VISION
Sustainable and faithful lifelong Christian service by pastors, missionaries, young adults, and their families.
Meet the Hughes!
Michael and Lynette have been in ministry since 2009. Michael served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Central and Northeast Wisconsin, first ministering to college students as a campus staff and then serving for three years as an Area Director ministering to campus staff and students.
The Hughes Family moved to South Carolina in 2019 and Michael served as the first Director of Davenant House, a study center for young adults, pastors, and Christian academics.
They have felt called by the Lord to return to Wisconsin in 2024 to begin a 501(c)3 very similar to Be Still called “House Beautiful Retreats,” which will be located in the Southwest part of the state near La Crosse. They plan to serve pastors and missionaries along with their families, as well as to provide discipleship for young adults on the local college campuses and through periodic programs or events on site.
Board of Directors:
Steven Brinkman
Steven works as a financial advisor in central and northern Wisconsin. He is married to Jessica and together they have three children, Libby, Evan, and Elam. Steven and Jessica currently live in Marshfield, WI.
Rick Reyer
Rick has 34 years professional experience in nonprofit management including fundraising, marketing & communications, public relations, community engagement project management and crisis communications. He and his wife live in Wausau, WI.
Michael Bowman
Michael Bowman received his M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is currently the Pastor of Christ Covenant Church (P.C.A.) in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Michael has spent his life in the Coulee Region, currently raising the 7th generation of his family to live in the same valley. He is married to Emily, and is father to Haddon, Martin, Eliza, & Warren.
Jim Thompson
Jim is a retired business owner from southern Wisconsin. Jim spent 30 years as a Caterpillar engine mechanic and 4 years as a shop manager before setting his tools aside to work with his wife in the online business she began in 2003. They retired in 2019 after selling their business to their son. Jim was involved with the Gideons International for 13 years and currently serves as the treasurer of his church. He has been married to his first wife, Joan, for 42 years. Together, they built a home, homeschooled their children, and turned a Ford Transit van into a home for their daughter with under 1,000 hours of help from You-Tube. They enjoy truck camping and gardening, and they recently welcomed their 4th grandchild.
Chris Cashen
Chris grew up working in his family’s residential home building business, which his Dad eventually left to pursue pastoral ministry. He has a Civil Engineering degree from VMI and served in the Air Force for 6 years as a Civil Engineer officer, continuing to the present to serve in the Reserves. He and his family relocated to Greenville SC in 2018, and since 2019 he has been a financial planner. He particularly enjoys strategic level planning initiatives.
Michael Raymond
Michael joined Thrivent in 2018, is a founding member of Compass Wealth Advisors and a Chartered Financial Consultant. He is responsible for portfolio management and investment selections. He also helps clients plan for retirement, develop wealth transfer strategies and address complex business structuring. Michael is retired from the U.S. Army. He earned bachelors degrees in philosophy and Spanish from the University of North Carolina Asheville and serves on the UNC Asheville Foundation Board of Directors and Alumni Board of Directors. Michael loves spending time with his wife, Vicky, their two sons, Oliver and Benjamin, and their dog, Georgie.
Plan for Development:
Our goal is to develop a fully operational pastoral and missionary retreat center
– on a property with natural beauty and outdoor recreation opportunities including walking paths and a firepit at minimum
– with one or more ministry houses for hosting guests overnight
– and a multipurpose common space that serves as a library/chapel/study/meeting room space for guests and small church/missionary leadership groups to utilize and for us to host special short discipleship, day conference, or seminar events for young adults, college students, pastors or missionaries
We envision a similar setup to Be Still Retreats, which has 5 ministry houses and a day use cabin. We will be open to hosting whole families of pastors and missionaries for them to achieve the needed retreat and restoration the whole family requires (ministry stressors impact the whole family). We want to have some level of active engagement with guests during part of their stay while also giving them the space they need for rest and retreat (we will determine the level of engagement through a pre-stay survey that discerns their needs and desires for their retreat time and makes them aware of what we can offer in ministering to them, including times of child care for pastors and their spouse to have some one-on-one time). We also will host some short special events, particularly geared toward college students and young adults, seeking to invest in the next generation of the Church and help them discern their callings.
We are open to if the Lord calls us to scale larger than this in the future or help others replicate this model elsewhere, but are happy to serve faithfully at a level of 2-5 ministry houses long term that are booked out pretty consistently during the times we make them available and we will consider that a successful and fruitful ministry work worthy of pursuit that will benefit the Church in the Midwest and abroad.
Roadmap
1. Michael transitions officially from his current ministry role to House Beautiful Retreats February 1st, 2024. This will allow him to put full time efforts into:
- the establishment of the work administratively
- networking and fundraising toward the initial startup costs and ongoing support needs: goal of just north of $250,000 raised in the first year and a half for two fully furnished houses and an emergency fund (fully furnished houses cost between $75-100K)raising ongoing monthly support of about $7250 needed the first year (almost achieved already), which increases to $8650 or so monthly once houses are placed and operations begin
- planning and writing materials for website, ministry promotion, pastor/missionary retreat resources, and sketching out some future ministry events to host
- property location and purchase
- site preparations for the placement of the houses as well as landscaping and other logistics as we approach the funding needed for purchasing the first 2 ministry houses, identifying the models for purchase and needs for furnishing the homes to complete setup as they are purchased and placed
2. The Hughes aim to make the physical move to WI in June 2024 provided things go smoothly for the sale of their home and land.
3. In order to begin ministering to young adults/college students and start to create connections toward opportunities to further minister to them once the retreat center is fully operational, Michael plans to begin volunteering with campus ministry at UW-L in the Fall of 2024 one day a week, investing in students and connecting with campus ministers and young adult ministries of local churches in the area.
4. Timing of the actual site purchase and beginning of site preparations is dependent upon the timing of the Hughes’ land selling and their subsequent successful identification of (including the due diligence to be sure property zoning and other local laws will allow for the placement of several ministry houses on the property) and closing on the purchase of the property that will become the site of House Beautiful Retreats. Evaluation for and laying of plans for the multipurpose common space can be done once the property is acquired and we can then evaluate and set a timeline for that.
5. The hope is that the land purchase is completed and site preparations can be carried out through the fall of 2024 and finished in the spring of 2025 so that ministry house purchase and placement can occur by summer of 2025. During the winter, whatever preparations can occur will be pursued, but during the throes of winter when some have to be put on hold, attention will be directed to the college/young adult ministry locally, fundraising, networking, and promotion toward the projected launch date with an emphasis on reaching out to pastors to raise awareness and ask them to consider applying for membership so they have an early opportunity book a stay once the website becomes live for reservations.
6. In the summer of 2025 the hope is to have sustainable funding for ongoing costs consistently coming in and the initial capital campaign of $250,000 raised, utilizing that to purchase the first two ministry houses and place them on the property. This will enable us to begin officially hosting pastors and missionaries, and continue to minister to young adults and college students while beginning to add occasional on-site events for them.