You have a story. Your life tells a story, unique to only you. In the story of your life, there are smaller stories playing themselves out all the time. These stories, though small, define you, shape you, move you, and ultimately write out your story at large. We like to call these stories, Episodes. It’s a story within a story, yet a single episode can change the rest of the story forever. That’s where Episode comes in. It’s a weekend specifically designed to create one amazing, defining episode in the story of students’ lives.
Episode is a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church Student Ministries in Lynchburg, VA. Our desire is to partner with other churches and provide a quality experience for students and leaders to meet with God in a unique and exciting environment. TRBC Student Ministries has been putting on Episode retreats for many years and has recently felt led to allow other youth groups to attend this incredible weekend.
Episode is open to all High School and Middle School students (6th-12th grades).
Episode is held at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Ridgecrest, NC. Ridgecrest is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains about 20 minutes east of Asheville, right off of I-40. For detailed directions and more information about Ridgecrest, please visit their website here.
During free time, groups will have use of hiking trails, gymnasiums, recreation fields, disc golf courses, coffee shops, and much more!
Each group needs to bring one leader for every five students.
Episode is designed to strengthen and build on the pre-existing relationships that group leaders have with their students. In an effort to further this goal, the devotions are done together as a room. Each room’s adult leader will facilitate the discussion in the room and help students through the material. Room leaders will receive a leader guide that walks them through each devotion and helps them know how to best lead the group. On some occasions, rooms will not have an adult leader. In this case, rooms will combine to have group devotions.
Plan to dress comfortably, casually and modestly. Keep in mind the weather always varies, but plan to bring warm clothes as it can get cold in the mountains in the winter.
For a complete packing list, click here.
Students and leaders will be placed in rooms with other individuals from their own church. Rooms will sleep anywhere between 10-12 people, depending on the room. All rooms have bunk beds and each room has its own bathroom. Whenever possible, we will place two adults in each room of students. The Episode staff will work directly with each group to get roommate preferences.
All meals are included in the registration fee for Episode. Starting with dinner on Friday night through Breakfast on Sunday morning, everyone will eat in the Ridgecrest Cafeteria, which has multiple serving lines and plenty of seating for everyone. Ridgecrest is fully prepared to handle any special dietary needs that individuals may have. The Episode staff will contact you with the appropriate forms to make any dietary requests that your group may have.
Early Registration is $185 per person. This will apply to all groups who have paid a deposit on spots by 11:59pm on December 15, 2023. Standard Registration is $215. This standard price of $199 applies to all groups registering between December 15 and January 15th, 2024.
Each individual registration fee includes admission to Episode, lodging for two nights at Ridgecrest, and all meals from Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast. The registration fee does not cover transportation to and from Episode. An Episode hoodie is available for purchase for an additional $15 through registration or on site during the weekend, while supplies last.
No! Everything is included from the time you arrive to the time you leave. However, you may want to bring some extra spending money for Episode merchandise or merchandise from the special guests/artists.
For a detailed explanation of financial information, including refunds, please visit this page.
Please email [email protected] with any additional questions that you may have. We would be glad to assist you in any way that we can.