6th Annual Retreat: Making Sanctuary*
Renew. Refocus. Retreat.
Community of Practice
Contemplative spaces at Mt. Olivet
"I found lifelong collaborators."
A global community
"This retreat changed how I lead."
*Sanctuary is defined as a space where fragile or new possibilities can emerge.
What is new this year?
Days: Monday-Thursday
Location: Mt. Olivet Conference Center, Farmington, MN (35 mins south of MSP Airport)
Flow: including Leadership Path sessions: Whole Person Leadership for Women, Art of Convening CoLab
What This Retreat Offers
Most of us who lead — who convene, facilitate, coach, or hold space for others — have learned to move quickly. We prepare agendas, manage energy, track time, and keep things on track.
We're good at it. But there is a quality of gathering that our competence often prevents: the kind where something unexpected can actually move, where people leave not just informed or aligned but genuinely changed by the encounter.
Making Sanctuary: Renew. Refocus. Retreat. is a CPL retreat designed to develop that capacity. Over two and a half days, you will slow down in ways that most professional life does not allow. You will work with what it genuinely takes to create conditions for meaningful encounter — not just skillful facilitation, but the interior work, the relational risk, and the patient tending that real sanctuary-making requires.
“The capacity we're developing is not the absence of discomfort. It is the ability to remain in relation precisely when the conditions for comfort are not met.”
What we know: the way we gather shapes what becomes possible.
What would it mean in your life to make a little more sanctuary? Making sanctuary is a practice. Imagine gatherings where hospitality and generosity shape the tone of every conversation. Instead of being framed by scarcity, dialogues focus on gifts, strengths, and shared possibilities. Community members show up not as passive consumers—waiting for someone else to solve problems—but as citizens, offering their contributions and “confronting one another with their gifts”.
Making sanctuary is the practice of tending “social soil:” cultivating intention, quality of listening, depth of holding, clarity of relational boundaries — not as preconditions for something else to happen, but as the thing itself.”
We will explore the meaning and practices of sanctuary as tending and enriching the social soil that is already so rich in the CPL community.
“The most consequential act available to us is not the grand intervention but the quality of presence we are able to sustain with one another in the difficulty.”
The Schedule
(more details to come)
All times are Central US
Monday 9/21/26-Wednesday 9/23/26
5 All-Community Sessions
plus Leadership Pathways:
Whole Person Leadership for Women, Art of Convening CoLab
Monday, 9/21: 5:00-8:30pm*
*in observance of Yom Kippur, the Opening Ceremony will be Tuesday, 9/22, 9:00 am
Tuesday, 9/22: 9:00 am-8:30 pm
Opening Ceremony
2 All-Community Gatherings
2 Leadership Tracks:
-Whole Person Leadership for Women
-The Art of Convening CoLab
Wednesday, 9/23: 9:00 am-8:30 pm
2 All-Community Gatherings
Afternoon tracks TBD
Closing Ceremony
[optional] Thursday, 9/24: 8:00 am Community Breakfast
REGISTER NOW!
September 21-24
Mt. Olivet Conference & Retreat Center
Farmington, MN
$100 deposit saves the Early Bird Discount
5% Early Bird Rates end 7/15
5% Member Discount
Day Pass
Join us via a Zoom Pass
$50: 5 All-Community sessions
Images from past AoC retreats
FAQ’s
-
In community, we will harvest the learnings from the past months and years. As Purposeful Leaders, we will explore what we want to strengthen, and bring forward, on behalf of those we serve. As we emerge together, we will create to reflect the synthesis of what we’ve learned, with a vision for a future world that works for all.
We will create an innovative hybrid event with participation roles for in-person and virtual interaction.
Continue to explore the 4 Contexts and The Art of Convening:- Interior - Relational - Systemic - Environmental
5 All-Community Gathering Sessions
2 Alum Gathering Spaces
2 Open Space & Visioning Sessions
-
In-person registration includes 2 nights (Monday-Tuesday) + 7 meals:
Early Bird Rates through 7/1:
Single: $640 - Double: $495 - Dorm: $405
Day Pass for Tues 9/22 or Wed 9/23: $110 (includes 3 meals)
Optional: 3 nights (Monday-Wednesday), 8 meals. Pricing TBD.
-
Mount Olivet Conference & Retreat Center
7984 257th St W, Farmington, MN 55024
+1 952-469-2175
https://mtolivetretreat.org/Each participant is responsible for travel to and from the Retreat.
Flying: The closest airport is Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport International Airport (MSP). The Duluth International Airport (DLH) is an additional choice.
Driving: Directions to Mt. Olivet can be found at https://mtolivetretreat.org/
You may choose to rent a car and share costs with another participant.
Ride Share: If needed, we will help coordinate ride shares from the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport or from the Twin Cities.
"Homestays": are popular before/after the Retreat. We will help you contact Twin Cities colleagues.
-
Cancellation Policy:
√ If the in-person Retreat is canceled due to unforeseen circumstances: We will offer a modified Retreat experience via Zoom.
Participant cost will be $50. You will receive a full refund for the difference already paid.√ Refunds not related to Retreat cancellation will be made if requested in writing 30 days prior to the Retreat start date.
An administrative fee of $50 will be deducted.
√ No refunds will be made for requests received within 30 days of the Retreat.
Watch this video, created by Amber Yang, to get a taste of the 2024 AoC Retreat.