A sisterhood retreat is a wonderful opportunity for women to get away together for religious and spiritual time with one another. Some retreats might even be focused on more secular meditation and relaxation ideas. Create a theme so the women will know what to expect when they go on this weekend retreat.

Make the sacred stories of the Bible the heart of the retreat weekend. Read various stories out loud that relate to women in the Bible and ask the group to discuss the major lessons from each one. Some examples include the stories of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Ruth or Rachel and Leah. However, also ask the group to share their own stories of when they found their faith or how their spiritual and/or religious lives have developed. Make time to allow the members to create new stories as well.

Most likely, a retreat will not last all summer. However, within the span of a weekend or a few days, incorporate ideas that will show the ladies how to allow Christ to make the summer perfect. Engage in an outdoor volunteer activity, and tell them how they can do this at home. For example, clean up a park near the retreat site. You can also prepare a barbecued meal with healthy foods to teach them how to keep the body that God gave them in healthy condition. Ideas for food include burgers using lean ground meat, vegetable patties or grilled vegetable kabobs.

Have a retreat that is centered around the different types of relationships that a woman should have. Focus different times of the retreat on different relationships. Have women write in a journal for personal development and discuss in a group the difficult scenarios they might face in their lives that may help them grow. Set up times where the women can go into the worship center by themselves to develop their relationship with God through prayer.

Whether you set up this retreat for new mothers or for those who have grown children, provide activities that let the women express how they nurture their children to become followers of the religion. Provide activities that relate to four dimensions of nurturing and helping youngsters develop. These dimensions are spiritual, social, mental and emotional. Allow women to share stories of how they teach their children, but also how their own mothers helped them.