What a journey it has been! Sarah Ratz, Director of Beersheba Springs Assembly (TN), recently reflected on the nearly two decades since she first encountered the UMCRM Association as a wide-eyed young Program Director attending her first National Gathering in 2005.
Over the years, Sarah has found that UMCRM has raised her level of professionalism as a Camp/Retreat Ministry leader. She credits the relationships with fellow leaders and the opportunities UMCRM and the Legacy of Leadership Fund afforded her for continuing education and professional development. Those two items are related. Sarah gleaned wisdom from the experiences of others, and she notes that the culture of generous sharing of time, energy, and expertise by UMCRM volunteers has been a source of strength and inspiration. She reflects that fellow leaders were willing to share not just the wonderful things about Camp/Retreat Ministry, but their openness and honesty about their challenges and vulnerabilities also helped her to grow. She highlighted the impact of the amazing women leaders who helped to pave the way, whom Sarah encountered as trainers, supervisors, board colleagues, partners in committee work, workshop leaders, and more. They helped her to claim her authority in leadership and ministry and served as mentors and role models to look up to. She recalls learning about representation through the example of her then-Executive Director Jan Thomas: When her jurisdiction was deciding who ought to be elected to the National Camp & Retreat Committee – observing that it mattered what percentage of women were in the room, and that there was power in making sure different voices and perspectives were guiding the organization’s planning processes.
Sarah is also aware of the critical role UMCRM donors have played in her ministry journey. The Legacy of Leadership scholarship fund enabled her attendance at National Gathering during her service at a camp with a tiny budget. Later, Legacy scholarship funds also supported her participation in the United Methodist Camp & Retreat Ministry Certification Program, helping her to develop hard and soft skills in the field and connecting her to a meaningful network of peers-in-ministry.
As one of UMCRM’s longest-serving Board members, Sarah has had a front row seat to the process of UMCRM’s organizational development over the last decade. She took part in the association’s transformation from a developing organization beginning to define its mission and vision, through different structures, committee work, and the transition to Carver-style governance. As an Association, UMCRM is now able to plan for long-term sustainability, making sure it will continue to adapt resources to meet the needs of our community well into the future. Sarah observes that the strength of our volunteer base makes UMCRM special. Now that she has completed two terms of board service and her co-chair role in the Southeastern Jurisdictional Gathering, she is mindful that there are different seasons of giving – for many years she invested time and energy in various volunteer roles with the Association (and plans to continue to do so as opportunities arise), but now she is grateful to be in a better position to also invest financially in UMCRM’s fiscal well-being. She is grateful for the sites and Conferences she’s been a part of that have supported her taking on association-related travel and significant volunteer commitments over the years, recognizing that generosity and missional commitment at all levels really do make the Association’s work possible. Sarah encourages UMCRM’s members and friends to consider what “season of giving” they are in, reminding us that all of the ways we give are welcome and needed. We appreciate her framing her contributions as “investment;” surely Sarah is a living example of the fruitful “returns” upon the investments our Association makes in Camp/Retreat Leaders all along their journey.