We are free to be loved. (God loves us like a father loves their children: 1 John 3:1; Ephesians 2:4-5) We are free to be loved. (Peter denies Jesus and is later restored: John 21:15-17; Ephesians 3:16-19) MEMORY VERSE: "He answered, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" - Luke 10:27 (NIV)

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