In 2013 we will host a single family gathering called the Village Gathering. Dates: June 27-29. Location: Woodland Park, CO. Lodging and Meals: Plan It Like You Want It. (We provide some basics like water, coffee and snacks.) Cost:$150 per adult, $25 per child, nannies are free.
This is a relaxed family style retreat where we can spend face time with the best people in the world. We have large group family times in the morning, afternoon recreation options, and evening worship encounter times.
If you were looking for a Village Gathering in your town, or more intense equipping, then you want to turn your attention to our Kingdom IQ learning communities.
REGISTRATION, LODGING, AND FOOD
All the registration information for all four gatherings are listed below. In 2013, at our Village Gatherings, we will not offer overnight accommodations or meals. We will offer coffees and drinks, and snacks and treats during our main gatherings both am and pm to keep the love alive. We suggest the Eagle Fire Lodge, the Country Lodge or Bristlecone Lodge for hotel stays, or you may solicit for host homes through our Facebook group, or book at one of the nearby State Parks...you have the freedom to choose. We would like to house most everyone within walking distance of our Village meeting spaces (the Ute Pass Cultural Center) so that we maximize our time together. Be sure there will be restaurants, coffee houses, grocers, and supplies within walking distance of all our Village Gatherings to make this a true, village affair.
CHILDREN
Please don't forget to add Childcare tickets to the cart for any and all children 12 and under. This year we must charge our minimal fee of $25 for all children 12 and under, including infants, in order to prepare space and provisions for all ages. You must register a Nanny, too, for all children 4 and under, per family. Nannies are free, and are welcome to attend the evening worship times along with the children. We require this of each family so that children who need more continual care can receive that along with the parent's unique guidance per child. For children ages 5-12 we will provide excellent, well-organized, and smartly led activities, crafts, adventures and spiritual encouragement. No child under 13 can attend the adult sessions as the conversations may be designed only for adults. Our paid leadership team for those between 5 and 12 is a priority for all of us, and we love those even younger but we don't have the manpower or qualifications to provide toddler or nursery care. For ages 4 under, including infants, we do not provide any oversight, so we must depend on your nannies to oversee these little ones. The nannies and these children will be invited to join in with the children ages 5-12 as long as the nanny stays in constant touch with the younger ones and does not release them to be cared for by the "group." Parents, please understand: we want this to be a true family gathering, and we also want you to have your whole brain when you are in a groups of adults, like the morning sessions and evening worship time. It is hard to do, but we want to accomplish both goals. Please help us by trusting your nanny with your small children during the am sessions and the evening worship times. Children will not be allowed to participate, which means that can't hang out at your feet or sit in your lap during those designated times, but are welcome at the afternoon recreational adventures and, of course, all meal and casual times. A special room will be provided outside of the meeting room for nursing little ones, giving the nannies and babies a place to rest, and for tending to the smallest children when you need to.
SCHEDULE
Welcome begins at 6 pm on Thursday night of the gathering at the Ute Pass Cultural Center at the corner of Hwy 24 and Fairview Street in the middle of town. We will have a great first evening reception with kids and whole families included! Friday and Saturday schedules begins with a large group teaching and sharing session from 9-12 (childcare provided) in the morning where the mamas and the papas will have a chance to encourage us all. In the afternoon (bring all the kids and nannies!) we will head out one day for a river excursion (tubing, fishing, wading, hiking, skipping stones) and another day on a reasonable hike to a beautiful vista to the western peaks and picnic (bring your swimsuits, outdoor gear, sunscreen, and picnic gear). In the evenings we will share a wonderful time of worship, family time, and ministry from 7-9pm (childcare included). Please bring your hand drums and instruments to join in! To be clear: professional childcare is offered for children ages 5 through 12 years from 9-12pm and from 7-9pm each day. We will end on Saturday night together as a large group.
What Is It?
The Village Gathering is a family retreat, kingdom life engagement, and worship music gathering and you are invited! Whether you lead a worship team, a student ministry, a local fellowship, or are just a worshiping heart, we are inviting you and your tribe to come and spend these days with us for an amazing retreat time, worshiping and making new friends! Many of the Worship Circle artists you love will be on hand to meet and greet. They will also be leading every night together in worship time and you can even bring your instruments and join in! This gathering is especially important to our spiritual family's life. We love spending time together, and many of us who have walked together for many years look forward to this gathering as our family reunion time.
Gathering as a Gift
I think gathering people together is a true spiritual work and it is a gift to those who receive it. In my life I have sometimes joined with others based on a project, an affiliation, a doctrine, or a work of some kind. Though these connections are perfectly fine they do not reflect what I consider a higher level of coming together. There is a kind of gathering that, at its foundations, is based solely on a love for one another. It is a reflection of a genuine respect for one another and an assignment of value on just being near others that are of a high caliber. I really believe that when great people come together that magic things happen without any further additions to the mix like teachings, or meetings, or training stuff. More importantly, I also believe that if people can come together and assure one another that their gathering is not primarily the result of a project, doctrine, work, etc. and that the attraction is heartfelt and personal–then the magical affect is multiplied exponentially.
The main point to consider about our summer gathering in June: If you come you will be surrounded by really good people and will be expected to get face time with them. We are confident that we have a gravity of relationships that attracts really wonderful, high quality people and I can prove it. When you come you may get to meet a whole host of key leaders and many, many more of our friends that will thoroughly impress you and may become your friends for life. Our special leadership for each retreat will be posted online, but we always try to invite and honor some true fathers of the faith.
Why Our Gathering is not a Conference
Well, I don’t mean conferences any harm. They are perfectly fine, and it is nice to focus on a particular thing over a few days with meetings and teachings, etc., but I must break that expectation in you about the Village Gatherings. I think that most people expect a conference to be a series of planned meetings with a series of profile speakers. Most folks view conferences as a chance to come together, attend a few meetings, and then sneak out with their new friends to a pub or the hotel pool and really get some hang time. Our gathering is just the other way around. We providing a beautiful village location for great folks to come together and get some serious hang time with others of like mind and like heart, and as a byproduct we will enjoy our gathering times together. It is true that as we enjoy this time together we will also receive some significant downloads from Worship Circle leaders and teachers on very important foundational themes, but don’t expect even the teachers themselves to believe that their awesome download is the center of the action. Ha. The center of our action for the weekend is you. We reserve the right to limit reservations for adults to preserve our sense of family and connection time with you. That’s right, we want to be able to focus on you. We want to really see you with our eyes and have a chance to hear you. I will tell you what we expect from you. We expect each person at the Village Gathering to aggressively pursue conversations, relationships, the sharing of food and picnic blankets, the sharing of jokes and fears, hugs and kisses as though there was no other purpose for being there at all.
Circle of Relationship
Prioritizing relationships is absolutely natural and it is necessary to be healthy. First, we know that we are to love one another without prejudice. “Without prejudice” means that we freely offer our love to those of different shapes, sizes, experience, thoughts, etc. because God has made us this way. Secondly, we know that some are to receive a greater portion of access to our love and attention. These two things are not in conflict. We may love our neighborhood, but we offer our dinner table first to our own family, and then to guests from the neighborhood when the timing and connection is right. You are our neighbors and we think this retreat will be the perfect time to share our relational table together! The Village Gathering idea was birthed from a prioritizing of love and attention to our closest spheres of relationship, first, and then it grew to include a weekend called Worship@8500, and we now know them as Village Gatherings. It was not the other way around.
Our Dreams for You
We dream that this weekend will recharge your soul. We pray rest for the weary, and the kind of rest that comes from the restoration of sonship so that you can constantly rest in the Father’s great love and favor that He has poured out on you. We pray for new vision of the beauty of the Church that Jesus loves, and the transcendent power and permanence of the Kingdom of God. We believe that a weekend like this will forever lay foundations under you that will enrich your ministry work, your family life, and your ability to enjoy your dreams. We dream that you will make new, life long friends. We pray that you will obsess about coming back to be with us next year, but that you will allow that obsession to spill over into your own sense of gathering good people together all year long. We hope you will spend some time with us throughout the year as a result of getting a bit closer, and giving and receiving a little more permission from one another.