Urban Churches in Mission

These meetings are for anyone who volunteers in an urban ministry church, who contributes mission dollars to such a church, or is involved in any other way with the mission of an urban church. The group will meet this evening for worship and sharing. 

Worship and Sharing

            7:00     Framing tonight’s worship and workshops on Saturday

            7:15     Prayers from the Pastors

            7:30     Worship in song and praise

            8:00     Anointing with oil and praying for God’s people

(An adaption of the precursor to General Synod’s “Is it well with your Soul” service)

            8:50     Closing circle of Prayer

Event organizers:

Pastor Tom Gerstenlauer, Miller Avenue UCC, Akron

Pastor Will Stuart, Nu-Vizion UCC, Toledo

Pastor Douglas Horner, St. Paul's Community Church UCC, Cleveland

Pastor Carl P. Wallace, Trinity UCC, Akron

Pastor Pam DeFusco, Washington UCC, Cincinnati

Mission Program (7 - 8:30 pm)  •   Sponsored by Global Ministries

Come and experience this lively multi-media presentation by UCC national staff as they engage the audience in telling our mission story.

See what Global Ministries is doing now: http://www.globalministries.org/

Read about our missionaries, where they are and what they are doing: http://globalministries.org/mission/missionaries/

Come on Friday evening to see and hear more about how together we are changing the world!

Surviving the Conversation: Snapshots and Strategies for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer Inclusion across Denominations - speaker/panel discussion

Sponsored by the Coalition for LGBT Concerns, Ohio Chapter

Keynote speaker

Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge, is a UCC pastor in Columbia, SC and the founder and editor of www.whosoever.org, an online monthly magazine for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Christians. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008).

Rev. Chellew-Hodge's presentation will be followed by a panel discussion.  Members of several other denominations will describe the recent struggles within their faith communions regarding the status of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning persons of faith.

There will also be time for small group discussions and a book signing by Rev. Chellew-Hodge.

A free will offering, with a suggested donation of $10 per person, will be collected.

Conversation with Our Conference Minister and Our Keynote Speaker

In a time of declining revenues, membership, and institutional loyalty, what is the role of the middle judicatory (Conference and Association) in the United Church of Christ?  Can Conferences and Associations continue to provide the services that have been their historical legacy?  Are there new opportunities available that will make this setting of the Church more vital and relevant? 

In the context of big paradigm shifts, Ohio Conference Minister, Bob Molsberry, will share news of Ohio Conference challenges and initiatives; and our keynote speaker, Dick Hamm, will offer his perspective.  There will be time for questions and conversation in a relaxed, informal setting.

Ministry in Uncertain Times

This workshop will focus on the Alban Institute Ministry in Uncertain Times material, created in the wake of the recent widespread economic crisis to assist clergy and church leaders in offering care and guidance to their congregations, both at the personal and institutional levels. 

Another focus will be the Three-Legged Stool—a model for congregational financial health—with the emphasis on what motivates people to give generously. 

Leadership Training for Youth

Youth leadership training at the Ohio Conference Annual Gathering! 

• Defining a Leader: Understanding What Leadership Is and Isn’t

• Who Leaders Are: Developing the Heart and Character of a Leader

• What Leaders Need: Discovering What a Leader Needs to Achieve Success

• What Leaders Do: Carrying Out the Essential Tasks of a Leader

• The Value of Risk Taking

• Navigating Obstacles

Plus a concert, cookout, games, worship, fellowship and fun!

More

Mini Mission Festival (1:30 - 4:00 pm)

Gather for a Mini-Mission Festival led by Jan Aerie, Executive for Mission Education and Interpretation from Wider Church Ministries, along with other members of Wider Church Ministries.  Active interpretation, participation and hands-on tools for telling the stories of mission will be shared. 

 Hear the stories of some of our Conference’s congregations in mission. You will come away inspired and energized. Like the national Mission and Ministries Interpretation training, we will learn who Global Ministries is, where our Global Ministries is present, and how we can engage in Global Ministries.

Join us for dialogue, sharing and brainstorming what you would like to do in mission!

Planning a mission trip?  See what options there may be: http://globalministries.org/mission/group-trips/

Did you know that the UCC has a Child Sponsorship program? Click here: http://globalministries.org/get-involved/child-sponsorship/

Benevolent Institutions

Representatives of our benevolent institutions will gather to conduct business.

Rural Churches  (1:30 - 5:00 pm)

Have you ever wondered what pastors in other rural churches are doing in the Ohio Conference?  Have you ever wanted to get together to just talk about our concerns, our issues, our exciting projects, and our opportunities for vital ministry? Let's do just that!

Why?   Because the world around us is changing.  Because the nature of rural and small town ministry is changing.  Because there are more people moving from the city to the country and we need to know how to welcome them.  Because rural and exurban ministry is as vital as urban ministry.  We just do it differently!

If you are in a rural area that is becoming increasingly “exurban,” this group is for you as well.  Exurbia is that outer ring beyond suburbia, approximately 50 miles from an urban center, that is what we used to call “bedroom” communities of larger cities. 

Our goal and outcome for this first gathering will be to establish a network of rural pastors and to gather at least annually for mutual support and continuing education.

Convener:  Rev. Leslie Carole Taylor, Pastor, Trinity UCC, Thornville

Urban Churches in Mission Workshop

These meetings are for anyone who volunteers in an urban ministry church, who contributes mission dollars to such a church, or is involved in any other way with the mission of an urban church.

Today, we will share the powerful stories of successful urban ministry happening at churches in Akron, Toledo, Cleveland and Cincinnati.  A panel discussion and testimonies from the congregations' mission partners will follow. 

Workshop Agenda

          1:00     Welcome by all

1:10     Scriptural basis of Urban Ministry

1:15     Opening Prayer

1:20     Outlining the day

1:30     Success stories of urban ministry in the Conference

1:30- 1:45       Miller Avenue UCC, Akron

1:45     Praise song

1:50- 2:05       Nu-Vizion UCC, Toledo

2:05     Praise song

2:10-2:25        St. Paul’s Community Church UCC, Cleveland

2:25     Praise song

2:30-2:45        Trinity UCC, Akron

2:45     Praise song

2:50-3:05        Washington UCC, Cincinnati

3:05     Praise song

3:10- 3:30 Break and networking

3:30- 4:45 Panel discussion (Q&A) and testimonies from our partners

4:45     Closing circle of prayer

Event organizers:

Pastor Tom Gerstenlauer, Miller Avenue UCC, Akron

Pastor Will Stuart, Nu-Vizion UCC, Toledo

Pastor Douglas Horner, St. Paul's Community Church UCC, Cleveland

Pastor Carl P. Wallace, Trinity UCC, Akron

Pastor Pam DeFusco, Washington UCC, Cincinnati

Workshop: Our Churches’ Response to War

Sponsored by the Eastern Ohio Association Church in the World Committee, Working Group on the War

The program will focus on the healing ministry for veterans developed at First Congregational Church in Tallmadge, Ohio: WARRIOR'S JOURNEY HOME.  The Warrior's Journey Home ministry serves veterans of all wars, families, and the community as a whole. 

The ministry was founded several years ago by Dr. John Schluep, Senior Pastor, and several area veterans and church members.  It has grown into a multi-faceted program with a primary focus on healing souls impacted by war. 

The ministry incorporates the basic approach of "listen, speak, heal" in the context of ritual and sacred ceremony at weekly healing circles.  In April, First Congregational received an award and recognition from Gov. Ted Strickland and Major General Gregory Wayt, Adjutant General, for the soul-healing ministry.

The Friday segment will be led by lay minister Ann Carter and Shianne Eagleheart.  Ann has been a part of the Warrior's Journey Home program since its inception at First Congregational.  With her experience and contact with the veterans community, she brings powerful testimony regarding application of God's healing power to communities impacted by war. 

Shianne is founder of the Redbird Center for Healing, and is an international speaker/trainer in the area of trauma treatment through ceremony and narrative story.  A foundation grant has allowed her to partner with First Congregational to assist in development of a training protocol and curriculum for the healing ministry.

In the Saturday afternoon session, all are invited to participate in a healing circle ceremony.  Facilitated by Ann and Shianne, with participation by representatives of the Tallmadge veteran community, circle participants will experience first-hand the healing power of the Warrior's Journey Home healing circle ceremony.  Veterans and families of service personnel are encouraged to attend.

Read an article from the Tallmadge Express about Warrior's Journey Home

First Congregational UCC, Tallmadge - Warrior's Journey Home

Warrior's Journey Home Brochure

Disaster Response Team

Team members will meet to conduct business.

 Faith and Money - Affinity Group Workshop

Workshop leaders:

·    Nancy F. Ackley, Ohio Conference staff for Financial Ministries and national UCC capital campaign consultant

·    Kathryn Matthews Huey, Minister for Covenantal Stewardship, Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Team, UCC Local Church Ministries

·    Tracy Carnes, Associate Minister for Stewardship Resources, UCC Local Church Ministries

This interactive workshop will be an opportunity to move beyond the techniques for a more productive annual stewardship (pledging) process.  We intend to explore the deep-seated anxieties and fears that prevent us from examining our individual and corporate attitudes about money, and that give it such power over us as individuals and over our churches.

Even though money and possessions are one of the most frequently addressed subjects in the Old and New Testaments, money talk is strangely absent, even taboo, from our faith lives and communities.  Perhaps if we could break down the wall that separates our faith from our money, much of our sense of scarcity, and our fear, would disappear.

Areas for conversation will include, among others:

• Where did our attitudes and feelings about money come from? (money autobiography)

• What are the barriers to this subject?

• How has the present economic crisis impacted us, in ways both good and bad? How does our faith help us to respond to this challenge?

• What is God calling the Church to be and do in this time?

• What would financial health look like for an individual? For a congregation?

• Can a church and its people be spiritually healthy if we aren’t financially healthy?

• Where do we turn for guidance?

• What differences are there among generations when it comes to money?

• How about differences in life cycles?

• In what ways is giving to the church distinctive from giving to other causes?

• How have some churches worked to make the connection between faith and money?

• What are some good resources that will help us work towards financial wellness?

Bring your questions and concerns and also open minds and hearts to this candid discussion of how our values, our faith and our money intersect.

Leadership Training for Youth

Youth leadership training at the Ohio Conference Annual Gathering! 

• Defining a Leader: Understanding What Leadership Is and Isn’t

• Who Leaders Are: Developing the Heart and Character of a Leader

• What Leaders Need: Discovering What a Leader Needs to Achieve Success

• What Leaders Do: Carrying Out the Essential Tasks of a Leader

• The Value of Risk Taking

• Navigating Obstacles

Plus a concert, cookout, games, worship, fellowship and fun!