2012 Annual Gathering

New schedule — 2 different days  •  2 different months  •  2 different locations!  The 2012 Annual Gathering will be new and (did we already say it?) different — two 1-day events, on June 16 at First Community Church in Columbus and on September 15 at Templed Hills Campand it will offer the best of past Gatherings!  Here's a preview.

 


Day #1:   Saturday, June 16 · First Community Church North Campus, Columbus

 

The emphasis will be on learning, inspiration and conducting Conference business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be inspired by two outstanding leaders . . .

Adam Kukuk - Leader of Four Doorways workshop

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith, Senior Pastor, Advent UCC, Columbus

Enjoy lunch with friends and colleagues

Conduct the business of the Conference

Participate in worship

Relax with friends and enjoy some refreshments during the social hour at the end of the day

Adam Kukuk in drumming circle
at 2011 Annual Gathering

Watch a video of Adam leading worship music

 

Adam Kukuk is a musician, composer & worship consultant.

From organ and piano to choirs and drum groups, Adam has meaningfully incorporated music ranging from Bach to Tracy Chapman in worship. Always striving to help congregations discover their resources and deepen their experience of God. Whether leading a cappella call-and-response refrains, Renaissance motets, children's bells, homemade percussion orchestras, contemporary praise music, or rousing Evangelical organ hymns, he has one goal: to help people worship God.

 

Four Doorways to Deepening Worship

Learn how to unlock the gifts your congregation already has to revitalize worship.

Imagine...

...a worship committee meeting. The faces around the room are blank. "We need to do something different with worship, it’s just not connecting. Where are the young families with children? Why do the men keep checking their PDAs during the service? Why do people seem so passive on Sunday morning?"

Questions like this are familiar, but the way forward can be elusive.

What if the way forward starts like this: You have already been given all the elements you need to deepen your experience of God. Maybe you need a catalyst to begin the reaction.

Bring your whole worship team for a time of exploring experiential worship, deepening worship practices, and directly applying new ideas and resources into congregational worship.

You will learn:

• Why worship needs to include our whole selves and whole families

• How to teach through experiences, not explanations

• To use the Four Doorways into experiential worship

• About circles and lines: Two types of congregational worship music

• Practical advice on leading change with grace

From Adam's website:  www.adamkukuk.com

 

Biosketch from the Advent UCC website:

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith, senior pastor of Advent United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio, is a 1986 graduate of Yale Divinity School.

She received her BA in English Literature from Occidental College and her D. Min. from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

A former reporter, Rev. Smith worked for newspapers in Baltimore and Texas before entering seminary. She also served as an associate producer for WJZ News, as an on-air news reporter for WEAA, the radio station affiliated with Morgan State University in Baltimore, and as a talk show host for “Columbus Today,” a locally heard radio program in Columbus, and as an on-air political commentator, for a news magazine television program, also produced in Columbus.

Since becoming pastor of Advent United Church of Christ, the church's membership has increased from five members to about 300. In addition to outreach ministries to the city's poor, Rev. Smith's ministry has concentrated on empowering urban youth through an annual summer arts program, which uses the arts to instill confidence in those youth who participate. Through arts immersion and concentration as well as on reading, writing and math, the camp has been successful in helping participating youth to perform better academically during the school year.

Rev. Smith has also served (and serves still) as minister of music at her church, producing what some have called a “professional choir” which, in addition to singing in Africa, has sung for professional productions including a promotional performance of “The Lion King,” “The Chocolate Nutcracker,” and with country singer Lyle Lovett.

Rev. Smith is a Co-President of BREAD, (Building Responsibility, Equity and Dignity), a multi-racial, multi-ethnic social justice organization comprised of over 50 different religious denominations in the city of Columbus. That organization was recently instrumental in getting the Ohio Legislature to sign into law a measure which prevents pay day lenders from charging its clients exorbitant interest rates.

She was recently invited to be a participant in the Oxford Roundtable, an event held at Oxford University in England, where she presented a paper on the tension in America between the United States Constitution and the Holy Bible.

She is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc. (SDPC), a social justice ministry which seeks to empower churches and ministers in urban settings to deal with the problems they face through training, resource development and acquisition, and changing of public policy. When the SDPC held hearings in Washington, D.C., Houston and New Orleans, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Rev. Smith served as lead commissioner. Those hearings resulted in a published report entitled, “The Breach.”

Rev. Smith is now forming a private, not-for-profit organization, Susan K. Smith Ministries, aimed at empowering urban youth all over the United States. Her first project is to get brand new books into public schools in urban and rural America; the first city being targeted is New Orleans, La.

She is the author of four books, “Carla and Annie,” “From Calvary to Victory,” “Forgive WHO?” and, recently released, Crazy Faith: Ordinary People; Extraordinary Lives.

She is the mother of two adult children, Charlie and Caroline.

Annual Gathering Keynote Speaker

 

Rev. Dr. Susan Smith

Senior Pastor

Advent UCC, Columbus

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day #2:   Saturday, September 15 · Templed Hills Camp

This day is all about fellowship, fun and friends.

 

 

·  Hog roast for lunch

·  Campfire (optional Friday overnight)

·  Enjoy the camp with outdoor and indoor activities

 

 

 

 

 

Mark your calendar for one day or both!

 

2011 Annual Gathering Wrap-up

   

Ohio Conference    

 

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