This retreat is for pastors, seminarians, ministry staff, congregational leaders, and spouses all across LCMC. Our hope is that participants will be equipped, refreshed, and recharged for all that God has in store.

 

A wonderful time of teaching, worship, fellowship, prayer, and recreation for Christian leaders! Participants can either register for either the Leader or Devotional track. Leadership Track will be led by LCMC Associate Service Coordinator Christian Huntley and will feature LeaderCare programming.

Our theme this year was “Here I Am, Lord” and we dug into topics of calling, vocation, spiritual gifts, and missional living. 

2027 Dates TBD!

Our Winter Retreat is held annually in Concan, Texas, a beautiful resort community located along the Frio River.  The Dream Catcher, Barefoot and Rain Dancer cabins serve as our retreat home. Each is designed to host large family gatherings in various sleeping accommodations.  We do our best to accommodate married couples in private rooms with queen bedrooms, but we may not be able to do so depending on the total number of registrants.

Stay tuned for more details, usually around July for the following year!

We all want to be used by God, for his purpose, in his time. We cry, “Here I am, Lord!” Yet we wrestle. We’re impatient. We’re unsure of where God is calling and if God is calling. We aren’t sure we have what it takes. That’s the beauty of God. God’s desire is to use you, and your willingness, for his mission in your neighborhood and around the world. Join us as we explore a deeper sense of vocation and mission and get ready to go where he sends us.

Christian Huntley has served LCMC as Coordinator for Leadership and Pastoral Ministry since 2023. He previously had served as a pastor at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Afton, MN. An Iowa native, he received his MDiv from Bethel University. The beautiful St. Croix River Valley in Minnesota is home for Christian, his wife, Jenna, and their two daughters. When not working or building LEGOs with his girls, Christian enjoys being outside, preferably hunting, golfing, or around a bonfire. If he can be with people, he will try about anything. He loves to listen and learn!
Christian is passionate about the church being the tangible, loving expression of Jesus on earth. He felt a calling in college to help other college students connect their faith to their vocation and has found great joy fulfilling that calling as a local pastor in ways he never imagined! He also serves as a Chaplain with the local Sheriff’s office, caring for deputies and county residents alike.

“Here I Am, Lord — Climbing the Right Mountain” is a  devotional series that explores what it means to answer God’s call in everyday life. Drawing inspiration from Jim Hayhurst’s The Right Mountain and Scripture, each lesson invites us to discern the “right mountain” — the vocation God has chosen for us — and to climb it with faith, humility, and community. Through themes of surrender, weakness, and shared purpose, this series reminds us that true success is not measured by titles or trophies, but by faithfulness and worship in our work, home, and ministry.

 

Meloni L. Puishes is an educator, preacher, and relational disciple-maker who helps people recognize God’s presence and calling in the everyday places of life. With a background in public-school leadership and active service in Lutheran congregational ministry, she brings a warm, conversational style to preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. Meloni’s devotional work weaves Scripture with story and real-life experience, inviting people to hear God’s “Here I am” grace so they can respond with their own “Here I am, Lord” in every vocation—at home, at work, in community, and in the church. She serves in the Lincoln–Dime Box area of Texas through revitalization, care ministry development, and relational discipleship. At this year’s LCMC Texas Winter Retreat, she will lead the devotional track on living faithfully and attentively to God’s call in all walks of life.