When you run an event, it’s always good to root it in some kind of theme. A theme can be inspiring, it gets people thinking and gives them a vision for why this event might be worthwhile. You’re not just going away to leave home for the weekend (though that can be nice), you’re going away to think about something deeper.
Your theme could be anything, which is exciting. But maybe you want help narrowing that down a bit. Here’s a few different directions you could take.
1. A book of (or character from) the Bible
When you’re away for a Christian conference you may want to spend some time exploring the Bible together. But you’re probably away for just a few days, so time is limited. You can focus your time by just exploring one of the shorter books of the Bible. The book of Jonah, for example, is very short, and lots of the New Testament epistles (letters like Colossians and 1 Timothy) are concise enough that you could read through and explore them in just a few sessions. This gives you a standalone story/message that can give focus to your time together, rather than jumping into the middle of a book that guests might not know anything about.
You could also home in on a specific character from the Bible, which might mean just exploring a few chapters of a book, e.g. Joseph’s story in Genesis, or the prophet Elijah in the book of 1 Kings.
In these cases, think about what exactly you want to draw on from that Bible story, that can help give you a specific theme title. What can that story teach us today? For example a title could be ‘What Queen Esther teaches us about calling’ or ‘Galatians: How grace changes everything’.
2. A broader spiritual or social theme
You might want to make your focus more thematic rather than text-based. Here your options are vast and they might be more explicitly Christian, or depending on your audience, framed in a more open way. You might explore faith in a general sense specifically for those new to it or just thinking about it, so something like ‘Does faith make sense in the 21st century?’ You could engage topical themes that also have a rich theological tradition to draw on, like ‘Creation care: can we save the environment?’ Maybe you know your church, small group or organisation would really benefit from exploring something specific like how we should handle our finances, or how discipleship relates to social media and technology.
3. Doing an activity
Maybe you’re more focussed on doing something than thinking about things. You might be using your time to do some specific planning or team building together, so your theme is something like ‘Getting a vision for our charity’s future’ and your activity could be practical group work around that theme. This could be a weekend devoted to sport and games, or a hobby or special interest, like writing, preaching, drawing or music-making. The event could be about training people up in a specific skill, or collaborating on a creative project together.
That’s three avenues you could explore, there will be others! The main thing is to keep things clear, relevant and interesting for your audience. The right theme can get them excited before the event, and ensure they don’t forget it when it’s over. What would they like to explore, what would help them, and how can you best communicate it?
