According to a Focus on the Family survey, forty percent of pastors responding said they had considered leaving their pastorates in the past three months.

Pastors reported that their foremost difficulty was keeping their family lives and ministry responsibilities in balance. According to Focus on the Family, 1,500 pastors in America leave their ministry every month.

Pastors need time away with their family

Pastors need to take time away with their family but most pastors are barely making enough money to survive. Most cannot afford to take time away with their family.

For 34 years, Norwood Christian Ranch has focused on ministering to Pastors and their families. Located in the remote mountains of Southwest Colorado, Norwood Christian Ranch has been a safe refuge for pastors and their families to get away from the daily demands of ministry life, rejuvenate their spirits and renew their relationship with family and with the Lord.  Why not consider giving your pastor a gift certificate to stay at Norwood Christian Ranch?

Here's what one pastor had to say about his time at the Ranch:

"Our week at Norwood Christian Ranch was one of the highlights of our summer. Being from the Midwest, it is always a treat to spend time in Colorado. Norwood Christian Ranch enhances Colorado’s beauty by showing it off through a Christian family perspective.

We enjoyed visiting beautiful Telluride and riding the free gondola and we loved hiking in Arches National Park just across the stateline in Utah. However we really enjoyed coming back to Norwood, reading under a tree, watching deer and elk, and having s'mores and doughies around a fire-pit.

Norwood Christian Ranch is a wonderful place to get away from the hustle and bustle of ministry and just spend time with God, and your family."
                                                  Pastor Tom & Karen Cox
                                                                Russiaville, IN
                                             Main Street Christian Church

A Gift for Your Pastor and a way to help us continue to serve pastors around the country.

Norwood Christian Ranch has been providing a place of rest and renewal for pastors, missionaries and their families for 34 years.  It takes the support of churches and individuals from around the country to keep the ranch open and keep our rates affordable.

For a donation of $175 or more to Norwood Christian Ranch we will send you a gift certificate to give to your pastor good for up to 7 nights stay at Norwood Christian Ranch.  The certificate is good for up to six people per room.  Additional rooms can be added for $50 per night.

Order your gift certificate today:

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation via PayPal, just click the button below.  Be sure to email us your church name and address and your pastor's name so we can mail you the gift certificate.

If you would rather mail in your donation please down load a contribution form by clicking here.  Mail the form along with your check made payable to Norwood Christian Ranch:

Norwood Christian Ranch
P.O. Box 100
Norwood, CO  81423

Here are some more comments from pastors and their families who have stayed with us this year.

“Thank you so much for showing us such a great time when we visited Norwood Christian Ranch. It was so very needed and enjoyed. We enjoyed the hiking and exploring. We really enjoyed the fellowship time with the whole staff at meal times. While there we enjoyed trips to Ouray, Telluride and Ridgway (we ate in the True Grit Cafe where part of the True Grit movie was shot). We saw lots of deer, elk and other wildlife on our excursions. But the best thing was the time of peace and quiet when it was just Kay and I taking it easy.

We strongly recommend this experience to all the pastors and staff of all churches. You need to get away. In scripture there are many examples of God's leaders just needing to get away for a short period of time to recuperate and then rejoin the battle refreshed and renewed. This is the place to get away for that purpose.

I would also encourage churches to help support this camp so that pastors, staff missionaries and other Christian workers will continue to have it available to them as we did. Put Norwood Christian Ranch in your Missions giving program. God created Norwood Christian Ranch to provide this vital ministry for Christian ministers of all kinds and they need your support."

Pastor Ernie and Kay Johnson  Cactus Christian Fellowship  Phoenix, AZ

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"We don’t take near enough vacation time and most pastors don’t. They are motivated by what needs to be done. There is never a time where you can just sit still, because even when you’re sitting still, you’re thinking, you’re planning, you’re dreaming, you're scheming, you're drawing up the next visionary plan for the next sermon series and how it’s all going to look and how it’s all going to shake down.  So it seems like the minister’s job is never really done.

A lot of times pastors have vacation time they don’t take. Shame on all of us for not taking it. But we have these other more important matters to take care of, and that is the thing that drives families into the ground. It breaks them apart. And we wonder why ministers fall away from ministry, because they haven’t taken the time to be with their families the way they need to.

So we all need to have retreats. We all need to have time alone. We preach from the pulpit that Jesus went away to retreat, and yet, we don’t go do it ourselves.

Norwood Christian Ranch is a quiet place. You’re away from all of the distractions that are there, all the things that get in the way, that keep you from doing the things you need to do.

So you could come here and capture a vision of what you needed to do, or you could come and rest, if that’s what you need to do, and to sleep. How many times do you just get a chance to sleep and just lay down and be quiet and do nothing?

There’s nobody telling you what to do and we need that. And we need permission to do that. And most of us don’t have permission. We need permission. Allow your church to give you permission and allow yourself to give yourself permission to go rest, and retreat, and get away and do what you need to do so that you can be a stronger dad, a stronger parent, a stronger husband, a better motivator in ministry. 

For us, we are a family of six, so finding even a hotel for sleeping arrangements for six can be quite expensive. To be able to have a place that is motivated by donations, or by gifts, or by other churches who are supporting the ministry of Norwood Christian Ranch is a great help."

Brian & Denise Schreiber family Hamilton, OH Fairfield Church of Christ

To make a donation:

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation via PayPal, just click the button below.  Be sure to email us your church name and address and your pastor's name for the certificate.

Remember, for a $175 donation your pastor receives a gift cerificate good for up to seven nights stay at Norwood Christian Ranch. 
For each additional $50 we'll add an additional night.

If you would rather mail in your donation please down load a contribution form by clicking here.  Mail the form along with your check made payable to Norwood Christian Ranch:

Norwood Christian Ranch
P.O. Box 100
Norwood, CO  81423

Norwood Christian Ranch is a ministry of
Families For Christ Ministries, Inc.
a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. 
Donations are tax deductible