CEU News November 2020

The CEU News Continuing Education Update November 2020 A Publication of the Wesley Leadership Institute Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church

Events - Coming Soon!

November 2020: Jesus Unbound: Looking at the Bible Through the Lens of Christ November 2 - 20 Online 1.5 CEUs In this course, author and Bible teacher, Keith Giles, will show us how and why a Christcentric perspective on Scripture is not only what Jesus, the apostles and the early Church encourage us to take — it’s also how many of our most difficult and confusing issues with the Scriptures become resolved.

Story Companions: Caring Through Story Listening November 4 Online 0.1 CEUs or November 4 - December 16 Online 0.5 CEUs Professor Emerita of Pastoral Care and Pastoral Theology at Candler, Karen D. Scheib will present a lecture on "Story Companions: Caring Through Story Listening" on Nov. 4. The lecture is the opening portion of an online course by the same name taught by Scheib and sponsored by Peachtree Christian Church .

Reimagining the World Together: A Conversation w/Anthony Arnove & Sonia Shah November 5 Online 0.1 CEUs Reimagining the World Together: Why Friendship Matters for Our Future is a fall series hosted by the Kenan Institute for Ethics in collaboration with Duke Divinity School and the Office of Undergraduate Education. It examines the problems of the present and the possibilities for the future through moderated conversations between pairs of friends.

RightNow Coonference November 5 Online 0.6 CEUs Distractions threaten to pull us in disparate directions, blurring our focus so that we lose sight of what’s most important. We worry about budgets and buildings. Factions threaten to fracture our church’s unity. Chaotic voices clamor for our attention. To lead well we must recenter our gaze on our purpose for doing ministry. This is a free 1-day digital event for pastors, church staff and group leaders who believe the mission of the church matters.

Megachurches in the Black Church November 5 Online 0.2 CEUs In honor of the 30th Anniversary of Candler's Black Church Studies program, this panel will consider the complexity in development of megachurches in the Black church tradition. It will bring together leading scholars and pastors to discuss theologies and histories that inspire their development while also determining if such institutions have created a “new” Black church experience running parallel or opposite to the traditional Black church tradition.

Howard Thurman Lecture - Luke Powery November 12 Online 0.2 CEUs The Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, dean of Duke University Chapel and associate professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, will deliver the address, "A Homiletical Sankofa: The Spirituals and the Future of Ministry." Music and preaching have always been vital practices in the Black Church. This lecture will look back at the Spirituals as musical sermons in the Spirit that can serve as a critical resource for reflecting on and moving forward into the future of ministry.

Sermon Academy November 16 Online 0.2 CEUs

This year’s Sermon Academy will be an online event featuring Leah Burns, Larry Trotter, Mark Gooden, and Doug Fairbanks. You will get lots of helpful hints for preaching during the Advent season. Watch your email for details!

Public Theology from a Latinx Perspective November 23 Online 0.2 CEUs The Hispanic House of Studies at Duke Divinity School will hold a webinar on "Public Theology from a Latinx Perspective" featuring Daniel Camacho, associate web editor at Sojourners magazine, speaking on the importance of theological discussions in the public sphere. His work has previously appeared in publications such as The Christian Century, Religion Dispatches, America Magazine, ABC Religion & Ethics, TIME, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.

December 2020: Holy Spirit Seminar December 4 Online 0.25 CEUs This year’s Holy Spirit Seminar focuses on “Touching Heaven, Changing Earth: The Holy Spirit and Prophetic Prayer.” Join Dr. Bellini to praise and worship God and receive anointed teaching on prophetic prayer. Sponsored by United Theological Seminary.

A Pastoral Response Post-Election December 7 Online 0.2 CEUs The Hispanic House of Studies at Duke Divinity School will hold a webinar on "A Pastoral Response Post-Election" featuring Nina Balmaceda, consulting professor at the school and missional strategist at at the Center for Reconciliation, presenting on how to guide congregations through volatile election cycles and their results.

CEU QUICKLINKS: PeoplePortal User Instructions (Includes directions for submitting CEU requests) Event Evaluation Form

CLERGY NOTES:

As you can see from the preceding pages, there are quite a few online events scheduled for the month of November. Remember that you can submit a request for CEU credit after you attend one of these events by going to your PeoplePortal and clicking on CEUs in the black box on the left of the screen. Just enter the data for the event and click “submit.” I review and approve submissions daily now so, with our new system, you no longer need to wait for monthly uploads to see your current CEU record.

Also, please watch your email for an announcement coming soon regarding Sermon Academy and an exciting message from the Convocation Design Team!

Book Review Quietly Courageous Leading the Church in a Changing World - by Gil Rendle The changing dynamics of contemporary church life are wellknown, but what’s less well-known is how leaders can work most effectively in this new context. In Quietly Courageous, esteemed minister and congregational consultant Gil Rendle offers practical guidance to leaders - both lay and ordained - on leading churches today.

Rendle encourages leaders to stop focusing on the past and instead focus relentlessly on their mission and purpose - what is ultimately motivating their work. He also urges a shift in perspectives on resources, discusses models of change, and offers suggestions for avoiding common pitfalls and working creatively today.

Learning to Listen in a Time of Heartache - by Ylisse C. Bess: © Faith & Leadership 5/2020

A hospital chaplain reflects on the core skill of her vocation: listening. In this time, it’s a skill that all Christian leaders can benefit from cultivating.

Good morning heartache, you old gloomy sight Good morning heartache, thought we said goodbye last night I turned and tossed until it seemed you had gone But here you are with the dawn.

-- From “Good Morning Heartache” I have a picture in my mind of the scene as Billie Holiday sings this song: she wakes up and, wearing her bathrobe, walks into her kitchen, makes two cups of coffee and takes a seat.

She sets one coffee in front of herself and places the other in front of an empty chair. She looks at heartache and says, “Sit down.” In an intimate place -- her home -- she meets her agony. In a space even more intimate -- her kitchen -- she offers a seat. The kitchen: where she presses her hair, cooks her food, gets midnight snacks. Where family and friends gather.

As I have matured in my ministry as a hospital chaplain, I have grown to appreciate “Good Morning, Heartache.” What intrigues me most is that Holiday invites the listeners to listen to themselves, to make room for their feelings and to be fully known. The song doesn’t promise an easy way out, as we often do when we talk to someone going through a hard time. Holiday sings a pleasant greeting to the bitter companion of heartache and lends it her ear.

Heartache has shown up for us as the pandemic of COVID-19. The pandemic has touched the most intimate parts of our lives: our bodies, homes, relationships, rituals and practices of faith. Each day when we wake up in quarantine, we greet our heartache.

Many people have responded by taking action. Some redistributed resources to meet the needs where social safety nets should have been. Others curated virtual spiritual spaces for worship and study, produced words of hope or critique through sermons or op-eds, shared artistic skills and talents, or upheld the inherent worth and dignity of all people through demonstrations. These actions arise from heartache’s presence, compelling us to do: to demand and create and speak and take up space. But in our doing, we often forget -- or think we don’t have time -- to listen.

Listening is at the core of my vocation as a chaplain, and I think it’s a skill that all leaders could benefit from cultivating during this time. The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted my work from in-person spiritual care and emotional support to tele-chaplaincy. Still, much of my role as a chaplain continues to be listening deeply, facilitating as people explore their experiences, feelings and attitudes.

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I recently had a phone call with a patient who, despite a loving network of family and friends, expressed deep gratitude for a listening ear. This patient was surprised that I wasn’t peddling shallow hope but rather was willing and able to listen to the impact of the unknown in these unprecedented times.

Doing in chaplaincy requires an awareness of self and environment; it requires deep listening, witnessing and being with. The acts of listening and witnessing may seem simple, but there is nothing simple about heartache or being present to it. Still, the seemingly simple acts are the necessary skills for this time.

This goes for myself as well. I find that the more I take time to practice pausing and listening to myself and the more I practice doing as being, the better I am at being present and listening to others. For the past year, knowing I can’t pause or quiet everything around me, I have been intentionally practicing pausing and quieting myself to listen for the guidance of the Spirit. I’ve been taking moments to listen -- to my body, my mind and my spirit.

Now more than ever I feel the call to listen. Listen, as in be attentive to bodily aches. Listen, as in observe what’s happening around me. Listen, as in ask, “How does my body respond to where I am and what’s happening?” Are there tears? Let them flow. Am I speechless? Be in awe. Don’t limit experience to words. This self-centering extends to my work as a hospital chaplain. It has helped me understand that the gift of Holiday’s song -- her greeting to heartache -- is that in deciding to exist with heartache, recognize heartache, acknowledge heartache and all the ways that it impacts us, we recognize ourselves as worth seeing. We recognize the fullness and depth of ourselves.

During this pandemic many will know heartache intimately and heartache will sit at our tables more times than we can count.

Listen to yourself and to the aches, giving them room to exist for as long as they are present while also trusting and believing that trouble doesn’t last. Listen to others. Be present to yourself and then to others. Be patient with yourself and then with others.

In a world of heartache that refuses to leave us alone, remember that you are resilient, that you are worth being recognized at every stage of your faith, even in grief and heartache.

It is because God witnesses all of me that I too am able to witness and listen.

CONTACT INFO: Director: The Rev. Terry Goodman terrygoodman@holston.org

Phone: 865-293-4147

Admin. Asst. & Editor: Sue Weber sueweber@holston.org

Phone: (865) 293-4135 Website: Wesley Leadership Institute