Workshops
Workshops allow us to facilitate learning around relevant topics that help churches fulfill their mission. The workshops are held at local locations and at times which invite participation. The topics are chosen by local congregational leaders (vs. a topic we think a congregation a needs). When a workshop is facilitated by the Resourcing Coordinator or sponsored by the Resourcing Team, it is open to all our churches. This encourages participation between congregations.
We have identified trained church leaders who can lead workshops and/or resource you in determining your needs in the following areas:
HEALTHY CONGREGATIONS
Healthy Congregations is an interfaith organization that understands the times in which we live in. We equip leaders for challenges of thinking more clearly about families, relationships, and faith communities. Our resources and training are based on seeing all communities as living systems that incorporate thinking, feeling, responsibility, and purpose. Healthy Congregations, Inc. has created educational resources and leadership development material designed with the purpose of encouraging healthier, clearer and deeper individual and community life based on the contributions of leaders in the field of Bowen Theory and congregational life.
The following workshops can be presented as one-day retreats.
Workshop 1: Creating Healthy Congregations
Session 1: What is System Thinking?
Session 2: DVD: “The Anxious Congregation,” “The Responsible Congregation”
Session 3: Healthy Congregations Accept Differences
Session 4: Healthy Congregations Focus on Strength
Session 5: Healthy Congregations Focus on Mission
Workshop 2: Healthy Congregations Respond to Anxiety and Change
Session 1: Healthy Congregations Respond to Anxiety
Session 2: Healthy Congregations Manage Conflict
Session 3: Healthy Congregations Respond to Change
Session 4: Healthy Congregations Act Flexibly and Creatively
Session 5: Planning for a Healthier Future
Workshop 3: Leadership in Healthy Congregations
Session 1: The Self-Differentiated Leader
Session 2: DVD: “Healthy Leaders”
Session 3: Leaders Promote Health Through Their Presence and Functioning
Session 4: Leaders Challenge People
Session 5: Leaders Provide Immune Capacities
Workshop 4: Relationships in Healthy Congregations
Session 1: Forgiving
Session 2: Truthtelling
Session 3: Connecting
Session 4: DVD: “Healthy Helping”
Session 5: The Difficult Business of Helping
Workshop 5: Healthy Congregations Develop Generous People
Session 1: Life is All of a Piece
Session 2: The Stewardship of All Believers
Session 3: Money Talks
Session 4: Anxiety and Money
Session 5; People and Resources
Workshop 6: Spiritual Care of Healthy Congregations
Session 1: Holiness and Health
Session 2: Hospitality
Session 3: Helping People to Begin Again
Session 4: DVD: “The Spirit of Spirits”
Session 5: A Different Kind of Health
Healthy Congregations requires that Workshop 1 be presented before the others. If you are only interested in Workshop 5 (Stewardship), it would require an additional retreat day to present Workshop 1.
Contact Rev. Robin Miller Currás if you would like any of these workshops presented for your congregation.
DISCERNMENT STUDIES
Discovering and Connecting the Pieces of Our Church: A Journey of Searching, Listening, and Discernment
This process is intentionally designed to assist the congregation and the leadership to reflect on their history, discern their gifts, and encourage new leaders. This process is also about discerning where God is calling and to whom God is calling the congregation to minister with in their future. The process leads the congregation through discernment, prayer, “Dwelling in the Word,” listening to each other, and lots of conversations around the questions of God’s call.
This process was designed by our Presbytery Leader, Jeanne Radak, but several church leaders have been trained to lead this process.
Rev. Robin Miller Curras
Colleen Duffy
Rev. David Harvey
Rev. Amy Lawrence
Rev. Jeanne Radak
MISSIONAL PRACTICES WORKSHOPS
Opportunities for congregational leaders to learn God-centered habits that help a church listen for and respond to God’s call into missional action.
Missional Practices build God-centered habits that help any church spend more time and energy listening for God’s call into God’s mission already taking place nearby.
A team from our Presbytery has been trained by the staff of Church Innovations a consulting group specializing in helping congregations to thrive. These local facilitators are prepared to lead workshops that take place for a half day or over a series of evenings at local churches.
Each gathering focuses on one of six missional practices. These learning events give a local church concrete and faithful practices to DO, they learn simple actions that, when done repeatedly, change the culture of their congregation and make positive steps into connecting with the mission that God has for them.
Workshops can work for session or leadership retreats, Lent or Advent programs. Or you might want to help people become better disciples.
Contact the Presbytery Office Resourcing Center to schedule a workshop with one of our facilitators.
OR call Robin at 973-361-0084
WORKSHOP FACILITATORS
Rev. Amy Lawrence
Rev. Carrie Morgan
Rev. Stefanie Muntzel
STEWARDSHIP
Rev. Jen VanZandt
The Rev. Jen Van Zandt is a Stewardship Resource/Expert especially as it relates to specialized campaigns and stewardship education to younger generations.