1001 New Worshiping Communities ready to help with training, discernment and one-on-one coaching

Residency and apprenticeship applications due by March 1

by Tammy Warren | Presbyterian News Service

The 2016-17 cohort of 1001 New Worshiping community apprentices, residents, coaches and mentors. (Photo by Michael Thompson)

LOUISVILLE – Applications for the 2017-18 1001 New Worshiping Communities apprenticeship and residency program are being accepted through March 1.

Apprenticeships
In addition to 10-week summer apprenticeships based in Los Angeles in partnership with Northland Village Church, nine-month part-time apprenticeships are available in the geographic area where a potential leader feels called to live and work. Learn more about summer and nine-month apprenticeships.

Residencies
The program also offers five nine-month part-time residencies in collaboration with new worshiping community campuses in Ontario, California; Chicago, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Charleston, South Carolina.

Residents can test and strengthen their capacity for starting new ministry initiatives in distinct settings in either major metropolitan urban areas or on a college campus.

Beacon, a church launched in 2011 and chartered in 2015, helps strengthen the community of Kensington in Philadelphia through art, storytelling and fresh expressions of faith expressed through weekly worship.

Broad Street Ministry is a broad-minded Christian community in Philadelphia that cherishes creativity; fosters and nurtures artistic expression; extends inclusive hospitality; and works for a more just world through civic engagement.

Friendship Presbyterian Church partners and shares space with The Night Ministry, an organization that works to provide health care, housing and human connection to those experiencing homelessness in Chicago.

The Journey, an open-minded, passionate and denominationally diverse Christian community on the campuses of the College of Charleston is currently the largest Presbyterian campus ministry on the east coast and the fastest growing Presbyterian campus ministry in the country.

Westminster Ontario is one of the longest tenured congregations of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Located in the famed Inland Empire of Southern California, Westminster Ontario has helped found several Presbyterian congregations and wishes to continue that tradition in the context of the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement by supporting a bilingual (Spanish-English) resident called to partner with the Latino community.

Sara Hayden directs the apprenticeship and residency programs for the 1001 movement and is thrilled that even more potential worshiping community leaders will have the opportunity to participate.

“Our apprentices will benefit from training, discernment and one-one-one coaching from mentors experienced in starting new ministries,” she says. “We’re not trying to take people out of their context, but to equip them to do what God is calling them to do as they take a faithful risk to start something new.”

Hayden invites anyone considering an apprenticeship or residency to read more about current apprentices and residences (2016-17). “We have been blessed by a diverse, gifted and collaborative group of emerging leaders in the movement,” she says.

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Visit the 1001 website for more information and to apply for the 2017-18 New Worshiping Communities apprenticeships and residencies.

All 2017-18 apprentices and residents will take part in national training in Los Angeles, California, June 12–15.