Amid the quiet coastal backdrop of Fort Caswell, dozens of North Carolina pastors and their spouses gathered March 9-11 to trade the weight of the pulpit for a period of rest.

The biannual Replenish Retreat, sponsored by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, offered a three-day refuge designed to bolster the “marriage, ministry and mission” of church leaders. The event combined worship and small-group sessions with a rare commodity for ministry families: intentional downtime.

The retreat comes at a critical time for clergy health. According to the 2025 Beyond the Pulpit Insights Report from Lifeway Research, while the overall rate of pastors leaving the ministry has remained steady between 1.2% and 1.5% for over a decade, the reasons for departure are telling. In 2025 alone, 26% of pastors who left their roles cited burnout or family struggles as the primary cause.

Sandy Marks, pastoral ministry strategist for N.C. Baptists and the retreat’s lead organizer, said the event is specifically designed to provide tools for the mental, physical and spiritual rigors of the pastorate.

“We are always trying to bring different tools to the table, focused on tools for the soul, tools for marriage and tools for the ministry,” Marks said.

This year’s spring retreat featured speaker Jordon Willard, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Weddington, who addressed the unique pressures facing ministry couples. Preaching from Ephesians 5:18-30, Willard urged couples to guard their marriages by centering them on the gospel rather than the demands of ministry.

The retreat also featured a session on placing one’s identity in Christ and not performance-based ministry, taught by Sandy Marks, and another on having a vision for one’s life in ministry, taught by Terry Long, church health and revitalization strategist for N.C. Baptists. Other sessions were held on navigating different seasons of ministry and “planning, pruning and persevering” in ministry.

Organizers were careful to ensure the schedule didn’t mirror the frantic pace of church life. Following workshops, the retreat carved out dedicated time for date nights, allowing couples to reconnect away from the demands of their home churches.

One of the most significant hurdles for ministry families is finding reliable child care. To address this need, N.C. Baptists provided full child care for the duration of the retreat, a feature Willard described as one of the event’s “biggest blessings.”

Referring to the retreat, Willard said, “I highly recommend it for pastors across the state,” noting that approximately 30 couples attended. “I’d love to see many more pastors and families be a part of it.”

The Replenish Retreat has been a staple of the N.C. Baptist calendar since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a proactive measure against the exhausted state many pastors find themselves in.

The next Replenish Retreat is scheduled for September 2027.

By Stephen Halley, BR Editorial Aide

EDITOR’S NOTE — This article originally appeared on brnow.org.