Milestones & Moments
We’re away from the normal environment. No practice facility, no film room, no game schedule pressing in. This is a different kind of time.
And I want to use it differently than we usually would. Not just to relax — though rest is good. To actually do something with each other that we can’t do when the daily schedule is running everything.
Read this passage slowly.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.
Acts 2:44–46 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Together. Glad and sincere hearts. The early community in Acts describes something that happens when people are genuinely with each other — not just physically proximate but actually present. Sharing. Knowing each other. Experiencing something together that creates bonds that the normal transactional schedule of daily life doesn’t produce.
A team retreat is that opportunity. The shared meal away from the cafeteria. The conversation that goes deeper than locker room talk because the environment is different. The experience of being together in a way that is less about performance and more about people.
Teams that invest in genuine time together — not just more practice, more film, more preparation — consistently develop the kind of trust and cohesion that makes performance better. Not because the retreat is a break from the work. Because it’s a different kind of work. The relationship work that makes the performance work possible.
Use this time. Not just to enjoy it — to build something in it. The conversations that need to happen. The teammates you don’t know as well as you should. The honest moments that the daily schedule doesn’t allow. The team that goes home from this closer than it arrived is the team that got what a retreat is actually for.
A team retreat is a different kind of work — the relationship work that makes the performance work possible.
What’s one conversation you want to have with a teammate on this retreat that you haven’t had time or space for during the regular season?
Specific and action-oriented. Names the conversation before the retreat starts so it actually gets had.
Use this time. Build something in it. Go home closer than you arrived.
This devotional works best as the opening frame for a retreat — the first gathering, before the activities. It sets the intention for the time.