The CEU News - August 2023

Events - Coming Soon!

Check the Holston online calendar for a full listing of future events.

August:

Reaching People Under 40- the Do’s the Dont’s and the Why’s

August 3 Online 0.1 CEUs

Join Rachel Gilmore for this webinar where we can explore principles that we find in Scripture and current research that can help us effectively reach those under 40 in our communities right now.

Helping Others Grow through Their Grieving

August 7 - September 9 Online 1.0 CEUs

The 4-week course will share a book study based on Understanding Your Grief by Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD, an educator and grief counselor who has written 50 books on grieving. Learners will share their experiences of counseling the grieving as they study the insights and lived experience of Dr Wolfelt, through his book.

Practices to Grow the Mission of the Small Church

August 10 Online 0.1 CEUs

Small churches are not “downsized” versions of large churches. What works for the megachurch might not work for the smaller church. This session is focused on churches with 25, 50, or 100 in attendance. Blake Bradford and Kay Kotan, authors of Mission Possible, will be focused on your congregation and your mission.

Religion and Science: Pathways to Truth

August 14 - October 16 Online 2.0 CEUs

Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, hosts this groundbreaking series in which several leading scientists, theologians, and philosophers explore the contrasts and similarities between religion and science. This group of experts considers if and how religion and science might coexist and even complement one another in the 21st century.

Preaching from the Gospel of John

August 16 Online 0.1 CEUs

During this session, Charles Maynard , author of A Storyteller Looks at the Gospel of John , will offer insights on sharing the Gospel of John and offer examples of tips to use storytelling while preaching from the gospel.

Creative Worship Conference

August 18-19

Cokesbury UMC, Knoxville 1.0 CEUs

The 2023 Holston Creative Worship Conference is a Worship Together gathering of pastors, worship leaders, choir directors and folks who love designing worship. Spend the day with creative worship specialist, author, and worship coach Jason Moore in an event designed for churches of all sizes, budgets and means. The Creative Worship Conference is filled with ideas that any church can implement.

Doing Ministry in Innovative Ways:

Casting our nets on the right side of the boat

August 29 Online 0.1 CEUs

As the nation continues to navigate through various disruptions, it’s critical that we are willing to do ministry in uncertain, uncommon and unconformable manner. If you expect to experience amazing things in your ministry, Dr. Michael Bowie, Jr. dares you to begin making shifts. During this session, our leader will share steps and ideas about how we can lead our congregations to cast nets on the other side of the boat, creating enthusiasm and ministry in ways unimagined before.

Time Management Group Coaching Program for Clergy

August 28 - November 19 Online 1.2 CEUs

Are you feeling overwhelmed in your days? Is self-care something you seek, but can't find the time for it? Do you have flexibility in your schedule, but are too exhausted to enjoy it?

Many of us work in our field because we have a passion, but that doesn’t change the amount of hours we have in each day. This experience will teach you to be more productive in your work while being more present in your days.

(See recommendations from Brooke Hartman and Troy Forrester.)

September:

Church Leadership Certificate Program

September 7 - May 16, 2024 Online 1-5 CEUs (One per course)

Designed as an equivalent to an executive leadership program, the Lewis Center Church Leadership Certificate Program delivers an online, cohort-based l earning experience for pastors combining self-study and interactive peer learning.

Participants will learn strategic actionable insights that enhance their ability to be effective in their ministry settings. The program includes five courses over the course of a year that help pastors explore visioning, administration, stewardship, innovation, and building key partnerships

Child Discipleship Forum

September 20-21 Nashville or Online 1.2 CEUs

Whether we’re ministers, parents or volunteers, our kids are looking to us to help them walk in His ways. Join us at CDF 23 to hear from 18 Bible-minded leaders in child advocacy, and learn to cultivate a different spirit in our kids one of conviction, courage, compassion and commitment. Refine and refuel your ministry for kids in today’s world.

Leadership Institute 2023: Ignite!

September 28-29 ()43-Institute September 27) Leawood, KS 1.0 CEUs

Leadership Institute at Resurrection in Leawood, KS is designed to equip, encourage, and inspire ministry leaders from across the country and around the globe. You’ll experience:

• A diverse community, ready to connect and learn

• Meaningful worship

• Four powerful keynote speakers: Adam Hamilton, Carey Nieuwhof, Jacqui Lewis, Olu Brown

• Practical featured sessions to choose from

• Time for reflection, networking, team building, and more

Looking ahead...

Convocation and Pastors’ School: Growing Where You Are Planted

October 15-17 Duke Divinity School 1.0 CEUs

What does it mean to serve faithfully in your current community, vocation, and circumstance? 2023 Convocation & Pastors’ School, Growing Where You Are Planted, is intended to connect participants with experts who will share their stories and best practices for engaging neighbors as a way to encourage and equip clergy and laity to recognize places of opportunities in their current community. We want clergy and laity to be able to grow and bloom wherever they are planted be it rural, urban, or anywhere in between.

Bishop’s Trip to the Holy Land

February 21-30 Holy Land 3.0 CEUs

Join Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett & the Holston Conference on a Holy Land Classic Journey, departing on February 20, 2024. You will see Caesarea by the Sea, Mount Carmel, Megiddo, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Tel Dan, Caesarea Philippi, Golan Heights, Bethsaida, Jordan River, Jericho, Qumran, Masada, Bethlehem, Herodian, Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and much more.

PeoplePortal User Instructions

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Event Evaluation Form

CLERGY NOTES:

If you have an event coming up soon, please send us the details so we can see if it might qualify for CEU credit for clergy. Also, we would be happy to promote qualified events in this newsletter. Just send us the dates, a schedule, and links to any flyers or websites relating to the event. We publish on the first of the month for the current month and the following month. However, you can send us information for events occurring farther out, and we will save the data for publication as the event draws nearer. We will include any qualified district or individual church events that are open to all Holston clergy.

Book Review

Filling the Void: Voices from the None Zone

- by Kristin Joyner

The decline of church membership in the United States is a complex issue. While it is right and appropriate to question whether or not the ministries of the church continue to be relevant for this time and age, it is equally important to recognize the changing face of America. The changing demographics have made the United States a much more ethnically, culturally, and religiously pluralistic society than ever before. In addition, the explosion of urban centers has made life more economically complex and challenging with a concomitant impact on religious life and involvement. In spite of these realities, while the church is on the decline, it is far from dead. The narratives of these clergy leaders in the most religiously challenging region of the United States, the Pacific Northwest, often referred to as the “None Zone,” offer testimonies and evidence of vibrant church life and ministries that speak to the changing realities of 21st century society. As Reverend Rich Lang, the District Superintendent of the SeaTac Missional District, reminds us, the “None Zone” can be an “Abundant Zone,” and he is seeing “true abundance in congregations that are learning to build relational partnerships with others who share their values.” The stories each of these pastors share are powerful. Their experiences can become best practices for the revival of religiosity and church life, not only in the “None Zone” of the Pacific Northwest but also in other regions of the United States.

Finding God’s Transformation and Liberation in a Desolate Season

- © by Alaina Kleinbeck, Director Thriving in Ministry Coordination Program Duke Divinity School

In my early formation as a theologian, I was taught to categorize the teachings of the church as primary doctrine, secondary doctrine and adiaphora (neutral or disputable matters).

These aren’t categories that I use much anymore, but I’ve asked myself about the hows and whos of the person of God Jesus, Father and Spirit as I have attempted to chart my spiritual and emotional healing from the trauma of the pandemic. While the traditional primary doctrines found in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds still speak immense truth to me, I’ve found myself needing something even more primal.

The primal doctrine I long to believe in is a God who knows all the pain and horror of our modern life and still seeks relentlessly to transform and liberate each and every one of us.

This yearning becomes obvious when I am browsing church websites, listening to sermons and scrolling through an embarrassing number of Christian TikToks. So very little of our Christian conversation tells me about how following Jesus’ teachings and conforming my life to his will actually change anything.

Sure, we scatter a few theological words about, but most of our conversations are far more detailed about the lifestyle we earn by being good Christians quality coffee and marriages, fun neighborhoods and small groups, and material success, all with a side of perfectly curated brunch experiences.

What makes that Christian? And if all of this accomplished sheen does nothing to address the intractable crises surrounding the lives of everyone I know, do I even care whether what it represents is Christian?

We have incredibly difficult and important work to do as the people of God and of the church.

What we don’t need is the church to be just another capital-producing or ego-boosting venture. What we don’t need is the church to be another community that cultivates categories of who is in and who is out.

What we don’t need is the church to be another institution that doesn’t listen to its people and its neighbors about what is most important. What we don’t need is another organization that pays lip service to environmental concerns but takes no action against the massive crisis.

What we don’t need is another group of people that uses the words “justice” and “mercy” but enacts their meaning only when convenient and comfortable for the most powerful.

None of that says Jesus. None of that is gospel.

I need to know that God makes us, you and me, new and good and free.

We meet the God who can do this in the incarnation, the miraculous healings and feedings, the challenges to the law, the inclusion of women, the death and resurrection, the ascension, the prison breaks, the baptisms of deviant eunuchs and persecutors, the radical social reordering in the Gospels and Epistles.

We meet the God who can do this in the rainbow after the flood, the rescue from Egypt, the protection of the righteous remnant, and in the life-saving wisdom, beautiful poetry, and consistent renaming of the people who meet and follow God throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

We meet this God in our baptism and Eucharist, in our liturgies, our songs and hymns, our lectionaries, and our sermons. Becoming new and good and free is the telos of Christian formation and discipleship.

God nurtures in us the capacity to face complex truths about ourselves: our complicity in oppression and our capacity to take action, our finitude and fragility, and our infinite belovedness.

This is our primal being and knowing as Christians that we are not forsaken. We are not stuck in a desolate land; we are the delight of the Lord, and our land is enough.

This is actual gospel. Things are hard, and God has not left us alone in it. God is with us, and God delights in us and says we are enough.