April 15, 2014
If you don’t have anything on your calendar for May 3rd…get ready to fill it up! This season between Easter and Labor Day is often the busiest time of the year for our churches and in our conference as we finally can count on good weather and the holidays are behind us and folks have not (yet) evacuated to their summer camps. The Cabinet is busy finalizing appointments while program staff and hundreds of volunteers prepare for our annual conference session.
I want to share with you some of the wonderful opportunities happening around the conference that may enrich and support you in your mission and ministry. These are all funded by your missions shares…a great use of our resources to equip leaders and churches to make disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world. The speakers and teachers coming here are inspiring, skilled, creative and passionate leaders in our church. If you’ve been wondering how to tackle some of the challenges facing the church, sign up a team today and spend a Saturday filling up on the stuff that will fuel your ministry. Most of these events can be found on our conference website under district resourcing days, a quick link on the home page.
May third, there are four places I’d like to be…I encourage you to choose one! Mark Miller and Tanya Bennett will be leading a worship workshop at East Longmeadow, MA. Kenda Creasy Dean, professor of youth ministry at Princeton and author of Almost Christian, will share ideas for reaching youth and young adults at Oxford, MA. In Boston, Brother John from Taize will lead a day in the life of Taize with three meals and three worship services, and workshops too, at Trinity Church, Copley Square. If you want to shift from raising funds to raising generous disciples, then head to Eliot, ME, to hear from Ken Sloan, Director of Stewardship for the General Board of Discipleship, and attend several workshops to improve stewardship. Northern Maine is hosting a leadership academy in Lincoln, ME, with keynote speaker David Abbott, on the topic of prayer. And, there will be a presentation at Plymouth, MA, by the Strategic Planning Team on recommendations they will bring to the annual conference session for your information and helpful feedback. Okay, that’s actually six events on May 3!
The very next weekend, on May 10, you have a chance to participate in another inspiring worship workshop with Marcia McFee in Boston, MA. If your worship is stuck in a rut, or you are just looking for some new ways of creating visually stimulating worship, or developing worship teams to plan and design worship…this is not to be missed. Or, if you want some very helpful tools in forming effective leadership teams that will change the way your nominations committee works forever…head over to Bow Mills, NH to hear from my colleague in ministry, Sue Nilson Kibbey, the Director of Missional Initiatives for West Ohio.
And the beat goes on…
May 17, Rebekah Simon Peter will share the three things every church leader needs to know about human behavior, at Auburn, ME.
These events were planned in response to your requests for more help in resourcing your local ministries, and as part of the Bishop’s initiative to provide tools for each district superintendent to strategize for mission. These district-based events are open to laity and clergy from any district…feel free to cross district boundaries to get what you need! And, there is more to come, as each district will continue to offer resourcing and leadership development opportunities throughout the year, building upon our conference theme and encouraging everyone to also attend the Ripple Effect event in November. Make sure you have the right tools in your toolkit for the ministry to which you are called.
Connected in Christ,
Erica