Eden Lead: Ministry Cohorts

The majority of our retreat spots are reserved for people who are in an active leadership role in their church, their ministry organization or the marketplace. If you are wondering if an Eden Lead Year is right for you, consider joining us for a Discovery Call and get all your questions answered live.

Steps in the application process:

1. Submit an application for your preferred cohort and pay the application fee.
2. Once you’ve submitted an application, we will contact you to schedule a 30 minute call with an Eden Lead Retreat Facilitator. The purpose of this call is to ensure you have all the necessary information regarding the cohort, the pre-work, triads, and spiritual direction.
3. Secure your spot by paying your full tuition or by committing to one of our  two different payment plans.
4. You are in! Make your travel plans!
5. If you have questions, you can contact info@edenteam.org. 

EL#4 Ministry Cohort:

Knowledge of God | Sept 8-11, 2025

Knowledge of Self | Jan 12-15, 2026

Pace and Practice | April 20-23, 2026

EL#6 Ministry Cohort:

Knowledge of God | Nov 10-13, 2025

Knowledge of Self | Feb 9-12, 2026

Pace and Practice | April 27-30, 2026

Eden Lead Cohort will be hosted in various locations throughout the United States. Costs of retreats will vary based on venue costs.

Your financial investment to attend our Eden Lead Year varies depending on the location of that retreat. 

Your cohort experience includes: lodging, meals and daily snacks. That is in addition to the Eden Lead Year spiritual formation journey which consists of: curated Pre-work for all three retreats, Retreat Guides grounded in scripture, guided practices, stories, and group discussions to provide a right-brain experiential (re)training.

It does not include travel to and from the retreat location. Please consider not only air travel in your calculations, but transportation to and from the airport.

Participants are also responsible for paying their spiritual director directly for monthly sessions throughout the year.

Check out the landing page for the specific cohort that works best for you to discover the financial investment required.

Yes. We offer a three different payment options. 

• Option One: Pay in full
• Option Two: Pay in four equal monthly installments
• Option Three: Pay in eight equal monthly installments

All of these options allow you to set up automatic payments through direct draft, so you can easily schedule and manage your payments. 

The refund policy for any cancellation or change to the Eden Lead (hereafter "Cancellation/Changes") will apply in the following noncumulative manner:

• A full refund for the cohort if cancelled within 60 days of the first retreat
• A $500 fee* if you cancel within 60 days before the first retreat of the cohort; and 
• A $750 fee* if you cancel before the first retreat of the cohort.
• If you join the cohort and cannot attend a specific retreat, we are unable to offer a refund; however, we can offer a possible substitution. Please reach out to discuss your particular situation if the need arises. 

A Spirit-filled follower of Jesus for at least five years. The program is entitled “Eden Lead” with the conviction that the best way to renew the church is to seek the renewal of her leaders. 

We build our retreats and cohorts for both male and female marketplace and ministry leaders. Eden Lead is ideal for those who are hungry for more with God, who are experiencing a low ceiling in their relationships, or who simply sense that there has to be more to Christianity than they are currently experiencing. 

If you have been formed enough in Christ to be an imperfect but committed disciplemaker…

If you are hungry to experience more with God than you’ve known…

If you are willing to admit your neediness before God… 

…you’re a great candidate for Eden Lead.

1. Ideal Option: Sign up with two other local spiritual friends to experience the Eden Lead Year together, both at home (weekly) and while on Retreat.
2. Second Option: Participate at the Retreat with an assigned triad and recruit two other local friends to meet with you weekly in person (even though they are not part of the Eden Lead Year.) 
3. Third Option:  Meet with your Triad both at retreat and between retreats, online. 

We encourage cohort participants to invest two hours weekly into this journey. Your Eden Lead facilitators and spiritual director will help you to establish a personal Rule of Life that is specific to you. This will involve prayer, curiosity, and experimentation. You will build on the pathways you’re finding are most helpful for connecting with God, yourself, and others.

Each of the three retreats are four days and three nights. Plan to arrive by 3pm on the first day.  Our retreat will end at 12:30pm on the final day. 

Send an email to info@edenteam.org and the administrators will answers any questions that you may have.

Affirmation of the Lausanne Covenant and the Apostles Creed.

Eden’s Theory of Change

We’ve all experienced various attempts to answer the question “How do people change?” Our working Theory of Change includes…

First, humans were created in the image of a Triune God and are inherently relational. God is a community of persons who have been seeking the highest good of the other since eternity past. This is why the Scriptures can say “God is love.” Humans are therefore formed, malformed and reformed in relationships with God and others. We need new relational experiences of love to be conformed into the image of Christ.

We are not primarily driven by knowledge or the will, but by the heart. We are creatures of desire. We are creatures of love, meaning our lives are pointing towards what we love. Bruce Waltke states, “From the viewpoint of the writers of the Bible, the heart was the central organ that moved the rest of the body.  It denotes a person’s center for both physical and emotional-intellectual-moral activities.” We find paying attention to our deepest heart desires and desperations is essential for human transformation.

The human heart is hard to change. Our hearts are shy and strongly resist direct efforts to change them. Have you ever tried to change someone's mind about a political issue through rational argument? Has anyone’s mind ever changed via an insult on social media? Augustine was aware long ago, the human heart is hard to change. 

After the fall of humanity, we’re wired in such a way that judgment kills love. When we feel judged, we put up walls and resist feedback both consciously and unconsciously. Any theory which depends upon simply telling people what’s wrong with them and then expecting change will be constantly ineffective and frustrating. Augustine  in his Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter states the Law merely teaches us of a disease without healing it. The Apostle Paul in Galatians refers to The Law as a tutor showing us how badly we’re failing the test. Awareness is essential, but it alone does not heal us. Rather, it grows our desire to encounter the Great Physician who dispenses the medicine of grace with great attention and care tailored to the ailments of each person.

People will only open up when they encounter the love of God through the ministry of the Spirit. The good news in Christ with the coming of the Holy Spirit God has already come and is present to us in love. Romans 5:5b… ”God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” We now have new hearts, empowered by God Himself slowly beginning to desire what God desires, which is always our highest good.

We are transformed from one degree of glory to another as we behold “God Actual.” The enemy has actively worked to distort our understanding of God from the beginning. Broken images of God will slow our growth in connecting deeply with God. Human transformation requires deeply formed mistrust of God to be raised to the level of conscious awareness so that we can see God more as He actually is. Increasingly this looks like living at home in the love of God (I John 4:7-12).

A spiritual director is someone who meets with you one-on-one for an hour each month to help you “pay attention to the active presence of God that is in you, around you, and for you.” Our curated list of recommended spiritual directors have gone through years of training to care for the souls of God’s people. They meet a huge need in the body of Christ. Leaders need regular time that is spacious and quiet in order to attend to the voice of God. Sadly, The soul is often the most neglected part of the leader’s life. It is a tragic irony that spiritual leaders, entrusted with the care of other’s souls, usually do not adequately take care of their own. Here is a very short article that explains more.

A typical session with a trained spiritual director will involve them sitting with you in prayer and with curiosity seeking to discover what God is inviting you into with Him in the moment or season. This is different than biblical counseling but a great help for growing in intimacy with God and in spiritual discernment. 

Eden Lead participants will be asked to engage monthly with spiritual director. The typical cost of a spiritual director is $100 per session while this does vary from director to director. We have a trusted list of spiritual directors for referral, but participants are required to reach out and to hire their own spiritual director. Eden does not manage this relationship or get involved with payment.

We believe many leaders will discover the value of this key spiritual investment and will continue with their spiritual director years after completing the Eden Lead Year. 

Our Eden Vine Church Consultancy is a three year journey for churches to intentionally seek renewal throughout their church.  

The Eden Project exists to help people to connect deeply with God, self, and others. We have a heart for the church and want to walk alongside leaders to rebuild the relational habitat we were created for. We believe this work will lead to renewal throughout the Body of Christ. In order to see widespread change we will need to see leaders renewed first.

In Luke 6:12-13, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray through the night. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles. This is how Jesus builds his church. Jesus selected key leaders to develop, in intimate relational spaces, over long periods of time. This was not done in large batches quickly or digitally.

In order to address the gaps we see in the church, we envision walking with churches as follows:

Year 1: Build Custom Renewal Roadmap
Year 2: Pilot Roadmap with Early Adopters
Year 3-5: Drip Roadmap throughout Church Water-system.

Reach out to Chuck Gschwend if you are curious to know more: cgschwend@edenteam.org. 

We strongly discourage non-participants from joining as this is a personal retreat for your development. There will be individual exercises that would be diminished if you were distracted by other relationships and obligations during the time.

It is our desire to do so. We will serve healthy and nutritious meals and protein-rich snacks. Once you've applied and been accepted, we will ask each participant to fill out a Cohort Intake Form where you can describe your dietary restrictions. We will then inform the kitchen/catering staff. The kitchen/catering staff are able to accommodate gluten free, dairy free, and vegetarian diets. Our retreat venues offer a small refrigerator for those desiring to bring necessary items with them. Please reach out to lgschwend@edenteam.org for more information.

If you have a serious medical dietary restriction such as Celiac, please reach out to lgschwend@edenteam.org before applying to determine if we can accommodate you. We want to try! Let's talk!