Choose Between TWO Dates
April 20–22, 2020
Chicagoland area
October 26–28, 2020
Chicagoland area
In this retreat, leaders will …
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Catch the Vision
of what it means to be a transforming church
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Learn from the Experiences
of pastors who are leading transforming churches
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Develop Strategic Approaches
for spiritual formation that work in your setting
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Experience Transforming Worship
and why it is essential to the vision
Breakouts to “Go Deeper” on Key Aspects of Transforming Church
Choose one of several practical break-out sessions on key aspects of becoming a community for spiritual transformation. Taught and facilitated by alumni and friends of the Transforming Center, you will be able to learn from their ups and downs, their best practices, and the hard-won wisdom gained from painful mistakes. If you are coming with your team, we encourage you to split up in order to take advantage of the variety of topics available, and then reconvene to share your learnings.
The Deeper Conversation: Breakout Session Topics
Spiritual Formation with Children and Young People with Scottie May
Transforming Worship® with Rory Noland
Cultivating Your Leadership Group as a Community for Discernment with Ruth Haley Barton
Transforming Preachers, Transforming Preaching with David Hughes
Fostering Transforming Community Through Small Groups with Biz Gainey
The Critical Journey: Understanding Stages of Faith with Sibyl Towner
Translating Spiritual Formation in an Urban Environment with Phil Jackson
Team Rates
In community with other leaders, the goal of this retreat is to support your ongoing journey of transforming leadership
and to equip you to lead your own community to become a transforming church.
Receive a $75 per person discount when you register 3 or more from your church or organization.
Receive a $100 per person discount when you register 5 or more.
Super Early Bird Rate
$325 Program Fee
Available until December 6, 2019 for the April 2020 retreat
Available until June 12, 2020, for the October 2020 retreat
Private room (2 nights) and five meals, Monday dinner through Wednesday breakfast ($400)
Refreshments throughout
Total Cost: $725
Early Bird Rate
$375 Program Fee
Available until January 31, 2020, for the April 2020 retreat
Available until August 7, 2020, for the October 2020 retreat
Private room (2 nights) and five meals, Monday dinner through Wednesday breakfast ($400)
Refreshments throughout
Total Cost: $775
Regular Rate
$425 Program Fee
Available until April 17, 2020, for the April 2020 retreat
Available until October 23, 2020, for the October 2020 retreat
Private room (2 nights) and five meals, Monday dinner through Wednesday breakfast ($400)
Refreshments throughout
Total Cost: $825
Retreat Leaders will include...
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Ruth Haley Barton
Founder. Author. Speaker. Retreat Leader. Spiritual Director.
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Biz Gainey
Pastor. Teacher. Writer.
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David Hughes
Senior Pastor. Speaker. Writer. Theologian. Consultant.
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Phil Jackson
Pastor. Speaker. Author.
Church Planter. -
Clare and Scott Loughrige
Pastors. Authors. Spiritual Director. Spiritual Coach. Advocates.
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Scottie May
Professor. Researcher. Educator.
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Rory Noland
Worship Leader. Speaker. Author. Consultant. Spiritual Director.
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Sibyl Towner
Leader. Author. Spiritual Director. Master Teacher.
See speaker bios and additional information by scrolling down below.
(Speakers still being added. Check back soon!)
Topics and Schedule*
Monday through Wednesday, October 26–28, 2020
Includes healthy refreshments and all meals noted in the schedule. Please, no technology or recording during teaching or prayer sessions.
*Schedule subject to change
12:00 pm: Arrival and Check-in
1:00 pm: Life Together in Christ: A Vision for Transforming Church
BREAK
3:00 pm: Spiritual Transformation—Elective or Essential? Biblical and Theological Foundations
BREAK
5:00 pm: Evening Prayer
5:30 pm: Dinner
7:00 pm: Living from the Center Out: Solitude, Community, and Ministry
BREAK
8:45 pm: Night Prayer / Great Silence
8:00 am: Morning Prayer/Break Silence
8:20 am: Breakfast
9:00 am: What Are We Inviting People to—A Life-Giving Way of Life or a Life of Christian Busyness? Sabbath, Simplicity, and Saying No
BREAK
11:00 am: The Eucharistic Life and the Sacrament of Reconciliation
12:00 pm: Mid-day Prayer
12:20 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm: Solitude, Rest, and Reflection
5:00 pm: Evening Prayer
5:30 pm: Dinner
6:30 pm: The Deeper Conversation—Elective Opportunities (see below)
BREAK
8:15 pm: Night Prayer
9:15 pm: Reception and Conversation (in teams)
The Deeper Conversation: Elective Opportunities / Breakout Session Topics
- Spiritual Formation with Children and Young People with Scottie May
- Transforming Worship® with Rory Noland
- Cultivating Your Leadership Group as a Community for Discernment with Ruth Haley Barton
- Transforming Preachers, Transforming Preaching with David Hughes
- Fostering Transforming Community Through Small Groups with Biz Gainey
- The Critical Journey: Understanding Stages of Faith with Sibyl Towner
- Translating Spiritual Formation in an Urban Environment with Phil Jackson
8:00 am: Morning Prayer
8:20 am: Breakfast
9:00 am: Living in Rhythm: Formation, Discernment and Mission in the Church
BREAK
11:00 am: Beyond Random and Haphazard Approaches: Discerning Next Steps in YOUR Community
12:00 pm: Leaving Service with Homily — For This We Toil and Struggle: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing
1:00 pm: Departure
This retreat will contain teaching and presentations, rhythms of fixed-hour prayer, solitude and community, stimulating conversations with other leaders about best practices and costly mistakes, guidance for discerning next steps in your setting, and opportunities to make connections with others in your region and/or denomination.
Designed for those currently in senior leadership roles
- Senior pastors/clergy
- Executive pastors
- Members of your church’s decision-making body
(elders, deacons, vestry, session, consistory) - Executive leaders of Christian organizations
- Denominational leaders
Senior pastors are encouraged to attend with other members of their senior leadership group.
Accommodations
All sessions will be held at Q Center. Accommodations will be provided by Q Center. The cost of the accommodations and all meals is included in the retreat price.
Register
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!
Cost includes accommodations, meals, refreshments throughout, and all materials.
This retreat is most effective if you come with your leadership team.
Receive a $75 per person discount when you register 3 or more team members from your church or organization.
Receive a $100 per person discount when you register 5 or more team members.
Questions? Contact transforming church administrator Dalene Strieff or call her at (630) 588-8133 ext. 303 during regular business hours.
If it is necessary to cancel a registration for a retreat, please provide as much advance notice as possible so the Transforming Center can offer the available space to another retreatant. Registration fees cannot be transferred to another retreat.
If a request for cancellation is received thirty (30) or more days prior to the start date of a retreat, a refund of the retreat cost minus a $50 administrative fee will be issued.
If a cancellation request is received less than thirty (30) days prior to the start of a retreat, 45% of the program cost will be refunded.
No refund will be given if a retreatant leaves early or arrives late. Out of consideration for others on the waiting list, please make a commitment to attend the entire retreat.
Please note that the Transforming Center cancellation policy does not apply to the nine Transforming Community retreats. Upon acceptance into a two-year Transforming Community, the commitment to pay for the entire community experience—whether present or absent at any of the nine retreats—is understood.
If you have questions or would like further assistance to register for a Transforming Center retreat, please contact us at (630) 588-8133 or info@transformingcenter.org for more information.
Speakers
Ruth Haley Barton
Ruth is founding president/CEO of the Transforming Center. A teacher, author and seasoned spiritual director (Shalem Institute and the Loyola University Chicago Institute for Pastoral Studies), she holds a Doctor or Divinity from Northern Seminary. She has served on the pastoral staff of several churches, and the author of spiritual formation books and resources, including Pursuing God's Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups (June, 2012), Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, Sacred Rhythms and Invitation to Solitude and Silence.
Biz Gainey
Biz serves as the founding pastor of Pillar Community Church, in Vero Beach, Fl. Pillar Community Church began in 2011 and is committed to an intentional pathway of growth by means of spiritual practices and sacred rhythms designed to foster personal and communal formation. He and several elders and key leaders have participated in the 2-year Transforming
Community experience which has helped them clarify their vision and practices for guiding Pillar in becoming a Transforming Church. Biz received a BA in Religious Studies from Warner University and MDiv from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.
David Hughes
David Hughes serves as Ambassador for the Transforming Center, representing the TC on many fronts, including fundraising, academic partnerships, Transforming Communities, and the Transforming Church Network. As our resident theologian, David holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Philosophy from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he comes to TC after 36 years of ordained pastoral ministry—22 of which were spent at First Baptist Church of Winston-Salem, NC.
Phil Jackson
For more than thirty years, Phil has served God full-time on the front lines of urban youth ministry in the North Lawndale area of Chicago for over 20 years as youth pastor and associate paster. He has been a church planter and founder of urban ministries reaching young people in the area in wholistic way. An entrepreneur and author, he holds a BA from Trinity International University and a MDiv from Northern Theological Seminary with an emphasis in Christian community development.
Clare and Scott Loughrige
Clare and Scott Loughrige are founding co-lead pastors at Crossroads Church since 1991 and they have been community with the Transforming Center since Transforming Community 1. Clare, a spiritual director and Scott, a spiritual coach, and are the authors of several books on Christianity and the Enneagram. In addition to their conviction that spiritual formation is central to Crossroads Mission, they have served on boards for social justice and missions organizations. They are currently sitting on the Executive Board for the Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force, a collaboration of over 130 governmental, faith-based and other non-profit agencies. Their church houses a Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Child Advocacy Center for 3 counties and a Local Human Trafficking Task Force. The TC has helped them discover and maintain sacred rhythms as individuals and as a church so that they can do the work of justice with joy for the long-haul. They’re still practicing…
Scottie May
Scottie May is Associate Professor of Christian Formation and Ministry Emerita at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. Scottie is coauthor of Children Matter (Eerdmans), and Listening to Children on the Spiritual Journey (Baker). She has a PhD in educational ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. The Christian formation of children is an area of passion for Scottie. She has researched ways children come to faith and how the local church shapes that process. Other areas of interest are “authentic” experiential learning, the implications of the church being “the family of God,” and intergenerational worship and learning experiences. Scottie has three adult children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. (One of her sons is the creator of VeggieTales as well as the DVD series “What’s in the Bible”).
Rory Noland
Rory is the Director of Heart of the Artist Ministries and also serves as worship leader for the Transforming Center. He served for 20 years as music director at Willow Creek Community Church and is a composer, song writer, speaker, and author of several books on worship and the arts, including The Worshiping Artist, Thriving as an Artist in the Church, The Heart of the Artist, and Worship on Earth as It Is in Heaven. Rory holds a Doctorate in Worship Studies from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies.
Sibyl Towner
Sibyl is the co-founder and spiritual director of OneLifeMaps; a co-author of Listen to My Life visual maps that help people recognize and respond to God in their stories; a master teacher for Sustainable Faith School of Spiritual Direction Formation; a spiritual director with Transforming Center; and co-director of The Springs Retreat Center in Oldenburg, IN.
Travel Information & Directions
Q Center
1405 North Fifth Avenue, St. Charles, IL 60174
St. Charles is approximately 45 miles west of downtown Chicago.
If you are looking for a transportation service outside of Uber, Lyft, or a car rental, A-1 Airport Limousine is a preferred vendor of Q Center. They offer ride shares to minimize costs, as well as solo rides.
A-1 Airport Limousine Service, Inc.
Email: customerservice@a1limousine.com
1-800-354-5849 or
1-630-833-3788 option 2