COMMUNITY TRACK SATURDAY, APRIL 27 5:30 p.m. Community-Wide Dinner • 7:00 p.m. Worship Cost: $25 Who Should Attend: Pastors, lay volunteers, community leaders, elected officials, and staff of non-profit organizations who are interested in new approaches that combine the best practices of asset-based community development and an innovative national model for families to transition over the poverty line. Participants on the Intensive Track will not want to miss this opportunity. 5:30 p.m. Dinner Welcome - Dr. William S. Barnes, Lead Pastor - The Rev. Jennifer Stiles Williams, Executive Pastor Keynote Address: Toxic Charity - Robert D. Lupton, Focused Community Strategies 7:00 p.m. Worship (featuring the St. Luke’s Praise Team) Redirecting the Church Outwards - The Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, Methodist Minister in Belfast, Northern Ireland Introducing Circles® - Estella Lee, Circles Coordinator with Catholic Charities of Pensacola, Florida
Register online for both tracks at st.lukes.org/events/missionpossible. presented by
4851 S. Apopka-Vineland Road • Orlando, FL 32819 407.876.4991 • st.lukes.org
COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION CONFERENCE Our mission if we choose to accept it: Working together to end poverty one family… one neighborhood at a time.
APRIL 26-27, 2013
INTENSIVE TRACK
Speakers and workshops at this inspiring community event will combine the best practices of asset-based community development with an innovative national model for family stabilization that can end poverty for an entire neighborhood. Hear from leading experts in this field and learn how to do good without causing harm. Participate in the Intensive Track, Community Track or both.
Estella Lee, Circles® Coordinator with Catholic Charities of Pensacola, Florida Estella will be introducing the Circles® Campaign, a national model aimed at lifting families out of poverty. She is the Program Coordinator/Circles® Coach for Bridges to Circles, a ministry in north Florida that serves as a regional training center for the national Circles® Campaign allowing staff to provide coaching and technical support to new Circles® communities. For more information on Circles® visit www.circlescampaign.org.
Bob Lupton, Focused Community Strategies Bob is a Christian community developer, an entrepreneur who brings together communities of resource with communities of need. He has invested the past 40 years of his life in inner-city Atlanta. In response to a call that he first felt while serving in Vietnam, he left a budding business career to work with delinquent urban youth. Bob and his family sold their suburban home and moved into the innercity where they live and serve as neighbors among those in need. His life’s work has been the rebuilding of urban neighborhoods where families can flourish and children can grow into healthy adults. Bob is the author of several books including “Toxic Charity” and “Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life.” For more information on Focused Community Strategies visit www.fcsministries.org.
When: Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27 Cost: $10 Who Should Attend: St. Lukers and community partners who want to help launch the family and neighborhood stabilization initiatives. The track builds on the preparation that St. Luke’s has done with its congregation since 2012, and is recommended for those who have completed at least one of the following: - Dignity Serves and/or Meet Jesus on the Road Training - Poverty Simulation and/or Mission Possible Art/Film Festival (April 13, 2013) - Have read one of Bob Lupton’s books – “Toxic Charity” or “Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life” If you attend this track and have not participated in any of these prerequisites we recommend that you choose the Cost of Poverty Experience workshop.
FRIDAY, APRIL 26 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Opening Dinner • Welcome - Dr. William S. Barnes • What Happened When We Listened to Our Neighbors? - St. Luke’s Community Listening Team • Community Transformation from a Wesleyan Perspective - The Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, East Belfast Mission SATURDAY, APRIL 27 8:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast 9:00 a.m. Opening Worship -The Rev. Corey Jones 9:30 a.m. Introducing Circles® - Estella Lee, Circles® Coordinator 10:00 a.m. Can Churches Help Without Hurting? - Robert D. Lupton, Focused Community Strategies 11:00 a.m. Workshops (choose one, lunch included)
In this two-hour poverty simulation, participants will face some of the challenges endured by families below the poverty level. Facilitated by St. Luker, Beth Witten. *Recommended for those who have not attended prerequisites.
• Family Stabilization with Circles®
The Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, Methodist Minister in Belfast, Northern Ireland Gary currently serves as Senior Minister and Missions Superintendent at East Belfast Mission, one of the largest Methodist Missions in Europe. In the fall of 2012 the church opened Skainos, a faith-based redevelopment project leading the effort to stop interfaith violence and promote peace within loyalist communities. East Belfast Mission has garnered international recognition for its work in social justice and peace building in Northern Ireland. Gary has spent his 25-year ministry in the inner-city with a strong commitment to the church’s role in the urban setting. From 1992 until 1999 he was also responsible for two Methodist churches one of which sits on a Catholic/Protestant peace line in West Belfast. For more information on the Skainos project visit www.skainos.org.
• Cost of Poverty Experience
- Expert: Estella Lee, St. Luke’s Dedicated Circles® Coach Facilitated by Mariam Mengistie, Director of Orlando Mission and Meghan Killingsworth, Associate Director for Family Stabilization
• Neighborhood Stabilization
Experts: - Robert Lupton, Focused Community Strategies - The Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, East Belfast Mission Facilitated by The Rev. Corey Jones, Minister of Community and Lynette Fields, Executive Director of Missions
1:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m.
Debrief Session for Family and Neighborhood Stabilization Workshops Dismiss (break before Community Dinner and Worship)