The CEU News - September 2023

Events - Coming Soon!

Also check the Holston online calendar for future events.

September:

Housing Summit 2023

September 7 Zoom Panel Online 0.1 CEUs

Affordable Housing Development in Rural Appalachia, Tennessee, and at Mountain T.O.P

September 8 Coalmont, TN 0.4 CEUs

Participate either day or both! Two different panel discussions on affordable housing. food security, and community health in rural Tennessee.

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.

Learning to Listen to God’s Voice

September 7 Online 0.15 CEUs

In On Purpose: Finding God’s Voice in Your Passion, authors Magrey deVega, Sam McGlothlin, Jevon Caldwell-Gross, and Susan Robb, give practical ways to attune ourselves to the Spirit, listen for God’s voice, and live the lives we were meant to live.

Critical Race Theory and the Church: Unpacking Race and Racism in Religious Spaces

September 11 - November 20 Online 0.6 CEUs

During this Hood Seminary course, by examining historical perspectives, contemporary issues, and theological implications, we seek to foster a deeper understanding of how race and racism intersect with faith and spirituality.

Stories of Place:

A Celebration of the Art, Vision, and Work of Elaine McMillion Sheldon

September 19-20 The Appalachian Center for Civic Life at Emory & Henry College

0.65 CEUs

The 2023 Appalachian Literary Festival will feature workshops with McMillion Sheldon, a 6time Emmy nominee for her documentary work, screening of her recently released King Coal, a public interview, and panel discussions.

Reaching People in their 20s, 30s and 40s – the Do’s the Dont’s and the Why’s

September 19 Online 0.1 CEUs

Most churches are struggling to connect with younger generations. What if the very way we think of church and do church is part of the problem? 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.

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 (Pre-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

The Small Church Advantage

September 28 Online 0.1 CEUs

Small congregations are not miniaturized big congregations. They have different challenges. Fortunately, they also have different strengths–ones that are deeply forming, urgently needed, and generally unavailable in big settings. Learn how to build with these strengths and stop imitating models that never fit to begin with.

Resilience: Practicing Compassion in a World of Conflict

September 29-30 Online 0.6 CEUs

RESILIENCE is designed to equip us to live compassionately amid conflict. Join The Upper Room and Africa Upper Room Ministries (AURM) as we engage in storytelling, time for personal reflection and conversation, guided spiritual practice, and worship. This gathering offers time for centering, interaction, and spiritual practices to help you cultivate relationships that endure even in the face of profound disagreement and division.

At this event, you will hear from speakers in Ukraine, South Africa, Namibia, Mexico, and the United States. Speakers and workshop leaders include Bishop Purity Malinga, Nadiyka Gerbish, Ray Buckley, Christopher Carter, Rubén Ortiz, Jane Herring, Jerry Haas, Alma Cota de Yánez, Juliet Windvogel, and Piula Ala'ilima with worship led by Rev. Dr. Lydia Muñoz.

October:

Fractured Ground

October 2-13 Online 1.0 CEUs

Fractured Ground, a book study that explores communication following mass trauma, will be your guide whether you are speaking from the pulpit, to the press and public, or to individuals facing the circumstances. Author Kimberly R. Wagner stresses that communication must be clear, and that you must name, acknowledge, and open opportunities to recognize hurt, pain, loss, and brokenness of the community, as well as “attentive to hope, redemption, and new life.”

2023 Fall National Caring

Congregation Webinar

October 13-14 Online 1.2 CEUs

Presenting the CCM (Congregational Care Minister) model of care for congregations will be: Rev. Karen Lampe, Founder of The Caring Congregation, LLC, and author/co-author of 5 books on this effective model of caring for church congregations with limited staff. She will be joined by members of the National Team: Rev. Joy Dister-Dominguez (Texas), Rev. Laura Berg (Florida), Rev. Melissa Collier Gepford (Kansas), Rev. Monica Childers (North Carolina) and Rev. Tino Herrera (Kansas City). Topics covered: Theology of Care, Boundaries, Listening & Spiritual Guidance, Elder Care, Visitation, Care for the Sick and Dying, Organizing (Recruiting, Roles & Documentation), and Evaluation and Building the Vision for a culture of care.

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.

Communications Learning Week

October 16-20 Online CEUs TBD

The week-long virtual learning experience will be filled with recorded workshops, Q&A sessions, and strategic resources designed by a host of church communications professionals. Our slate of facilitators are looking forward to sharing their expertise on a wide range of topics including content for digital congregations, rural church communications, newswriting and storytelling, just to name a few.

:Looking ahead…

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.

Read Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett’s invitation. Download full brochure here.

A Message from Our (New!) Director...

Expanded Wesley Institute

As the conference lives into the mission statement of Passionate Spiritual Leaders growing closer to Jesus and thus fulfilling the vision of Passionate Spiritual Leaders making Passionate Spiritual Disciples, the Wesley Institute over the next months, will be living out exciting new directions.

I, as the new Associate Director of Connectional Ministries for Discipleship and Leadership, will be working with Connectional Ministry teams, the Board of Ordained Ministry, Wesley Institute Board, the Board of Laity, and the Strategy Team as we all grow as Passionate Spiritual Leaders as well as empower, train, and resource leaders throughout the conference.

The Wesley Institute will continue to provide clergy with a listing of Continuing Education (CEU) opportunities. Over the next several months, we will be transitioning from the monthly newsletter to a comprehensive website. This will not only allow you to know and find CEU opportunities each month but provide you a way to access information as you plan for CEU opportunities several months in advance. The website will provide links for upcoming courses, coaching opportunities, self-directed learning opportunities, and a list of leadership development organizations that offer workshops, seminars, and cohorts. A future dream is to provide a billboard for leaders in the conference to submit CEU and leadership development opportunities for both lay and clergy.

Clergy Services will continue to maintain the clergy records (people portal) and the yearly Pastor’s Convocation. My office will be responsible for Wesley Institute grant funding and credentialing, learning opportunities, as needed, for CEU credit.

Please be patient with us as we continue this transition period. Also, please know that you can contact me with any questions or concerns.

In Christ’s service,

Rev. Susan Groseclose Associate Director of Connectional Ministries for Discipleship and Leadership susangroseclose@holstron.org

CEU QUICKLINKS:

PeoplePortal User Instructions

(Includes directions for submitting CEU requests)

Event Evaluation Form

CLERGY NOTES:

Charge conference season is beginning again. Please see the link above for your access instructions for your PeoplePortal clergy record. It includes information on how to submit additional events attended that may qualify for CEU credit. Note thar the only events that qualify for this past appointment year’s credits would be those you attended and completed between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023. The CEU requirement for all clergy under appointment is 3.0 CEU’s per year or 12 per quadrennium. If you were in seminary or completed COS classes during the dates listed above, you are exempt from the CEU requirement for this past year.

Book Review

Leading with Love: Spiritual Disciplines for Practical Leadership

- by Elaine Robinson

The first principle of ministry leadership is love love that emerges from life rooted in God. We might have decent skills for leading a human institution or getting people involved in church, but truly transformative ministry calls us to lead God's people into the depths of spiritual life, those places where love is activated fully. Before we can help others, though, we must first cultivate this love in ourselves.

In Leading with Love, Elaine Robinson helps ministry professionals recognize that healthy leadership requires a deeper spirituality that enlivens us to move beyond rigid, dualistic frameworks. Only through life in Christ can we cope with and creatively address the challenges of ministry in an era characterized by a lack of trust in institutions and the anxieties of global pandemic, political division, and uncertainty about the future.

Robinson provides practical tools for cultivating spiritual practices that lead ministers into the world as agents of faith, hope, love, and justice. With its thematically targeted chapters and questions for reflection, readers will finish Robinson's book feeling refreshed and equipped for the good work of love that lies ahead.