This year during Yearly Meeting the Board of Christian Education and Discipleship will once again host the CE Dinner. All Christian educators are invited to the Christian Education Teacher and Leader Appreciation Dinner on Tuesday, July 26, 2011, in the Cap and Gown Room at George Fox University. The dinner buffet and program will begin at 5:30pm. We are privileged to have Dr. Mark Kelley as our speaker. He will be sharing who we are as Friends today. We will also share a video, gifts, and prizes to show our appreciation. Please sign up for this free dinner in your YM registration.
Tuesday has been designated as Christian Education Day during Yearly Meeting. We will be sponsoring several workshops for you to attend. Here is a brief explanation of each workshop:
During Pastors Conference this year Pastor Alan Weinacht of Greenleaf Friends led a one-hour discussion on the book, The Strategically Small Church. The book discusses how there are some ways small churches function that are essential to the health of the church and that large churches have to work hard to emulate. The thrust of the workshop will be to help church leaders focus on what is positive about small churches and to take some positive energy home. Workshop title: The Strategically Small Church. The main points will include: defining success; keeping it real: the authentic church; new focus on the family: the intergenerational church; how to take this conversation home to your church.
Gilbert George and Nate Macy will hold a workshop titled: Worship & Lament. In this workshop Gil shares some of his journey through grief and loss and his struggle with taking these things to God. Through study of the psalms, Gil learned that God desires our questioning and encourages us to share our mourning. At the end of Gil’s presentation there will be opportunities to write a psalm of lament of your own while Nate Macy shares some songs of lament. After the writing, there will be a brief time to share how the process of writing the psalm affected you.
Jamie Johnson, director of the Friends Leadership Program, will be taking a look at how historical Quaker testimonies/beliefs/practices connect with today’s generation. While Quaker beliefs are often seen by others as too different to take seriously, there are great connections between the values of our youth and these beliefs. But how do we go about thinking about them in today’s world and not just holding to the historic, primitive Quaker beliefs? This workshop coincides with the Board of Christian Education’s theme for this year of “Who are we as Friends today?”
by Shawn Leonard, co-clerk for the Board of Christian Education
