A family retreat for members of Crafton Heights United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh opened up possibilities in inter-generational learning, deepening commitment to faith and attendees understanding of God’s relationship to humanity.
If camps are famous as places for roughing it, the tablecloths were an unexpected amenity. “Because you are here at camp, there are tablecloths,” said Doug Walters, Camp Hanover’s executive director, to a dining hall filled with delighted laughter. “There are no tablecloths here in summer.”
Bolz-Weber, the unconventional Lutheran minister who’s been known keep her audience tuned in with humor and an expletive now and then, spoke to more than 300 people at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Presbytery of Milwaukee in the auditorium of the city’s Art Museum.
Over two mornings at the 2016 ARMSS/POAMN conference the Rev. Dr. John T. Carroll shared his wisdom in a comprehensive, two-part keynote address with broad implications for his audience of pastors, educators, and others engaged in ministry with older adults.
There was at least one elephant in the room at Chris Pomfret’s workshop at the 2016 ARMSS/POAMN conference. But an elephant could scarcely have fit into the packed meeting space, which nearly exceeded the room’s seating capacity as extra chairs were carried in to accommodate conference-goers eager to engage the workshop’s theme, “Making Our Third Thirty a Great Thirty: How to Make the Difficult Decisions.”
A lively spirit filled the gathering space as the leadership of the Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network (POAMN) and the Association of Retired Ministers, Their Spouses or Survivors (ARMSS) celebrated their 20th year of co-sponsoring a national conference for persons engaged in ministry with older adults.
For more than a century, the manse next to First Presbyterian Church in tiny Baird, Texas (population 1,600), served many functions: as the church’s first sanctuary, as a home for a string of pastors, and as space for vacation Bible School and adult Sunday school classes. In recent years, however, it had become an albatross, a dilapidated structure that was too expensive to repair and too expensive to demolish.
When members of Canfield (Ohio) Presbyterian Church began raising funds for a remodeling project and addition in 2008 they made sure 10 percent of the capital raised was reserved for mission activities. Several years later, and another remodel of existing facilities, the church opened its mission housing space to those engaged with area service organizations.
When the Rev. Dr. Nancy Jo Dederer earned her Doctor of Ministry degree in parish revitalization, she had no idea that church transformation would become her calling. And not only her calling, but also a blessing to the people of Homewood, Illinois.
From “Navigating Change” to “Sustaining Spiritual Vitality,” attendees at the Go Disciple Live “Be the Light” Conference chose from a wealth of nearly 30 workshop topics toward building their skills in authentic evangelism, storytelling, social media, effective church transformation, justice, church planting, and more.
