Leaders Intensive Retreat
A New Chapter in Ministry
An intensive retreat for faith leaders helping congregations navigate transition, brought to your synod or judicatory.
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Format: 2.5 days, Monday evening through Wednesday morning
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Location: Hosted at a site convenient to your region
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Led by: Rev. Peter Soli and Rev. Dr. Mark Yackel-Juleen
When congregations are standing at a threshold
You're watching congregations in your area sit with hard questions. Attendance is thinner. Budgets are tighter. Pastoral transitions are opening conversations that nobody quite knows how to have. Some congregations have been in that uncertain middle space between what they were and what they might become for a long time.
What most of them need is someone who can sit with them in that uncertainty without rushing them past it. This retreat equips the coaches and leaders who are doing that work.
Over two and a half days, participants build practical skills for facilitating difficult conversations, helping congregations build trust across differences, and guiding communities toward shared ministry models that preserve identity while opening real possibilities. The curriculum draws on William Bridges’ framework for understanding transition and is built around practice from the first to the last session.
We piloted this retreat at Green Lake Conference Center with a cohort of ECSW faith leaders and coaches. The format is now available for synods and judicatories seeking to equip their leaders for this work, tailored to your context and the specific challenges your congregations are navigating.
What your leaders will work through
Curriculum
The retreat moves through interconnected territory. Each session builds on the one before, and practice is built in at every stage.
01
Change vs. Transition
Why they aren't the same thing and what leaders miss when they plan for one but not the other.
03
Shared Ministry Models
What cooperative ministry actually looks like when it's done with integrity, preserving identity, sharing leadership, building toward vitality rather than just survival.
05
Financial Conversations
What makes these conversations so charged, what's usually underneath the resistance, and what actually helps.
07
Facilitating Difficult Conversations
Practiced skills for attentive listening, acknowledging loss, and staying with tension long enough for something to open up.
02
Navigating the Neutral Zone
The wilderness between what was and what's next, and how to lead congregations through it without cutting it short.
04
Crafting a Covenant
Hands-on covenant drafting: turning the principles of shared ministry into a living document that reflects real relationships.
06
Governance and Decision-Making
Mapping how decisions actually get made in shared ministry and where things tend to stall or break down.
08
Congregational Vitality Assessment
Honest tools for gently moving congregations out of denial and toward a clearer picture of where they are.
Built for Your Context
The retreat runs for two and a half days, typically Monday evening through Wednesday morning, and works well at conference centers, retreat houses, or similar residential settings in your region.
We don't use a fixed script. Before the retreat, we work with you to understand what your congregations are actually navigating: the specific friction points, the histories, the questions that keep coming up. From there, we shape the content to fit. Some groups need more time on shared ministry covenants. Others come in with governance conflicts or difficult pastoral transitions that need room. The curriculum gives us the building blocks; the conversation with you tells us how to use them.
Throughout the retreat, the work is hands-on: role-play simulations with character cards, small-group covenant drafting, a financial-scenario conversation, whole-group governance mapping, and a Samoan Circle for practicing difficult conversations. Participants leave with tools they've already used once in a room with peers working through the same questions.
Retreats are co-facilitated and co-taught by Peter Soli and Mark Yackel-Juleen. Cost varies depending on content, length, and scheduling. Contact Peter to start the conversation.
Who Leads the Retreat
Rev. Peter Soli, Founder, Dialog Works
Peter has thirty years of experience as a pastor, judicatory leader, and conflict transformation consultant. He is the founder and director of Dialog Works and a qualified neutral in Minnesota. His training includes work at Lombard Mennonite Peace Center, Eastern Mennonite University, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and Duke Divinity School.
Rev. Dr. Mark Yackel-Juleen, Co-Facilitator
Mark serves at Wartburg Theological Seminary as Director for Small Town and Rural Ministry with the Center for Theology and Land. He spent seventeen years in small-town and rural congregations before co-founding Shalom Hill Farm, a rural ministry education and retreat center in southwestern Minnesota, where he served as executive director for twenty-five years. His Doctor of Ministry research focused on what helps pastors serving in small-town and rural settings find satisfaction and stay effective.
What could this look like for your leaders?
If your synod or judicatory is working with congregations navigating transition, shared ministry, or the harder questions about what comes next, this retreat was built for that work.
Reach out to Peter directly to talk through the specifics: what your congregations are carrying, what format might fit, and what it would take to bring this to your area.